Originally Posted by
anandrg
1) Are there really many places in these countries that refuse discounts for an official college/high school ID but grant them to holders of the ISIC?
As I see it, the advantage of an ISIC is that (in theory) it is internationally recognised, whereas anybody could potentially mock up a University of Somewhere ID and the merchant doesn't know if it is genuine or not, as they have no idea what an official University of Somewhere ID looks like. So sometimes a US ID alone may well suffice, but you stand much less chance of being rejected with an ISIC, should the merchant get picky. There may also be some online services which require you to enter an ISIC number to get the discount (Amtrak do that in the US).
Originally Posted by
anandrg
2) Are there really that many student discounts in total? i.e Are most student discounts restricted to domestic students anyway, making it irrelevant whether you have an ISIC or any other foreign student ID?
I guess it depends on what you are expecting student discounts on!
www.isiccard.com lets you look at some discounts available by city/country. In Europe in general, rather than France and Germany in particular, the only area I've particularly noticed student discounts might be limited to local students only is public transport - depends on the country.
Personally I got myself an ISIC, they are not expensive, but I have been travelling a lot and it very quickly paid for itself. Could I have got away with just using my UK uni ID? Maybe in some places, in others (I can think of some places in Russian and Ukraine) it was easier with ISIC I expect.
YMMV of course!