artvandalay

This was included in my EVA pre-departure email today, for tomorrow's flight:
#
Please click here to view detailed departure information

During check-in, you are required to present the credit card used to purchase your ticket at evaair.com. For identification at the check-in counter, you must use a credit card with the card number and name embossed on it.

It is also included as part of the online reservation process, and has been for many years.

erik123

All carriers selling in the EU would be (are?) covered so I do not see the point?

embarcadero1

Nonsense.

This is United's fault. This is a basic error in system architecture. Reminds me of the non-stop disaster that is SHARES. It seems United, FKA Continental, specializes in technology failures.

United's unduly complex sales system made the OP feel singled out as a non-US national. This is a foreseeable and avoidable outcome. The display/browse price should always align with the purchase price. If United doesn't want to set the browse price based on IP or other location based signals, they will need to ask the user to select the currency for the transaction. This is a simple, no-brainer solution. No solution is entirely perfect, but the latter avoids making people feel singled out by switching prices at the last moment. It's the solution that many airlines (e.g., BA) use when their systems encounter ambiguous location signals.

One more example of United's complete and utter incompetence in the field of customer experience. As though we needed any more!

Fastair, this is another example of a United failure. Yet again, you insult and malign the OP, opting to blame the victim rather than see a solution that would avoid the problem. Given that UA is the worst in class in the US and there's so much to dislike, my guess is that it's going to take a lot of energy to keep those pom-pons in the air. Do you really want to do that?

relangford

Exactly! Not to go OMNI, but, when did the word "discrimination" take on ONLY a negative connotation? I consider myself a gentleman of "discriminating" taste - a very positive thing. Just this morning, I discriminated against blue socks to wear black socks since my trousers were black. "Discrimination" can be postive and praiseworthy - implying looking at possible choices and making the best decision; today, any "discrimination" seems to be a terrible thing. I have even heard young people say "every form of discrimination is wrong!". NO! - improper discrimination based upon either the wrong facts or preconceived notions or who other people are is wrong; when based on the right facts and without prejudgement, it is a GOOD thing. We need MORE discrimination (just witness the quality of TV shows or today's fashions, for examples). Oh, well. I guess times change and words change meaning.

Different fares from different places (my fares are quoted in Korean won) and using different credit cards (possibly with different exchange rates and terms) is not "discrimination"; it is business and even necessary. I cannot buy a Korean Rail (KoRail) pass since I live in Korea; you can because you live in Europe, the U.S., Singapore, Canada, etc. - the purpose of the pass is to get people to visit Korea.

nanyang

Thanks again for your insights - embarcadero1 and relangford, thanks for adding more angles to this.

My thinking is - why should I eiher (a) deal with additional hassle or (b) pay USD500 more when booking a simple domestic itinerary on united.com. It's not as if I couldn't see what the going rate was...

I have booked dozens of domestic US itineraries on a number of airlines over the years, and this was the first time I saw the price go up when trying to use a "foreign" credit card.

To add insult to injury, I flew UA to HNL and was actually in the US when I was trying to book this ticket.

It's not as if I was trying to book a subsidised ticket in a developing country?

Well, be that is it may, I booked a SIN-NRT weekend return for next month on UA's "Singapore site" last night - did this without any price comparisons this time, so at least I have no idea whether other sales channels / airlines would have been cheaper or more expensive.

agoldstein

Nothing illegal or immoral about this. Your price did not vary due to an immutable personal attribute (e.g. race, gender, ethnicity, physical ability, etc). The price was clearly displayed to you before you purchased it. Don't like it? Vote with your pocketbook and fly elsewhere.

emcampbe

You're missing the point. One way of how UA is controlling its pricing is by determining country of sale (or whatever) using the billing address of the credit card. Others do it differently, i.e. looking at the IP address of where you are booking from, or simply using your departure city. I would say in the latter examples, it is arguably worse, as you wouldn't know you were paying "extra".

The fact also is that UA and every other carrier uses various factors to decide how much it will sell a ticket to you for. Some of those factors could be one-way vs. round-trip, length of stay, minimum stay (i.e. Sat. night required, 3 days, etc.), how far in advance you purchase, etc. This is just another one of those factors.

There have been a lot of easy workarounds listed. Personally, I always check OTA pricing on any trip, anyway. Typically, I try and by from the carrier directly, but sometimes, it makes sense to book from an OTA. This might be one of those times. BTW, another advantage of booking through an OTA that is on a different topic brought up in this thread is that an airline will never ask for CC verification upon departure, as it is the OTAs responsibility to handle payments.

mecabq

Thank you for making this point. You're the only one so far who has raised this issue, which is really the crux of the matter in my opinion.

I have credit cards in three different countries, and buy tickets all the time from various airlines' web sites and OTAs, and can't remember ever seeing this issue before. I have always been able to interchange credit cards on the payment screen with no issue -- except with United.com.

Is United more savvy than other airlines in trying to gain revenue? (Doubt it.) Do they have some strange interpretation of "point of sale"? Is this some salvo in trying to protect the integrity of the exemption of foreign residents from PQD?

There have been a lot of changes to this functionality recently, and it's gotten more complicated.

embarcadero1

This is simple incompetence, nothing more. United could achieve the goal of setting prices by currency or market in a way that is nearly imperceptible to customers. A well designed online sales system would make the most of user signals, collect new ones when required and never, ever switch prices on the consumer at the last minute.

Instead, they went with.bomb. And SHARES. They could have done this well, they could have made avoided this problem. They chose not to.

ani90

Incompetence? How? Why?

Some executives will get big bonuses for coming up with this scheme that could generate few millions of dollars from additional income of passengers using the 'wrong' credit card.

embarcadero1

Isn't United's financial performance the worst of US carriers? If executives are collecting big bonuses, it won't be because of their super awesome website that totally nails global sales.

Mike Jacoubowsky

That's not a realistic goal; if you aren't arguing against the idea that it's OK to price differently based on location, then you have to accept that determining location isn't as easy as you think. IP addresses are easily spoofed; there are many free websites you can go to that will make your transaction appear to be from the country you wish. Asking the user to select his or her own country? Yeah, that's really going to be accurate if someone knows that country A gets charged X and country B gets charged X+.

The credit card becomes the moment of truth. Much more difficult to have access to a legit credit card from a different country than your residence. Not impossible, but it's going to correctly assume the user's residence the vast majority of the time.

That United does this and others apparently don't is interesting. Does United engage in differential pricing based on customer's country to a greater degree than others? If United sees differential pricing as a significant way to enhance revenue, then it makes sense to go to more trouble to ensure the system can't be easily fooled.

For what it's worth, as someone sitting comfortably in the USA, I have zero issues with United telling me I can get trip X for $xxx but then changing on the final screen (or the infamous "that fare is no longer available"). On the other hand, I've had this frequently happen with other airlines (not Southwest, for what it's worth) and especially with 3rd-party travel sites. Travel websites delivering "false promises" are almost the norm, not the exception. I don't see what United's doing as rising to such a level.

But if United engages in this practice (charging foreigners higher rates based on where they live) and others don't, then certainly, shout it from the rooftops, tell the people that there are alternatives that won't charge you more. But to call what happens when you enter a foreign credit card incompetence is, I think, a stretch. It's just a final check in the process of figuring out how much to charge you. Voluntarily, few would pay more, so asking where you live... that's just not going to do it.
Can you point to where Fastair insulted and maligned the OP? I missed that post.

bmwe92fan

Not trying to derail the conversation here but the UA website seems to know where you are when you make a purchase - and it will price accordingly... For example two weeks ago I had to purchase a ticket in Asia using my account on UA - and it billed me in japanese yen - regardless of the credit card I used - which hasnt changed in three years.... I don't think there is any "intent" here to extort consumers - just stupid logic and stupid web design....

Mike Jacoubowsky

The first thing UA is going to do is use cookies from past visits and IP address to try and determine where you are. If in Canada and at work, you may very well have a corporate network that has an IP identifying it as coming from the US. That's one way things can begin to unravel, without any intent to deceive by the user.

Boo_Radley

Regardless of what the armchair architects in here are saying, there are two pretty straightforward facts:

1) Businesses (including airlines) price discriminate based on geography.
2) Determining a website user's geography isn't all that straightforward. All methods have some flaws.

All this stuff about SHARES, incompetence, and fairness is just noise. Yes, this type of price discrimination happens, and yes, there are ways around it. No, this isn't unique to UA, and no, their implementation doesn't imply some sort of malice or incompetence.