WEEBOBBY

I am looking at booking from Belfast to Fort Lauderdale for June 23rd to July 4th using credit card and part payment of $200 in United vouchers ( issued after a terrible delay on United a couple of years ago ).

The fare is far cheaper priced in dollars on The US version of the website than it is when I try to buy the tickets in the UK version of the website.

I mean if I try to buy the tickets and it lets me go through all the stages is it worth a try ?????? Anything to lose by going through the booking process and trying??? I do not have a US billing address but do have 2 x Amex cards issued from the US.

Thanks

TennisNoob

I wouldn't see why this would fail especially when part of the $200 came from a United Voucher.

Try it out and let us know what happens?

WEEBOBBY

once you go through the whole booking process at the very last stage it fires you back over to the United.com website that corresponds to your booking adress.

Very annoying as the fare I want to purchase is 420 GBP Pounds when converted from USD on US website whereas on the Uk website it is 595 GBP

I am wondering about trying the booking , putting in my correct address but leaving it as country - USA rather than selecting UK from drop down list and seeing if it goes through.

I dont seem to be able to leave the country as United States as it doesnt then like my postcode - eg (uk) BT12FQ vs 90210 (us)

perhaps i can book on Orbitz BUT i will not be able to use my $200 vouchers

anyone know of a way to book on United.com with a non US card / billing address ???????

emcampbe

UA changes the point of sale based on the address of the CC. So no matter how you start, once you change the billing country, it goes over to that country's site and changes the fare to that local currency. Due to point of sale differences, the fare can sometimes be (much) different - either better or worse.

I think the only way to do this is to call to book - probably the U.S. 800 number would be the best way. Except there's a booking fee for gold/below. Trying web support might also work better for you.

Many carriers handle the POS differently - for example, BA and LH and a ton of others do it by departure city - no matter what website you pick, if you have, say, BOM as your origin, when doing the search, it brings you to the Indian website where it only shows the price in INR. But then you can book with whatever CC you want.

Kannai

The website is going to kick you over to the UK/pounds once you enter your billing address, as you've experienced.

Based on my experience, you might try calling the web support number and explaining your situation. They should be able to do the reservation for you without the normal telephone booking fee (they did for me when I couldn't get the website to bring up the flights I wanted even though they were all available. If you have a non-North American accent, just be clear from the get go that your credit card is denominated in US dollars/is a US bank issued card and you want the fare to be in US dollars. Even on the phone they can't override the requirement that the fare be priced based on the currency of the card, but the address shouldn't be an issue—I don't think they even ask (tho' I suppose you could make sure before you go through the whole process).

And just to be safe, you might wait until the ticket itself is issued and then add your FF# (as in after you get off the phone or after they tell you your ticket has been issued if it goes fast enough that you're still on the phone when that happens), in case your address on file messes things up.

CorSter

What about using PayPal as your payment method on the US version of the site? Pretty sure that bypasses entering a billing address altogether.

I was in a similar situation last time I booked a flight on UA.com, where the fare on the US version of the website was far lower than the fare on the Canadian version of the website. If I manually changed my billing country to Canada at any time prior to entering the credit card information, this fare would disappear - so I decided to just go through the checkout process on the US site (I have a US Credit Card with a US Billing Address, though as you'll see I didn't end up using it). I just ignored every warning UA.com gave me about billing country, entered my Canadian address and credit card, and hit the "purchase now" button. The page refreshed, and gave me an error about billing country, but then I noticed it had also brought the better fare from the US website over to the Canadian website, with the purchase price reflected in Canadian Dollars (and not the higher CAD fare that the Canadian version of the website originally gave me). I hit the "purchase now" button one more time and it was ticketed just fine.

aacharya

If memory serves, once you put a voucher in, only a credit card can be used to pay the remainder (all other options disappear).

CorSter

Good point, I've never used a UA voucher before so I didn't know that.