Originally Posted by
Henry Bruce
All, many thanks for your help, we've managed to get a good deal on an ex-AMS itinerary priced by Cathay. However, I was surprised to see such a variation between the ticket when priced by CX Amsterdam ~$2889 (€2665) vs. CX North America: $4,360.41. Even allowing for Visa/Mastercard's foreign exchange rate variation and with no restriction on usage of foreign cards, I'm not sure what Cathay's business model is, other than to take advantage of unsuspecting foreigners!
The reason for the higher fare quoted by CX Nth America is this ticket rule:
When travel originates in a country for which a specific local currency fares is published and the ticket is sold in another country, the fare will be that published for the country of origin converted to the currency of the country of sale at the bank selling rate. The resultant fare must not be lower than from the country of sale.
The base fare for a LONE4 ex-US is USD5696
And ex-Holland is EUR2500 (approx. USD2796)
If you buy in the US for an itinerary starting in Holland, you pay the higher of the two