Originally Posted by
jiajun
Interesting. I always thought point of sale rules were only based on the departure city. I've always compared the fares in USD and CNY to see what is better to pay in based on the exchange rate. The small differences I saw before was always due to exchange rate fluctuations. It's the first time I saw different fare classes offered.
Anyway, I think I can just choose Paypal and use my Chinese card to pay in USD through Paypal. Or even Western Union is an option on the website.
As far as I know, United currently has three different ways to control prices in an international markets:
- Depending on your origin city, you will see a completely different fare table.
- Depending on your sales city, you may not be able to use certain fares (this will be visible in the fare rules, usually Category 15). This is also where plating restrictions are which prevent partner airlines from ticketing certain discount fares.
- Depending on your sales city, you will see different inventory on the same flights.
I believe you are seeing #3. Interesting to see that there are some workarounds for selecting a beneficial sales city.