Currency for one-way tickets from another country
I am planning a trip to India in February next year from the US. I have enough miles in my United account for a one-way business class ticket to India from the US on a Star Alliance partner. For the return, I was trying to find out the fare on BA for CW back to the US from India. To my surprise, the BA website absolutely refuses to quote the fare in US Dollars and there seems to be no way to override the default currency which is in Indian Rupees. Any tips?
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I think they will take US dollars if you call up BA, the exchange rate is the standard IATA one and so not far off the best a consumer can get. The IATA exchange rate is updated daily and so a look at any media source for the currency markets' previous day's price will get you close to the USD rate.
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One way tickets csn be horrendously expensive. If you are just shopping around for prices, you can get BA.com to convert the Rupee rate - there's a link on the confirmation screen. It's just an indication as it wouldn't be the actual rate charged IME, but it'll show you how much of an arm and a leg you might need to have ready.
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BA pass the FX exposure and transaction costs onto the customer
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I did some more searching after I posted this and independently came to the same conclusion as windowontheAside. I'm not going to be able to save much by buying a one-way so I'll save my United miles for something else.
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I also discovered that the currency in which a fare is quoted can affect the price. A year or two back I was asking the UK call centre whether they could book me an Ex Eur ticket in GBP rather than EUR. They were able to book it at the quoted EUR price with no problem (so it was not a point of sale issue), but translating the fare to GBP cam up with a much higher figure. Very odd and they could not explain the difference.
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Originally Posted by Frequentflyer99
(Post 30104934)
I also discovered that the currency in which a fare is quoted can affect the price. A year or two back I was asking the UK call centre whether they could book me an Ex Eur ticket in GBP rather than EUR. They were able to book it at the quoted EUR price with no problem (so it was not a point of sale issue), but translating the fare to GBP cam up with a much higher figure. Very odd and they could not explain the difference.
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If you can split the trip it may work to book (for example) a return to London on United and then pay cash for the return to India. Just make sure you have enough time to deal with any delays...
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Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 30104947)
Originally Posted by Frequentflyer99
(Post 30104934)
I also discovered that the currency in which a fare is quoted can affect the price. A year or two back I was asking the UK call centre whether they could book me an Ex Eur ticket in GBP rather than EUR. They were able to book it at the quoted EUR price with no problem (so it was not a point of sale issue), but translating the fare to GBP cam up with a much higher figure. Very odd and they could not explain the difference.
So that could be why the EUR fare was lower (using availability from a lower booking class) but the GBP quote had to be booked into a higher booking class. Whenever I get something like this, I ask the agent what booking classes are being used for the unexpectedly high fare. If that doesn't identify the problem, the next question is what fare basis/bases are being used (sometimes a specific fare basis has to be forced by the agent). |
Interestingly, I book several intra-USA flights on AA per year, and when I do I always use aa.co.uk rather than the US site. The price is the same, but the UK site lets me pay in Sterling.
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
(Post 30104973)
That rather sounds to me like it was exactly a point of sale issue. AIUI the way that UK call centres work, when pricing in EUR the relevant EU POS is used; but when pricing in GBP the UK POS is used.
It is a good thing to know - I literally saved thousands of Pounds, maybe more than ten thousand Pounds over the years, going between Doha and London but with point of origin Doha but point of sale Newcastle to book I fares that otherwise would not have been available. I am not complaining! :D:) |
Originally Posted by Globaliser
(Post 30104973)
That rather sounds to me like it was exactly a point of sale issue. AIUI the way that UK call centres work, when pricing in EUR the relevant EU POS is used; but when pricing in GBP the UK POS is used.
So that could be why the EUR fare was lower (using availability from a lower booking class) but the GBP quote had to be booked into a higher booking class. Whenever I get something like this, I ask the agent what booking classes are being used for the unexpectedly high fare. If that doesn't identify the problem, the next question is what fare basis/bases are being used (sometimes a specific fare basis has to be forced by the agent). |
Originally Posted by Frequentflyer99
(Post 30105783)
I have also had several situations over the years where a UK CS agent could not book an Ex EUR, even in EUR, at the EU POS prices. A couple of times we worked out that this was because the UK agents had different fares (not inventory) showing to those available to the EU agents, which I thought meant that POS was generally not determined by currency but location of sales office. All very confusing :confused:
The UK agents would have been able to issue the same fares as the EU agents had they switched to a different Office ID on their Selling Platform but I doubt I would allow this if I were BA's Director of Sales. |
Originally Posted by Sixth Freedom
(Post 30106189)
Quite easily done. You can file fares that valid or not valid for sale in a particular market by using ATPCO Fare Category 15. :)
The UK agents would have been able to issue the same fares as the EU agents had they switched to a different Office ID on their Selling Platform but I doubt I would allow this if I were BA's Director of Sales. I also once had an Ex France fare to the Far East, which was apparently classed as a "Private Fare", and although bookable through the BA France sales office, not even they could tell me the fare rules. The whole thing was completely bizarre. |
Originally Posted by Frequentflyer99
(Post 30106785)
I also once had an Ex France fare to the Far East, which was apparently classed as a "Private Fare", and although bookable through the BA France sales office, not even they could tell me the fare rules. The whole thing was completely bizarre.
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