steve.floo

I was looking for cheap flights and have found an article with general tips for affordable and safe traveling. The article got my attention, as it explains that you can save money on flight tickets with a VPN (I already own Surfshark), by changing your location and finding cheaper tickets in that way. Has anybody tried it? It seems like it has potential.

gypsumtornado

I have tried all the VPN/incognito tricks to no avail

SightseeMC

I have seen for myself that international carriers sometimes have cheaper fares on their home country site in their own currency. As a DP, I have booked several OZ fares on the Korean site that GF and the OTAs have listed for ~$30 higher. Didn't need a VPN, just to use the Korean site (in English).

I did see cheaper fares last year from I think Norwegian on their home site, but I didn't book them so I can't be sure.

84fiero

It's largely trial and error unless you find existing data points. Sometimes you only need to use the specific website for a different country as noted above; other times VPN is needed or helpful. I saved a decent chunk on SCL-IPC-SCL tickets using the LAN (at the time) Chilean website. But often I've struck out, too.

Also the embedded Google Translate feature in Chrome can be a big help when browsing other-country sites. The basic search fields are pretty much self-explanatory in any language, the translation can help with reading T&Cs, etc. But the larger foreign airlines may even have an English language option on their native country site as in the above poster's example.

A minor side note: Although not terribly common, you do have to watch for fares that are restricted to residents of a given country. LATAM has Ecuador resident-specific fares, for example (used to have the same for Peru but I understand those are no longer offered). Generally you will see a warning on the website or a note in the fare conditions to that effect. Again, it's not widespread so don't be overly worried but does exist in some places. If in doubt contact the airline. (Though usually you can find discussion of these instances in the relevant airline forum here, or on TA or similar forums, too.)

bberris

This is sort of the airline version of dynamic currency conversion, a diabolical practice where the vendor changes the currency instead of your credit card. An airline has most of their expenses in their home country. When they sell a ticket priced in a foreign currency, they apply their own conversion rate, which may not be as favorable as your credit card.

You may not need to use a vpn to try this out, just go to the airlines website and change the currency, if that is an option.