MisterBill

Maybe this is common knowledge (or I just got lucky), but I just saved $100 per person booking my PVG (Shanghai)-LGA flight priced in Chinese Yuan (CNY) on Delta.com as opposed to prices I am seeing on Kayak and other travel sites. Delta showed a price of 5222 CNY for Premium Economy and I was confused about only seeing the price in CNY (and not being able to change it) . But I learned in threads here that this is how Delta always operates. And when I finally looked up the conversion rate, I was shocked to see that it was around a hundred dollars less than the other sites were showing in USD ($756 vs $855).

I originally wanted to fly into Stewart (SWF), which I was also seeing at $855) but could not figure out how to get Delta to show me a reasonable price into there. For $200 in savings, I'll fly into LGA (which was preferable to JFK or EWR). Also at one point during my research, the price went up to 5472 CNY, but fortunately when I checked this time it was back down to 5222.

So I guess my question is, how often does this happen where the foreign currency price actually is cheaper? I noticed at least one post here complaining about unfavorable exchange rates so I was surprised that this worked out to my benefit.

BenA

Mwenenzi

Nothing unusual.
When the CNY is converted to your USA credit card in US$ it may be more less the airline web site.

MisterBill

Thanks. Tied that but it sent me to trip.com when I said I wanted it in US English and then showed me the higher prices I'd seen elsewhere. Could not get the Chinese language version of the page to work properly when translated.

MisterBill

The pending charge is showing up as $1512 on the Chase site (used CSR). And even a small currency fluctuation won't matter when the price is $100 less per ticket.

flyerCO

Really has nothing to do with airline. Most tickets are sold in the currency of country where first flight tdepart when bought online.

Prices normally aren't set to fluctuate based on currency bought in. Instead the item has a price set for it in various currencies. Same with airline fares. Price in CNY has nothing to do with the price in USD.

mayhem

Very much off topic, but I'm flying PVG-MEX-JFK in business for $2,900... still close to 2x your price but if you have the time, and want to earn 30k mqm and 8,000 mqd, consider aeromexico.
(Mentioning this given you're still in the 24h window)

MisterBill

Almost 4x my price since the $1500 was for 2 tickets. And I don't fly that much so MQM don't really matter to me (I know that is heresy for many here).

g289t

I found something similar to this, but a micro amount compared to yours! A few months ago I flew Lufthansa ORD-FRA-BOM. On the ORD-FRA flight, I wanted to purchase the 24 hour wifi pass. This would also cover the flight to Mumbai. I could purchase the wifi in USD, EUR, or CNY. I did a little exchange rate calculation, and I discovered that it was cheaper using CNY. The credit card I used has no foreign exchange fee. I checked the final charge to my credit card, and it was indeed cheaper paying with CNY. I don't recall the exact amount I saved, but it would have been in the 5-10% range.

MSPeconomist

MisterBill

Just noticed something strange. I checked Kayak and it's reporting $854 from Delta. But when I click on the link it takes me to delta.com where it's still going to charge me the same 5222 CNY. Travelocity was showing a similar price.($856), but they're charging me in dollars.

So I don't understand how Kayak is coming up with the inflated converted price. I can understand a few percent higher, but 13%?