findark

I went to e.g. www.google.co.uk/flights and I am seeing prices in GBP. I didn't do any experiment whether its a US sales city in GBP (as previously discussed it's not actually that easy to tell), but I was sort of assuming..

Blutak

Flight: UA005 IAH-LHR Thursday May 18th.
When making a dummy reservation to find if R>0 (so I can apply a Global Upgrade to an existing booking) I noticed that there was a difference in the Fare Bucket table depending whether I was using US Dollars or British Pounds.
I checked each table twice in case there had been movement in the short time between searches, but the results were the same.

USD: J9 JN9 C9 D9 Z9 ZN9 P9 PN0 R0 RN0 IN0 I0 Y9
GBP: J9 JN9 C7 D0 Z0 ZN0 P0 PN0 R0 RN0 IN0 I0 Y9

Why did this happen?

emcampbe

This is common. UA and all other carriers can change availability by point of sale. The full fare buckets (in this case, J) should always. E the same, but within that, UA may make different fare classes available from different point of sale. For example, they may decide that British-based folks are less likely to buy a foreign carrrier without discounted prices, while US pax will pay more. Or perhaps UA is competing on lower business fares with American carriers, but doesn't extend that to U.K.-based pax since BA isn't matching. You don't say where the lower availability is.

The uncommon part: UA will change your point of sale based on the local currency, so when you select US site, it will show in US Dollars and be based on Us point of sale availability/fares (which can also be different). If you change during the booking process to a U.K.-billing address, it will switch you to the local U.K. Site, charge in GBP, and also change the fare class/price to what is available there.

If you want the lower fare but can't get it to price in the lower buckets, try an OTA of the country you see there lower price in, they likely will take foreign cards and allow the sale to complete.

sfo

I have just changed my US billing address to my Canadian one. I have a U.S.Chase card. Now when I book and get the Canadian price and use my US Chase card with my Canadian billing address it may charge in CAD but then Chase converts it to USD so it is still lower than the Canadian price.

fumje

Are you saying that your card has two billing address (one US, one CA)? How do you enter a Canadian billing address for a US card?

emcampbe

My interpretation is the OP changed their CC billing address to a Canadian one (yes, you can have a US card with a Canadian address). Because of this, booking on UAs site will route them to the Canadian site for booking, and charges in Canadian dollars. But the Chase conversion to USD 'lowers' the price, as $1 CAD is about $0.73 USD, give or a take a cent or so.

This won't save money most of the time, unless the CA fare is less then one available through the US site (not often the case IME, though I stopped checking this for my Canada trips). As you're basically converting money twice (UA is basically doing so to build the Canadian price, then Chase is doing it at the time you charge the fare.

fumje

I wondered if that were his meaning too, but as you point out, unless you can switch at will it's not likely to be a net advantage. Or perhaps sfo has two cards, one that has been changed to a Canadian address and one that has not.

warrenw

I'm based out of ICN and frequently find drastically different fares based in Korean won and an overseas address vs booking in USD. I'm talking upwards of $600-$800 for premium tickets, of course less for economy.

For my credit card (also Chase) I have multiple addresses in my Chase profile - one is my physical overseas address and the other is a PO Box. This way I can use my card in the states and use the PO Box zip code when making purchases but can use the Korean address when buying tix on United. I've been doing this for at least the past two years and haven't had a single issue whatsoever.

I will note that this does NOT work for my United CC, so I use my Sapphire Reserve. Not sure why it won't let me use my United CC but I'm not questioning it, I get more points with the SR anyway.

sfo

No, I only have one, I had a US billing address but have changed it to my Canadian address. Sometimes fares from Canada are less expensive that those from the US. If the fare's are close after I look at the exchange rate then I use my Canadian VI card, no sense wasting US dollars if it is not necessary. I looked at one fare to Europe, in CAD $1200.00 but when converted it worked out to about USD $890.00 which is a nice savings.

fumje

Interesting. It seems like Chase for some reason puts a single-address requirement on the United cards.

I see, thanks for explaining. ^

zutalors

Hi,

Trying to book CLE -LAX on the US site shows $50US per ticket and on the Canadian United site $93CAD.

Is there no way to get around this fare difference without a US credit card/billing address? Considering my flights are between two US cities I don't understand why I can't use the US site.

Kacee

Try booking through an OTA, such as Orbitz or Expedia.

zutalors

Thanks Kacee!

That seems to have done it. Expedia to the rescue. Tickets for the family vacation booked.

B.

emcampbe

OP: I'm guessing this isn't an exchange rate issue, but a different fare being offered due to the different point of sale. XE shows $50 US worth $62.15 Canadian currently. That's a huge difference. I'd guess the fare you are seeing on United.ca is different. Is it the same fare class/code?

One possibility and I'd guess this is what you are seeing: is the US$50 fare being offered a basic economy fare? If so, there is a report in the BE thread about it not being available on the Canadian site. In that case, a regular fare would probably be about $25 more ow, which would correspond almost exactly to the $93 you are seeing (XE Showing $75 US is $93.24 Canadian. I'm almost sure this is what it is.

If you do want the US fare, UAs site won't let you buy through the US point of sale, and therefore the $50 fare, unless you use a card with a US billing address. OTA is probably the easiest way, as mentioned above, but if you want to book through Ua, you could always call and an agent can do it, to, but that would cost $25US, which would take away the savings.

zutalors

Thanks emcampbe - I just booked on Expedia and was able to get the $50USD fare.

Originally I went to the US United site selected the flights, filled in the info including credit card and then a United pop up changed the flights from $50USD each to $92CAD and redirected me before purchase to the Canadian site.

B.