starchoice

Just did a booking on United. There is a definite inventory difference if you switch from U.S. to Canada. As usual, United does not allow you to book in USD. Once I put in my info, it switched the currency to Canadian. Two one way tickets @ $225 total changed to over $400 in Canadian.

I decided to use the app and success! It only provides for currency selection as U.S., Guam or Puerto Rico.While billing address shows additional categories of Province, Postal Code, etc., since currency selection dictates choices of state (no fill-in, drop-down only), I chose a U.S. hotel address and just paid with my Canadian card. Was billed in U.S. as I should have been from the start with my own c.c. company doing the conversion.

Obviously, the billing address is not checked against the credit card.

starchoice

Had this problem last time I booked with United and revisited today.

I go through all the steps, click purchase and there was a message that they detected something (that I am from Canada) so they refresh the screen and give me a ridiculous $CDN price.

This problem is not solved by switching the country at the top of the page. I was on the US site.

After reading through some threads, I solved the problem using the United app. There is no option for Canadian currency, only US, Puerto Rico & Guam. I put in a random billing address (hotel) in the US after choosing US currency.

Bingo! Billed the US price on my Canadian card.

The problem was more exasperating because I was booking a one way to Canada originating in the US. The website still forced the Canadian dollar switcheroo. I didn’t try to see if a US billing address would have worked on the site so don’t know if the hitch was a Canadian address or a Canadian credit card. I can’t remember the message.

The app solved the problem because there is no Canadian currency option.

As for Expedia, I tried to get my flight there but the price was significantly higher for the same flight. They only had a handful of flights and all at a higher Expedia priceline.

s0ssos

I found Orbitz to be reliable if you want it directly charged by the airline (do not know if that has changed recently)

emcampbe

united handles point of sale by credit card billing address. So will change the price to the local point of sale, based on billing address. If your CC is Canadian with Canadian address, and you start searching from US site, you’ll get the pricing swotcheroo. Sometimes, it’s not much of a difference. Sometimes it is. There can be different class availability, and exchange rate isn’t necessarily up to date.

Online OTAs should let you bill to whatever card you want, so that’s one solution.

emcampbe

inventory difference is going to vary. It certainly can be different, and very possibly was in your specific situation. But look tomorrow, and the inventory across Canada and US point of sale may be the same. Today US might have lower buckets open, tomorrow, It might be Canada.

just like other variables with fares, this will constantly change, and will be different based on various factors.

starchoice

Like I mentioned, I just put in a US billing address although I have a Canadian card with a Canadian billing address. It worked fine.

What factors? Seems like some airline scam job. If I'm booking a flight, I should be able to see what is available in their inventory and select accordingly. It really doesn't make sense that they would pick and choose what is available to me although this seems to be what is happening.

In my case, when I was having the currency booking issue and everything switched to Canadian (only after I hit the purchase button), when checking inventory, the flight I wanted was priced exorbitantly in Canadian funds but they showed a flight actually cheaper than the American equivalent of the flight I wanted but it had two stops as opposed to one with the same first leg. This flight option was not even there when I checked back through the American site. This was for a one way flight originating in the U.S. for travel to Canada.

Kacee

It may not make sense to you, but it is standard practice for airlines to both price and control inventory based on point of sale. UA is just better at enforcing its restrictions than virtually any other carrier.

mahasamatman

You're lucky United doesn't check because using a false billing address is credit card fraud.

cfischer

Seriously? Fraud? When United gets paid and you are just getting around some stupid IT limitations?

Who is being defrauded here?

PGHflyer

thanks for this thread, I thought I was going crazy!! I was looking for a one-way from Australia to US and had saved Google Flights alerts. Finally got to a price point I wanted but mainly because Google was pulling the AUD price off United's AU site (probably because my one-way starts there). No big deal, I hit the link, logged in to my United account, go to the final confirm/ book page, and it starts reverting to USD at about 15% price inflation over the AUD price (my credit card doesn't charge any foreign fees). Tried this many ways, and United is definitely changing based on my credit card billing address.

For AUD, does that mean my best option is hitting an AU Expedia site?

jsloan

Yes; any travel agent with an Australia presence should do.

lsquare

It's getting worse for other currencies as the US Dollar continues to strengthen during the global pandemic. Depending on where people are in this world, it could be good or bad news.

starchoice

As I covered this off in an earlier post, UA apparently overrides by billing address that I assume you are using the UA site for the booking. You, in turn, must override this by just using a US billing address (generally just a hotel in the US where you might be staying). This billing address in the US will allow you to proceed with the booking in USD. As confirmed by me and others, there is no cross check of the inputted billing address against the credit card billing address as some sites impose. It is a one shot deal with no repercussions and will allow you to have the UA flight billed in USD per the advertised price.

PGHflyer

OK, so in my case, I would need to fake an Australia address in my billing address so that I can book in AUD. Can't believe my CC would process a charge for a wrong country billing address but I guess I expect too much. I suppose there is trivial risk of someone complaining about my falsifying my billing address on the UA site versus really no risk if I use all my correct data on Expedia. Anyhow, thanks for the tips.

starchoice

I think I misunderstood your post. It seems that you live in the US but are booking a one way from Australia to the US and want to be billed in Australian dollars.

Did you confirm the Australian price on the United site by changing the location to see the price quoted in AUD? It seems odd that the USD price would be more than the AUD price. In my case, the site was converting USD to CDN at an inflated rate. In any case, the site should bill you in AUD if you put in an Australian address. There has been mention to log in as a guest which I did but not sure this would matter.

In my case, I am Canadian and was booking a one way from the US to Canada and the system was forcing CDN dollars at an inflated rate.