Mar 1, 2020, 10:34 am
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
POS ==> Point of Sale. For UA, this determines pricing, inventory, fare rules, (in some cases - change fees) ....
Related threads
Different pricing/fare buckets depending on billing country / point of sale
Price delta between united.com/ United app / second phone? (Guam is billing country?)
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.
Online OTAs should let you bill to whatever card you want, so that’s one solution.
Different pricing/fare buckets depending on billing country / point of sale
Price delta between united.com/ United app / second phone? (Guam is billing country?)
UA forces POS to credit card billing country -- restricts which site/card can be used
May 15, 2023, 1:40 pm
#106
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As a general rule, I would avoid an OTA, especially overseas, if you can find a proper travel agent to handle the booking. Since the agency should be earning a commission on most tickets, there is no need to charge a booking fee. Just shop around. You want someone accessible who can handle problems, rebooking, etc.
The agency GDS will be set to that location, so their fares should match what is online - unless it's a specific online-only webfare, which I've rarely seen on UA, but can be common on CX, SQ, etc.
The agency GDS will be set to that location, so their fares should match what is online - unless it's a specific online-only webfare, which I've rarely seen on UA, but can be common on CX, SQ, etc.
The other place where I have often used OTAs is for domestic flights in India. Particularly when flying Indigo, which I think is the largest domestic Indian carrier now (or pretty close). Many times, and as lately as last summer, there is often trouble with their website accepting any of my US-based cards, so using ClearTrip (Indian OTA) or similar makes more sense. They also often offer incentives for booking on them vs. direct (x number of INR off a flight booking with Y airline, etc.)
