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The United app is limited to US payment cards?
Perhaps I am being thick. I have paid American, Delta and Southwest thousands of dollars all in as they take my UK credit card, but United’s own app only allows paymernt with a payment card based in the US of A? How is this an issue in 2018? Are direct sales not what UA want? |
you're not being thick. it is a wonky thing. i think when you're loyal to ua you just used to dysfunction. like ny subway riders. it doesn't really hinder me, i just price it out then open up my laptop.
this being said i would say ua's app is FAR ahead of the vast majority of airlines. it's far from perfect but it gives a lot of information in a nice gui. and their local billing (ie being able to book in a myriad of currencies) is also FAR ahead of the vast majority airlines. but ya, you can't bill in non usd on the app. *shrug* |
Originally Posted by skipness1E
(Post 30141543)
Perhaps I am being thick. I have paid American, Delta and Southwest thousands of dollars all in as they take my UK credit card, but United’s own app only allows paymernt with a payment card based in the US of A? How is this an issue in 2018? Are direct sales not what UA want? That is on the website though. App only allows you to select from USA, PR and Guam at the moment for billing country. I suspect that will change going forward. Ao your choices for now are to either use the UA website to book direct, or use an OTA like Orbitz who will accept foreign cards. Note if you use UA with a UK card, the price for your flight might be different than you saw - either lower or higher. YMMV. |
Use united's UK site?
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Perhaps I don’t quite understand the issues raised, I have been able to use non-US credit cards purchasing UA tickets through Untied APP. I have never encountered any problems. |
It also charges a premium for non-US cards (at least in Canada). I have tried to book with a CC and/or paypal using a Canadian address, but it denies me, the preauth will go through. Tickets are usually about 7-10% more expensive using the Canadian version of the website as well. Recently booked 2 tickets YVR-PHX, using app the price was $1235, using the Canadian website it came to $1336. A fun ripoff. Sometimes I have been able to book on the app and call it in, but that usually involves a long conversation with the person on the phone.
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I'm a Canadan and the app accepts my Canadian bank issued C/C all the time.
Problem is everything is quoted in USD when booking as I cannot select my country of booking like you can on the full site. Have never noticed fare discrepancies as stated above however. |
Originally Posted by purelywasted
(Post 30142403)
It also charges a premium for non-US cards (at least in Canada). I have tried to book with a CC and/or paypal using a Canadian address, but it denies me, the preauth will go through. Tickets are usually about 7-10% more expensive using the Canadian version of the website as well. Recently booked 2 tickets YVR-PHX, using app the price was $1235, using the Canadian website it came to $1336. A fun ripoff. Sometimes I have been able to book on the app and call it in, but that usually involves a long conversation with the person on the phone.
As I said, different POS sometimes have different availability, which is what would cause a price difference. Even if these rates are all in USD, what you call a rip-off is UAs way of price discriminating - no different than any other carrier prices, and also no different than other price discrimination tactics (requiring a round trip or Sat. night stay on some routes, for example). As another example, when I lived ex-India and looked to book flights to Thailand, when i checked US OTAs, they could only sell full Y fares onTG, but booking though TGs (India) website or an Indian OTA would get me flights on even the lowest discount buckets. That’s essentially no different than what UA does, around the world. |
Originally Posted by purelywasted
(Post 30142403)
It also charges a premium for non-US cards (at least in Canada). I have tried to book with a CC and/or paypal using a Canadian address, but it denies me, the preauth will go through. Tickets are usually about 7-10% more expensive using the Canadian version of the website as well. Recently booked 2 tickets YVR-PHX, using app the price was $1235, using the Canadian website it came to $1336. A fun ripoff. Sometimes I have been able to book on the app and call it in, but that usually involves a long conversation with the person on the phone.
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Originally Posted by GeoMedic
(Post 30144650)
Yes... I was buying yesterday and I found the CDN site to be using an exchange rate of about 1.6 instead of the ~1.3 market rate. It was also giving me wonky business class rates for TATL travel... almost double the price I could get on the USD site. I ended up going with AA using a US card.
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Originally Posted by purelywasted
(Post 30142403)
It also charges a premium for non-US cards (at least in Canada). I have tried to book with a CC and/or paypal using a Canadian address, but it denies me, the preauth will go through. Tickets are usually about 7-10% more expensive using the Canadian version of the website as well. Recently booked 2 tickets YVR-PHX, using app the price was $1235, using the Canadian website it came to $1336. A fun ripoff. Sometimes I have been able to book on the app and call it in, but that usually involves a long conversation with the person on the phone.
-James |
Originally Posted by findark
(Post 30144969)
Changing the point of sale changes inventory - this is on purpose.
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Originally Posted by GeoMedic
(Post 30145168)
No. That's not the point. simply changing currency does not (never has) changed the cost. Inventory is consistent.
United Airlines Canada: https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c24447690f.png United Airlines USA: https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...45c1d0e2fc.png As you can see the Canadian edition of United yields a pricing that is several thousand less than the USA version. In particular, note the fare bucket availability on UA's Canadian site, we've got availability in the lower tier Z and P business fares which explains the discrepancy. I've also seen this principle work in reverse. Whether this violates the CoC is a question open for debate. Certainly if I was domiciled in the ticketing country in question I doubt UA could raise much of an objection. On the other hand, when UA had that crazy fare error out of Denmark a couple years ago, they argued they weren't required to honour the fare since most people weren't domiciled there. Safe Travels, James |
Originally Posted by j2simpso
(Post 30145154)
This too confuses me since I have a USD credit card and obviously don't want to be billed in CAD when using it.
-James
Originally Posted by j2simpso
(Post 30145213)
It absolutely does! Don't believe me?
As you can see the Canadian edition of United yields a pricing that is several thousand less than the USA version. Nontheless, it is a good lesson to check both sites if you have the capacity to pay in either currency. I have seen this before with Air Canada. Buying from Vancouver C class for Houston to Shanghai was $3000, whereas buying from Vancouver in CAD was nearly $8k. It is all about attracting new business. |
Originally Posted by GeoMedic
(Post 30145236)
You can select the US site in the upper line and when you pay with a US card it charges in USD.
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