Hack 08 of 15 · Cheaper ways to buy the same flights

Point of sale and currency

The same seat on the same plane can carry a different price depending on which country's version of the site you buy it from, and in which currency.

Low riskECB rates3% / $10 thresholdFX fee accounted for

What it looks like

Dallas → Milan, re-quoted from Italy in euros

example output

US point of sale: $514 per person
Italian point of sale: €442 ≈ $514
Difference after conversion: $0
Shown on the plan?: No

Drawn as the zero, because zero is the common result: both long-haul legs come back identical once converted and nothing is shown. This is the check that catches the routes where the gap is 15%, and that tells you when it is nothing rather than implying it is not.

When it does not work

Card foreign-transaction fees and dynamic currency conversion at checkout can erase a small saving entirely. Pay in the local currency, with a card that has no FX fee.
Some airlines require a billing address in the point-of-sale country. Online travel agents usually do not.
Exchange rates move between quoting and paying.
Only long-haul legs are checked, at most two per plan, because each check costs a live search.

Risk

Low risk

Buying from another country's site is ordinary commerce, not a trick against the airline. The exposure is FX fees and a possible billing-address wall.

On your plan: “Ticketing tricks”, with the foreign quote, the conversion and the FX bite all shown.Setting: Advanced → Hacks → Point-of-sale check (on by default).point of sale trickbuy flights in local currencyVPN flight booking

Keep reading

The rest of “Cheaper ways to buy the same flights”

The worst case costs you time, not the trip.

Two-ticket combos through a hubInstead of one ticket from A to B, two separate tickets: A to a hub, then the hub to B a day later. Often cheaper, sometimes not, and worth it mainly for the time in the hub, which is only a day there if the gap falls in daylight. Nobody is responsible for the connection but you.Positioning flightsA cheap domestic hop to a gateway city, then a separate long-haul ticket from there, because the transatlantic fare out of New York or Lisbon can sit far below the one out of your home airport.Ticketing tricks: open-jaw, round-trip-cheaper-than-one-way, group sizeThree ways the same flights get re-priced by asking the airline a different question: buy both ends as one ticket, buy a round trip you only half use, or stop asking for every seat at once.

See it on a real trip

Give it your cities.

No account needed. It runs all 15 of these on your trip, and tells you which ones found nothing.

Plan a trip See it on a finished plan