Dollars, pounds, yen, rand, the list is endless. Why do you care? Because deciding which one to pay in and which country you’re browsing from (regardless of where you actually are) can make a big difference in what you end up paying. Like saving? Thought so. You’re going to want to learn this trick…
The Basics
When you browse an airline website, it almost always naturally bounces you to the version of the website and language of the country you’re in. Makes sense. If you’re in America, whatever airline site you’re visiting, you’re going to be on the US site in English, if you’re in Portugal, you’ll be on the Portuguese site, in Portuguese. Pretty simple. What you may not know, is that you can change your location with a couple simple clicks, and doing so can mean substantial savings. It’s really easy…
Intriguing… Give Me An Example.
I want to buy a ticket from New York to London on Norwegian Airlines. Naturally, since I’m browsing from New York, the website bounces me to the English speaking US version of the Norwegian Airlines website. That’s fine for most things, but I don’t want to stay there, it’s going to cost me more money. Instead, I want to find the part of the website at the top right corner of the screen where it shows the (country) flag and language. Just about every airline has this on their site in plain view. I want to change to the Norwegian version of their site, where I’ll pay in Norwegian Kroner, simply by clicking location “Norway”. Why bother you ask? Because for whatever reason, tickets bought using the Norwegian Kroner currency come out cheaper than any other currency, for the exact same flights on this particular airline…
Ok, Great Example, But What About Other Airlines?
Obviously not every airline will price out cheaper in Norwegian Kroner with the location set specifically to Norway, that’s just a great example. Almost every airline will however price tickets differently depending on currency and ticketing location. How do you know which location or currency to pay in you ask? A bit of research, but there’s an easy way to do it. Go to the ITA Matrix, a great tool for finding flights. When you search, you’ll have the option to enter a sales city different from the origin or destination and you can also select which currency you’d like to pay in. If you play around, you’re almost always going to find savings. For example, the same logic would apply for buying a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong while I’m sitting in the US or wherever. By simply changing my currency and region to Thailand, paying in Thai Bhat, I may find much better prices…
Is It Worth It? Seems Like Work…
On average, people spend at least five hours researching their vacations, trips and travel. This should take less than half an hour. For certain flights, such as booking flights within Asia while searching from the United States or Europe, it can be a matter of savings 100’s with minimal effort. Less money spent on airline tickets is more money for lounge access, great meals, better sight seeing and all the things that make trips awesome. Do the work and make your trip awesome…
