Airfare differences based on region/country set to the browser. Why?

tomleonhart on 31/01/2014 - 11:15
Last edited 31/01/2014 - 11:39

So after reading an article on SMH about Aussie paying more for airfare, I have gone onto a random airline's website to pick a random city on a random date to see if it was true.

I picked Cathay, one way Hong Kong > Sydney, 25/6/2014. Chrome was set to Hong Kong as the country/region and the Firefox was set to Australia.

Of course the search results returned the same flight at the same time on the same date, only that the browser with AUS set as region /country is showing $200 more. To eliminate the possibility that the HongKong search has just taken the last cheap seat, I made sure I had used the AUS browser to search first, once it returned a result, then I used the other one. Same result.

But it seems like only Cathay is doing this, results on Emirates, Qantas, British and Singapore show the same price. Am I missing anythinghere? Any reason why it should be more expensive for booking through a website which the country is set as Australia ?

Travel

Comments

  • humdingaling on 31/01/2014 - 11:23

    if you read the comments on the story there was someone who explains many of the variances

  • Amaris on 31/01/2014 - 11:25
    +2

    Never has Cathay asked me my religion!!

    • tomleonhart on 31/01/2014 - 11:27

      Lol, what was i thinking…

    • retiredfeline on 31/01/2014 - 11:33

      Oh dear, I was worried I might have to own up to being an OzB'er.

  • cpho on 31/01/2014 - 11:28

    Religion? You mean region?
    Maybe it's the tax? I havent seen the article and I ceebs doing the whole country changing test. Post up a picture of the breakdowns of the cost, maybe that will explain it

    Edit:beaten by 45 secs

  • mskeggs on 31/01/2014 - 16:22
    +1

    Cathay just launched a sale for that route and dates. Perhaps it was launched earlier in the home market?

  • BobD on 01/02/2014 - 09:42

    When I buy software I always check the price in US$, AU$, CA$ and GBP and frequently there is an advantage in buying in US$ even allowing for currency conversion and card charges. No setting the browser for region, I just change the currency at the pay page.

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