Is it true, that if you use VPN and choose any lower-income country than Canada (does not matter which), you get cheaper tickets? VPN will ‘fool’ Aeroplan into thinking you are located in those countries, hence lowering the price of the ticket all aboard. I don’t and have never used VPN before. However, this makes me think to get it once in a while.
Generally speaking, demand for flight tickets will be higher in high-income countries, therefore they’ll be more expensive. I wonder if we try changing your VPN location to a lower-income country and we’ll often find better deals.
I am saying this, because a friend of mine has done this for hotel rates:
Get cheaper hotel rooms
In his experience, it seems like there’s some kind of home-turf advantage when it comes to finding the hotel rooms you want cheaper. Connect your VPN to the same country you’ll be traveling to and sometimes you’ll see lower rates.
He gave tip to me: When you switch between geo-locations with your VPN, clear your cache and cookies and make sure you aren’t logged into any kind of account.
I have never heard of this working for anything other than streaming services like Spotify and Netflix, and even then it’s not just a simple matter of using a VPN, you have to falsify your identity when signing up.
Please ask your friend to share an example of where this actually works for hotels because I’m highly skeptical.
It doesn’t work the way you think it works.
Yes, Air Canada and other airlines file price by “country”. However, this is not about from where you buy it, but from the origin of your trip. Whether your VPN is setup in Canada, Turkey or Brazil won’t change the price(other than converting the currency).
But if you look at a YYZ-CDG-YYZ round-trip, it may not get the same price as YYZ-CDG + CDG-YYZ (2x one-way), because the first one is a trip from Canada, while the second is 2 trips, one of which originate from France. Taxes and fees noticeably can be different, but also the base fare may be different.
He went to Thailand and Cambodia for a holiday 2 months ago, and he booked the hotels using VPN by locating himself and his wife in Thailand. The city was Bangkok & Pattaya city, and is about 20% cheaper before taxes.
Yes, Air Canada and other airlines file price by “country”. However, this is not about from where you buy it, but from the origin of your trip. Whether your VPN is setup in Canada, Turkey or Brazil won’t change the price(other than converting the currency).
This might be the case for AC but I’ve definitely noticed this with other airlines, notably UA and AA, where fare pricing and availability varies based on point of sale for an identical itinerary, far in excess of currency conversion.
Ah? I did not know this…so basically it is a known secret?
UA & AC uses the same system. You can’t set prices by “country you’re in”. You the concept of point of sale refers to your trip start point. You’re correct that the point of origin from your trip may alter your prices by more than just fees and taxes, but again, using a VPN won’t change that.
Are you serious? being a sex tourist AND bringing his wife??
Point of sale is where the ticket is issued, not the departure point of the flight. Airlines can and do file different fares for different points of sale.
The recent innovation, especially but not exclusively with US carriers, is trying to lock you into your home country’s point of sale based on the billing address of your credit card, rather than the departure flight.
Correct that using a VPN won’t change that, but there are other ways to get around it, like booking through a OTA based on another country.
Just one quick example I picked at random - AA 1572 on May 5. Lowest base fare before taxes and surcharges in CAD is priced at $373 with YYZ as point of sale, or $305 with MIA as point of sale. Not the most egregious example, the difference can be significantly higher in some cases.
It’s called Ménage à Trois good sir…
Exactly, the POS is the geographical location of the ticket issued.
I just ran your example and found the same price. VPN or not. Can you provide more evidence?
Search on ITA Matrix, it lets you specify the point of sale and currency to make equivalent comparisons. Very eye-opening. You’ll see using a Canadian sales city automatically puts you in a higher fare class than a US sales city.
In terms of retail pricing VPN is irrelevant though, if you search on the US version of AA.com you’ll find the lower rate, but when you try to book it and specify a billing address in Canada it’ll redirect you to the Canadian version of the site with the higher fares.