Paying with US dollars or other?
 

This may be a very ignorant question...

We are planning a trip to S. Africa from California next September, and are considering spending a couple of days somewhere in Europe on the way, perhaps Frankfurt or Amsterdam.

Is it possible to pay, with a Visa card, for the Europe-SA round trip part with a non-us airline, such as South Africa Airways, and buy tickets online as if we were not from California, but were from S. Africa? I read recently that the value of the Rand against the dollar may be changing.

Assuming your Visa is issues by a U.S. bank and operates in U.S. dollars, the answer is no.

You can buy the ticket in Rands, but your credit card company is going to convert it into dollars when they charge you. If the deal is better on the SA or UK version of South African Airways--for instance--instead of on the U.S. site, you may be able to wrangle a deal.

Your card will be charged in the currency that the billing address is registered to, so California=U$.

In almost all cases, the price of the ticket depends on the country where the trip begins. For example, if you wanted to fly round-trip between New York and Tokyo, it's $2000 cheaper if you start in Tokyo compared to New York.

If you live in the US and buy a Europe-to-SoAfrica ticket, the ticket will be priced in euros. If you pay for the ticket with a US credit card, the euros will be converted to US$. If you buy the ticket from a US travel agent or a US airline, the transaction will not be considered a foreign exchange transaction.

I disagree with the statement "If you live in the US and buy a Europe-to-SoAfrica ticket, the ticket will be priced in euros. If you pay for the ticket with a US credit card, the euros will be converted to US$."

Most European airlines have US websites, where you can make your transaction in USD. I've found, on Lufthansa, for example, that the price in USD is roughly the same at the current price in Euro.

On several occasions I've purchased intra-Europe tickets and each time they've been purchased and paid for online with USD