Using a "Fake" Location for Better Flight Prices???
 

I saw this article online. Is this legal -- and if so, can anyone tell me how to do it? I can't seem to find the right website. When I go to "Google Flights" I don't see where to change my location.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/map-ha...b_6315424.html

The airline website can still determine where you are logging in from, so I don't see how this can work.

When I was recently in Australia I booked a domestic flight within the U.S. (for when I'd returned). The AA website "knew" that I was in Australia. But, at that particular site I was able to change my country to the U.S.

I'll be curious to see other responses.

You can book domestic flights in other countries. The point of the article is that there'll be substantial savings by putting in a fake location. Were there?

The question that always comes up here on the South America forum is Peru. Non-Peruvians booking Peruvian domestic flights often pay a LOT more than local people do. You can fake it on Lan Peru's website and say you're logging in from Peru and buy the cheap ticket, but they'll catch you when you try to check in for the flight and make you pay the difference.

I've done it. I think it was for a domestic flight on ANA in Japan. It was several years ago and there was a savings and there was no problem.

I didn't think of it as using a fake location. It was just using the Japanese website. California might want me to pay sales tax, but as far as ANA goes, I bought it Tokyo and was in accordance with Japanese law and ANA rules.

If you were buying a ticket for domestic Japan travel I would advise going to both the USA and Japan websites for ANA and compare prices. The USA site very well might, actually likely, have better fares for non-Japanese and it makes it clear that the fares are not for Japanese.

Your link explains how to do it: get to the airline's domestic website. Here is an example that you can try out:

Google: All Nippon Airways
The first result should be: http://www.ana.co.jp/asw/wws/us/e/
Look across the top, from left it says North America (no surprise the "us/e" in the URL means United States/English).

The the right of North America, click on where it says "Other Countries". On the next page, choose Country: Japan and Language: English. Now you are in Japan.

Do the same for another carrier in another country and you should see an option for choosing a location.

Another example, go to qantas.com and you will probably be redirected to the us/en site: http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/home/us/en
Click on where it says United States and you can choose a different location.

Maybe it was Air New Zealand domestic flights that I booked on their .nz site.

Here is the Peru site for LAN Peru: http://www.lan.com/es_pe/sitio_personas/index.html#

I don't see a language option for the page, but it is easy enough to use in Spanish. I did a search for a Cusco-Lima roundtrip.

Right across the top was the warning:
Los residentes peruanos pueden acceder a las Tarifas Base y Base Plus en rutas nacionales dentro del país. Si utilizas este beneficio, pero no acreditas la residencia, LAN te podrá cobrar un cargo adicional de US$ 177 o negar el embarque.

Which basically says that if you buy a special fare for Peruvians but are not Peruvian then they will hit you up for $177 or deny boarding.

So, read the fine print or obvious warnings before you buy. Use Google Translate.

The Peruvian fare for my search was $134. Otherwise the price for you and me would be US$306 por pasajero.

>>The airline website can still determine where you are logging in from, so I don't see how this can work.<<

But you know that it does work. It doesn't matter where the computer is located when the purchase is made. What matters is meeting the conditions on the fare at the time you are boarding the flight. A Peruvian resident sitting in New York or Bombay can buy <u>and fly</u> on those special LanPeru fares, for example.

<i>The airline website can still determine where you are logging in from, so I don't see how this can work.</i>

Use a proxy in the country you want to airline site to think you are from.

It is the point of sale that matters.

You can buy domestic New Zealand flights in the USA by going here: www.airnewzealand.com

Or you can save half by buying in NZ from the USA here:
www.airnewzealand.co.nz

So would it be safe to say that a good practice would be to purchase with whatever manner yields the lowest price ... but be ready to pay the difference at the airport?