Here's a new one for an experienced traveler. I was working on planning a trip from the U.S. to visit friends in Germany and then go on to Italy. I was on the Lufthansa website looking at flights from Frankfurt to Rome. (I will be traveling to and from Frankfurt on frequent flyer miles.) On my first search the Frankfurt/Rome roundtrip was 206 Euros. Sounds good. But then I realized I hadn't changed the selection at the top of the page for my country of residence from "Germany" to "US". When I ran it again with "US" the same trip on the same dates on the same flights was almost 900 dollars. What is that? I can understand if taxes or some small part of the charge depends where you live, but costing four times as much? Does anyone know what would happen if I bought my ticket on line and just said my residence was Germany. (I could use my friends address if I have to give one.) It would be an e-ticket. Any other suggestions?

P.S. the Alitalia flights Frankfurt/Rome don't have as good a schedule as Lufthansa but on Expedia for the same dates Alitalia is only $169 round trip plus tax. Lufthansa does not even show up on Expedia for this trip.

I think airfares are like many goods, marketed with differing incentives and differing prices in different markets.

I don't know how alert the airlines are, but they probably have contractual terms by which you are bound to use the site serving the location where you actually are. An alert airline would possibly notice that your purchase using a German address was being made in the name of someone with a US address, and using a US credit card.

You might try looking around and posting on the cheap flights forum at

http://eurotrip.com

They have some very knowledgeably people there. Ask also about finding perhaps a low cost airline, if you can live with their luggage restrictions.

I've heard of similar pricing "tricks". It might be because Europeans are more likely to take low-cost carriers than Americans, so the price is set differently.

If it works for you, I'd consider Ryanair or Air Berlin:
http://www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?from=FRA
http://www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?from=HHN

I have heard wonderful things about Air Berlin and I know they have flights directly from FRA to FCO, the two main airports.

costs are different in different countries...that is well known. travel is no different. many european travel related things are marketed with a much higher cost to americans as it is often thought of as a once in a lifetime trip and money is no (or less of an) object.

likewise, we pay much more over here for most things. even frequent flyer clubs vary by nationality. If you join british airways frequent flyer club from the american site or application form, you get a much better deal than if you join from the british side.

even within europe, there is much variation. coming from britain, we often pay much more for things booked from the UK as opposed to on the continent...as we typically can or are willing to pay more than others. it's just life.

Send this to Lufthansa and see what they say.

DH and I found the same thing dealing with Lufthansa and Maersk and a couple of other airlines -- in ALL cases the charge for those using a US address or web-portal-access was several times what it was for European-based clients. Of course, there's absolutely no place to complain or appeal, as far as I know.

Yes - there are different prices for different markets for airfares - just as there are for everything else. Naturally the seller wants to get whatever the market will bear. That's a major reason why cars are so mcuh more expensive in europe than they are in the US - esp Japanese ones.

Yeah, but...

The airplane is flying to the same destinations. It is not, to me, anything like buying a car in two different countries, or a refrigerator.

If it is any help, kayak.com showed me some Lufthansa flights (bought one) when I was recently searching for low cost inter-Europe flights.

I found the same thing on the Air France website. Last week I was pricing one way, paris to rome. The fare was something like $850. I signed back on as Francais and the faire was 56 euros. I think after tax/fees it came to about 140 euros. Still a big difference!

That is so wrong. I can't stand it!

This helps explains some of the low fares advertised in travel agencies in European cities. I wonder if US carriers use a similar business strategy, charging more for non-US residents?

If one is a resident of the US, arrives in Europe, can they than buy a ticket in Europe to fly to some other city in Europe and get the European rate, using their US based credit card?

It has nothing to do with the passenger's nationality. Instead, it has to do with what fare code does the airline put on its particular website for sale.

If one sees a fare discrepancy that this, try using a 3rd party site to see if you can get the lower prices. Not just Expedia, but Travelocity, Orbitz (for US-originated flights) and perhaps a European site for intra-European travel.

i think the revulsion over this is a little naive. i don't see why it is any different than the refrigerator example. yes it is the same flight but the refrigerator is the same as well.

the airlines have different distribution costs including staff costs, taxes, benefits, property/rent, etc, etc for each country in which they operate their distribution and customer support networks that cater locally. as i mentioned the frequent flyer programmes are also different so the whole notion of pricing of the product is different. perhaps the terms of the legal ticket are different too.

as others mentioned, the markets bear different prices and the airline may have promotions targeting a particular country in order to break into that market.

walkinaround, I think your defense of the differential in costs is, um, "a bit naive." There is certainly a difference between cost basis for a commodity and a service (which is what fare for a flight amounts to). The refrigerator, among other things, has to be shipped somewhere, and shipping can cost quite a bit. It may also have to be re-engineered to meet local requirements re: freon, etc. Ditto for a car that has to be shipped from Japan. But there's also the issue about whether customers have more or less choice regarding refrigerators and cars.

A flight is a flight is a flight. And for many travelers there is very little choice in these markets. The only POSSIBLE difference would be the cost of delivering the ticket to the passenger, which in the era of e-tickets is negligibly different; and in any case, delivery can't ever amount to 3-8 times the cost of passage, and neither can whatever it might take to coordinate records with code-shares.

No, the difference is pure and simple "what the market will bear," assuming the "market" is ignorant of what others are paying and/or have no alternative. They're doing it because they can. Period.

Hi LA,

Thanks for the heads up.

I agree that it is driven by the competition in the market.

For example, I priced CDG/ATL on AF vs ATL/CDG on the same dates: $690 (at 1.2 $/E) vs $660.

However, for weekend travel, the ATL-CDG flight went up $40, while the CDG/ATL flight stayed the same.

I'm not ignoring the fact that free market forces have a lot to do with the pricing difference but you also cannot ignore the differences in marketing and service costs around the world. The different costs of setting up shop and doing business in different countries is something that is factored into pricing along with market forces. your insistance that the costs to enter and do business is the same for all markets (except for shipping or altering your product) is very wrong.

if you don't want to accept this, you can go ahead and put it all down to free market economy (which i thought most people in the world supported anyway). The world is not a single market and I thought getting the best price you can within a market is just the way things worked.

as for competition, there has never been more choice when it comes to holidays and travel in general. there are far more places to go and costs of going are far less than at any time in history. if costs for booking european air travel in the US are very high as compared to the business costs then there are plenty of airlines to come in and market their routes in the US at lower fares (including a slew of european discount airlines).

sorry if you were offended by my "naive" remark, it's just that i thought anyone who travels a lot would realise that things (and services) have different costs that cannot always be explained by shipping or product safety compliance.

I'm "very wrong"? You said: "Different costs of setting up shop and doing business in different countries is something that is factored into pricing along with market forces." Neither Maersk nor Snowflake (just to name two) have any other presence in the US than a website and whatever access travel agents may be given. To my knowledge, they have no offices, no gates, no fees to American airports, etc. etc. etc. What possible "start up costs" can they have had to justify a $700. difference in a single flight from Copenhagen to, say, Munich?

You couldn't dismiss or minimize "market forces" (translation: "we'll charge the most we can possibly get away with&quot in explaining why some domestic US tickets on the same plane for the same seats can range in cost from $200 to $600 or even $1000. for last-minute-so-I'm-stuck-with-it passengers. Those differences have nothing to do with different start-up or fixed cost-of-doing-business costs. It's exactly the "same difference" regarding different nationalities.

As for competition -- you must live in one of those major cities that has a hub international airport. Try to get from a second- or third-string (so to speak) US airport to a comparably small European city, or between 2 smaller European cities and tell me you have a wide variety of choices -- esp. if you're trying to book from the US.