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Old 04-18-2017, 01:50 AM
 
800 posts, read 534,343 times
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I'm looking to go to London in a few months. Using Expedia, I was checking out the cost of flying from Seattle, from Vancouver, and from NYC. To my chagrin, I see that a round trip ticket between the US (or Canada) and London costs about $200 more if you leave from North America, than if you leave from London.

Is this just a case of ripping off stupid American travelers?
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Old 04-24-2017, 12:58 PM
 
2,887 posts, read 5,122,208 times
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They are charging what they think customers will agree to pay. That said, to you, a North American looking to travel to Europe, the price of the LHR-SEA roundtrip departing in LHR is as irrelevant as a comparison of the price of apples between London and Seattle.

More broadly it's the same reason why it will cost you less to buy a Seattle-Buenos Aires roundtrip than the other way around; it's not about ripping South Americans off either.

Once you know that the ~175 people in identical economy seats have likely paid ~175 different prices for their tickets on most airlines, you can begin to understand how much latitude airlines have in setting ticket prices.
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Old 04-24-2017, 05:54 PM
 
Location: OH>IL>CO>CT
7,490 posts, read 13,543,400 times
Reputation: 11853
A lot of the difference could be the different taxes and fees that are charged at each end.
This article tries to explain some of that :
https://www.smartertravel.com/2008/0...ees-explained/
Some of the numbers may be a little out of date, but you'll get the point.
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Old 04-27-2017, 06:19 AM
 
2,887 posts, read 5,122,208 times
Reputation: 3663
Quote:
Originally Posted by reed303 View Post
A lot of the difference could be the different taxes and fees that are charged at each end.
This article tries to explain some of that :
https://www.smartertravel.com/2008/0...ees-explained/
Some of the numbers may be a little out of date, but you'll get the point.
I doubt that because the vast majority of taxes do not depend on whether someone is on the outgoing leg of his/her journey or on the return leg. In the OP's example, a SEA-LHR roundtrip gives the same taxes as a LHR-SEA roundtrip if one transits through the same airports.

The author of that article does a rather poor explanation of taxes and fees, and in particular does not mention the fuel/carrier surcharge, which is a huge component of transatlantic ticket prices on many airlines. For a $1,100 SEA-LHR rt this summer on Delta, ITA shows a ticket price of $625, a carrier surcharge of $250, and taxes of $225.
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