I booked my flights for the UK yesterday. I'll be off to the Land of Hope and Glory for a fortnight in the summer. But I nearly made a serious error and, in the process, learned something very important about a popular airline on the Canada/UK route.
The Dot Com Boom is Bust
I won't shame the airline involved by naming it, but let us just say that it "spans the globe". I couldn't remember the website address so I entered the airline name in my browser's address bar and hit enter. Up popped the airline's dot com address, so I clicked on it and began booking my flights. I went through the process and got a price quote. Then I decided to check out alternatives.
The Maple Leaf Forever
The alternatives didn't look any better than my first choice so I returned to the "span the globe" website. I noticed a Maple Leaf symbol at the top of the website and clicked on it. That click took me from the airline's dot com website to its dot ca website.
Free Car Rental for a Fortnight?
I entered the same flight information as I had before, but this time I was offered the option of booking a rental car as well. I'll be needing wheels while in the UK so I chose that option. Imagine my surprise when the bottom line price was nearly the same as the booking for "flights only" through the dot com site.
Blimey, is this right?
The airline's dot com website is based in the UK, while its dot ca website is based in Canada. I doubled checked the bookings on both the dot com and dot ca websites for the same flights on the same airline and got a big shock.
Save Hundreds of Dollars
I found hundreds of dollars difference in price between the two websites. Yes, exactly the same flights, on the same day, same airline cost hundreds less if booked through the airline's Canadian website.
I won't challenge the airline to explain, it just might trigger a price increase for Canadians. But remember to tell all your family and friends in the UK that if they want to span the globe to Canada they should book their tickets through you-know-who's dot ca website.
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