UK resident buying flights on US sites?
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From: Stephen Chaplin on 25 Jan 2010 03:56 Is there any legal reason why a UK resident cant buy a flight on a US based website? (i.e would i be avoiding any taxes?) Just wondered as there seems to be a lot more choice and cheaper options on expedia.com compared to the UK version of the site. Thanks Stephen
From: tim.... on 25 Jan 2010 07:47 "Stephen Chaplin" <sc20(a)york.ac.uk> wrote in message news:hjjmbm$9lh$1(a)netty.york.ac.uk... > Is there any legal reason why a UK resident cant buy a flight on a US > based website? (i.e would i be avoiding any taxes?) Because the airlines enforce a "local resident" only rule for the fares. European airlines used to do the same until the EU told them they couldn't. tim
From: Stephen Chaplin on 25 Jan 2010 08:42 Thanks for this, bit annoying as flights are about �80 cheaper to vegas at the moment on the US sites tim.... wrote: > "Stephen Chaplin" <sc20(a)york.ac.uk> wrote in message > news:hjjmbm$9lh$1(a)netty.york.ac.uk... >> Is there any legal reason why a UK resident cant buy a flight on a US >> based website? (i.e would i be avoiding any taxes?) > > Because the airlines enforce a "local resident" only rule for the fares. > > European airlines used to do the same until the EU told them they couldn't. > > tim > >
From: Graham Harrison on 25 Jan 2010 09:14 "Stephen Chaplin" <sc20(a)york.ac.uk> wrote in message news:hjk742$dqh$1(a)netty.york.ac.uk... > Thanks for this, bit annoying as flights are about �80 cheaper to vegas at > the moment on the US sites > > tim.... wrote: >> "Stephen Chaplin" <sc20(a)york.ac.uk> wrote in message >> news:hjjmbm$9lh$1(a)netty.york.ac.uk... >>> Is there any legal reason why a UK resident cant buy a flight on a US >>> based website? (i.e would i be avoiding any taxes?) >> >> Because the airlines enforce a "local resident" only rule for the fares. >> >> European airlines used to do the same until the EU told them they >> couldn't. >> >> tim >> Whilst there are some countries that have local resident fares or fares that can only be purchased in country in many cases you will find that the thing stopping you buying a ticket on a US website will be the fact that your credit card doesn't have a US billing address. They claim this is related to fraud which I think probably has an element of truth but isn't the whole story. Then some airlines have it sorted e.g. http://www.southwest.com go through their booking process and you get to a point where they ask for contact details and make specific provision for non US phone numbers and subsequently for non US cards. If you can get through the process I would have no hesitation in booking on a US website as a UK resident.
From: Fly Guy on 25 Jan 2010 09:56
Stephen Chaplin wrote: > Is there any legal reason why a UK resident cant buy a flight on > a US based website? (i.e would i be avoiding any taxes?) It's illegal (or at least - it's a violation of the agreement that the merchant has with the credit-card company) to discriminate against a card-holder based on country of residence. > Just wondered as there seems to be a lot more choice and cheaper > options on expedia.com compared to the UK version of the site. Try booking the exact same flights directly with the same airline on their own web-site. I've never seen expedia or travelocity give a rate for a given flight that was lower than what could be booked directly with their airline on their own website. |