Why do Americans pay more?

N9eav

A flight from London to Milwaukee return in November is £520. The same planes in the opposite direction is £720. Why does my future son in law have to pay more to visit?

bsms1147

Two words: Free market.

Doshwaster

Presumably there are more people in Milwaukee who would like to visit London than there are people in London who would like to visit Milwaukee.

Taxes and charges will also be different

Two different markets. Two different prices. Pick any two cities in the world and you will find the same.

N9eav

I was quite surprised considering most things over there are cheaper.

SW17

N9eav wrote: »

I was quite surprised considering most things over there are cheaper.

You don't mention the carrier, but it's also quite common for carriers to charge more in their home market, where they have greater brand presence and demand. As Doshwaster points out, taxes and charges may be different. Also, while airlines do this differential pricing between markets for a number or reasons, they frequently offset it by making less seats available at the lower fare.

InsideInsurance

Supply and demand, statutory rights, domicile country of the merchant, taxation, elasticity of the customer to name but a few

A quick check on Kayak UK -v- Kayak US shows that it actually varies. Most the time it is very close but in the 7 day spread I looked at there is just one day where the UK option is under £1,300 and that is a £513 fare as you mention however that fare comes from US Airways which isnt included in Kayak US

comeandgo

Has he tried using a British based search engine for flights? When I'm visiting another country I use a GB based sight and one in the visiting country. It can be cheaper using the foreign one and paying in the foreign currency.

lazer

Currency exchange differences have an impact too.


So the £720 is really $1,160 (Exchange rate - $1.61 = £1)


Same flight booked back in July for $1,160 would have been £678.

alanrowell

Why do you assume that on a given date flying from A to B is going to cost the same as B to A?

There may be something happening at B on that date which increases general demand (and hence price) or a group has booked several seats which will increase the price of the remaining seats.

N9eav

I was searching in general. As 'insideinsurance' says.. Do a Kayak search and the prices that come up on the US site are about £200 more expensive for them to come to London than for Brits to go to the US. Does not seem to matter what airline or exchange rate.


The Price I quoted in my first post was the best price with United on Expedia US and the best price with Expedia UK.


I would have expected them to be closer.

N9eav

I was searching in general.
As 'insideinsurance' says.. Do a Kayak search and the prices that come up on the US site are about £200 more expensive for them to come to London than for Brits to go to the US. Does not seem to matter what airline or exchange rate.


The Price I quoted in my first post was the best price with United on Expedia US and the best price with Expedia UK.


I would have expected them to be closer than $350 difference.