Booking a Ticket in Foreign Currency Can Save You Money

When a $14,000 first class airline ticket from Sao Paulo to Hong Kong was marked down to $360 back in 2015, it didn’t last. Why? Well, let’s just say that American Airlines realized very quickly that the sale as a little too good to offer, and also – it required passengers pay for the flight in foreign currency. With the exchange rate all over the place most of the time, sometimes it’s can be quite financially beneficial to go ahead and book your flights and other travel using foreign currency so that you can save a bit. Now, I have to interrupt myself (I hate that) to tell you that you can save money booking flights with foreign currency, but you’re not going to save $13,640 booking flights using foreign currency. I’m so sorry.

However, savings are savings. On that note, I’m going to annoy you further by telling you that not only will you not save tens of thousands of dollars booking your flight using foreign currency in one year, you’re also going to have to do your own homework on this one. Why? I don’t know where you live, where you are going or when you are traveling. I also have no idea the value of every other type of currency in the world. Additionally, you’d have to check your own flights to find out whether or not you’re getting any sort of good deal here. However, it’s entirely possible to save significantly on flights when you book using foreign currency, so I’ll tell you how to book using foreign currency so you can see whether or not the price is better.

Choose an airline. It’s that simple. Pick an airline and look at the tickets to and from where you want to go. Now check to see if there is a way you can pay using foreign currency – which is typically allowed on most flights. You can simply change that option when asked while checking prices and booking. Thepointsguy did some digging to see if he could find tickets in foreign currency that save some money when booked using that manner of payment, and he found some. Of course, he did not check every flight in the world, but he did find several flights to destinations across the world that offers foreign currency savings of anywhere from $2 to $99. That’s not bad; and it’s a nice savings if you’re buying more than one ticket, too.

The one piece of advice that we do have to offer when you choose to go through the trouble of saving in this manner is to book your tickets with a card that does not charge you foreign transaction fees. Since you’re booking a flight on a foreign airline in what appears to be a foreign destination to your credit card company, it’s not going to save you much at all if you end up paying foreign transaction fees on the entire process. Choose your credit card wisely, do your homework and see what benefits you the most in terms of savings when it comes to book flights anywhere you want to go.

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