The internet is full of many websites offering suggestions for how to travel for less, from booking a Wednesday flight to just cancelling the connection and leaving. But have you ever thought about booking a trip starting in another country?
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that airlines charge different prices depending on where a ticket is purchased, given how erratic airfares are and the fact that the person sitting next to you on the plane may have paid half or five times what you did. A dartboard has many factors that influence the outcome of a game. One factor may be supply and demand, currency valuation, or any number of other things. But it is still a reality.
We’d want to say that we flew around the world looking for airfare from as many countries as possible, but that would negate the purpose of wanting to save money. Instead, we studied some of the most popular international routes from virtual private networks (VPNs) based in 20 different nations. We discovered, not surprisingly, that booking from outside the United States might save you hundreds of dollars.
Every trip is less expensive when booked outside of the United States.
First, we picked five routes it thought were representative of the many types of travel Americans look for: Chicago O’Hare to Frankfurt, Germany; John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to London Heathrow; Los Angeles to Toronto; Seattle-Tacoma to Paris Charles de Gaulle; and Miami to Tokyo Narita.
We then sifted through hundreds of flight options from 20 different countries, including New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, and much of southeast Asia. And while booking outside of your home country might not always save you money, more often than not, cheaper flights can be found.
Overall, Vietnam was found to be the most cost-effective place to purchase airline tickets, with an average price difference of $138 per ticket. When booked from Vietnam, all five routes were cheaper, including a decrease of almost $300 between LA and Toronto.
The most cost-effective route was between New York and London, with an average savings of $87 per ticket. It also had the single greatest savings in the study, with London to New York flights saving $615 and other routes saving no less than $65 each. If you’re visiting Mexico this spring break, it’s worth checking out the available transportation options.
Flights between New York and London frequently had the greatest savings, with Mexico, India, France, and the United Kingdom all offering significant price decreases. LA to Toronto was roughly half the price when booked from Canada at an average of $404 vs. $801.
The cheapest VPNs were based in China with an average savings of $88 per person, then India at $82, and Canada with $50. Overall, a dozen countries had lower average airfares when travelling through their borders using a VPN. Only Australia and Malaysia were more expensive, at least for now.