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American travelers are being charged up to 3 times more for vacations

66 points by LinuxBender 4y ago

lucidguppy 4y ago
Another fair but PITA is the child penalty when it comes to traveling. Because the way schools are set up - everyone in a geographic area has to travel on specific weeks. So airlines jack up prices incredibly. Like - from some price that a family might be able to swing to almost medical emergency prices. I'll be sure to take advantage when the time comes. But if you want to know why on average US people are ignorant of the world vs other western countries - you have your answer.
- koolba 4y ago
  > everyone in a geographic area has to travel on specific weeks That sounds like supply and demand 101. The direct answer here is take your kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period.
  - yonaguska 4y ago
    > take you kids out of school This is what I'll be doing. I'm fortunate enough to homeschool for the time being, and that's my number one goal now, ensuring enough financial stability that we can continue to do so.
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      This is another symptom of how American society is falling apart and turning into a low-trust society with no real sense of community. Of course, for you personally, it's probably the right decision, despite the problems it causes with childrens' socialization, because of the huge problems in American public schools these days, but for a society, it's terrible. In a high-trust society, people send their kids to public school (which is free) for a high-quality education, and don't worry about things like school shootings. There's no way I'd ever raise a kid in the US.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    >The direct answer here is take you kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period. That can be difficult to pull off, probably especially in public schools which probably have less flexibility to bend the rules. But, yeah, it doesn't sound like some great conspiracy. And unless you live near the Canadian or Mexican border, of course it's generally going to be more expensive to travel to another country compared to living in France.
    - sdwr 4y ago
      ?? Is it more difficult than just telling the teachers you're doing it? Give them a bit of notice, get the homework in advance, what are they going to say?
      - ejb999 4y ago
        exactly - did it all the time with my kids, we told the teachers ahead of time, the school didn't like it - we didn't care. Somehow our kids all survived, went on to good colleges and all graduated with great careers, even missing a few useless weeks of school.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      I grew up in the US in the 90s and 00s and I took a week off here and there during the school year with no issue. Less so in high school, but I do not recall anyone caring in elementary school. I remember other kids doing the same, and the teacher would just assign the classwork that was scheduled to be done during that week and you were expected to learn it while not in school.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        In the 60s/70s, my parents regularly took me out of grade school for family vacations but it was a private school and I was a very good student. I would guess that public schools were less amenable to bending the rules in general but I don't have direct experience.
    - 4y ago
  - madcaptenor 4y ago
    You also have the child care problem - school, in addition to its educational function, is free child care. I'd like to get as much of that as I can, because I have a limited number of vacation days.
  - mattgreenrocks 4y ago
    I was about to say, "school districts don't like that." But I'm not sure they can do much, really, if you dot your i's and cross your t's with advance notice, handling homework/missed class, and it's once a year at most. Ask around. It's not worth foregoing thousands of dollars potentially because you want to avoid a conflict that resides largely in your head.
    - koolba 4y ago
      All school districts will try to dissuade you from taking your kids out of school. It's like asking your doctor if you should eat a cheeseburger instead of a salad. He's not actually going to say no, but he's not going to say yes either. Most States have an specific number of days that you must attend to advance to the next grade. You may have to factor in whether they count sick days, religious holidays, or other allowed days off (e.g. take your daughter to work day). As long as you're under that cap they won't do anything. If you are under that cap, they probably won't do anything anyway. And if missing a few days of school is the tipping point in whether your little Jimmy or Julie has a decent education, you've got much bigger problems.
  - eatsyourtacos 4y ago
    >That sounds like supply and demand 101. I really, really hate comments like this. It gives an excuse for pure greed and you basically throw your arms up and say "well, it's supply and demand that's just how it works!" There are only so many flights that can fit so many people, right? So.. instead of keeping the prices reasonable (i.e., basically the same price as other times +/- a few weeks out).. they jack up the prices because they know people want/need to fly then. So they sell out their flights at the price of their choosing- and only people who can afford (or are desperate to go over their budget) get to take flights. 'Supply and demand' isn't some mathematical law of nature that must be obeyed.. it is literally based on greed and charging as much as you can for something. If everyone had similar wealth amounts, then perhaps one can argue that's "fair enough" because it inconveniences people to a similar degree. But since we have such vast wealth inequality, "supply and demand" screws 90% of the population yet again.
    - koolba 4y ago
      In your hypothetical model where the prices stay flat during peak times, who gets to fly? Say you have 10x more demand than capacity for that one week. Do we pick at random? First to book? The techie who builds an automated platform to snipe the tickets? I’d argue that insisting on the low demand price during periods of high demand is pure greed on the part of the consumer. It’s like demanding a ribeye for the price of dog food grade ground scraps.
- gtop3 4y ago
  I'm sure other western countries have costs increase during peak travel seasons and their children have limited time off school. The reason people in the US are less traveled is because you essentially have to cross an ocean to go anywhere. Some people like to go to Canada, but that is pretty similar to the US. Most of the people that I know that go to Mexico stay at resorts for safety concerns. Edit: I would assume the median number of times an individual has crossed an ocean is still 0. Even for citizens of rich countries. I don't think this number is going to change with the current technology branch being developed by Boeing and Airbus. Maybe in a century Hyper loop, Electric Airplanes, Space Elevators, or trains on floating bridges will have advanced enough to change this to 1 or 2. Maybe a seemingly low-tech solution like Zeplins or Boats can be done fast enough, cheap enough and safe enough for broad appeal.
  - notahacker 4y ago
    > The reason people in the US are less traveled is because you essentially have to cross an ocean to go anywhere. Australians manage to travel more than average despite being an island surrounded by ocean. The need to cross an ocean discourages travel much more in a culture which thinks "two weeks paid time off, don't even think of taking them both at the same time" is an adequate amount of vacation allowance and thinks extended mid/pre-career breaks for international travel are a weird anomaly rather than the norm.
    - tallowen 4y ago
      I think another huge difference here is that the Australian continent has ~25 million people living on it whereas United States + Mexico + Canada is ~500 million. There are far more communities and cultures to explore without the need for overseas travel. As an American who has spent 6 years living abroad, I think foreigners vastly underestimate the size and diversity of the United States and North American how many meaningful travel experiences can be had despite the fact that there are relatively few national governments
      - Freedom2 4y ago
- kspacewalk2 4y ago
  Potentially controversial view: until kids get to high school, and if they're good students anyway, just have them skip school for a week and go on a trip. They're likely not missing anything important in one week of schooling. For example, I'm definitely not figuring my son's grade 2 timelines into my travel plans. He loves school and everything, but he can skip it for a week somewhere if that literally saves the family thousands.
  - sdwr 4y ago
    Jesus yes.
  - disgruntledphd2 4y ago
    The trouble with this approach is that it only works because basically nobody does it, so there'll be no kids around his age there to play with. That might be an acceptable tradeoff for you, but it's worth knowing about beforehand.
    - hombre_fatal 4y ago
      I don't get the scenario you're imagining. Each friend goes away for a week 1-2 times per school year and that's somehow catastrophic?
      - incone123 4y ago
        I take it to mean no other children at the holiday destination to play with
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - chimeracoder 4y ago
        > I don't get the scenario you're imagining. Each friend goes away for a week 1-2 times per school year and that's somehow catastrophic? No, they're saying that there's nobody else for them to play with while on vacation. Some people, particularly with younger kids, plan vacations that have some sort of child care component to them, which gives the kid opportunity to socialize with other kids their own age (and also gives the parent some free time to do things that they can't do while taking care of their kids). Some hotels offer this as part of the package, as do cruise ships, etc.
- meh8881 4y ago
  Let’s take a moment to appreciate the use of emergency medical expenses as something that is meant to be shown as unaffordable
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I would take that to mean just about any last minute urgent need ticket. Airlines used to offer discounts for actual (as opposed to business) emergencies but I think that's mostly gone by the wayside.
- lnsru 4y ago
  The prices during German school holiday suddenly increase to absurd levels. Flights get 2-3x more expensive, rental cars and accommodation at least two times more. Workarounds are to go to some awkward countries or just pick less popular places to get there by car.
- mym1990 4y ago
  Is the price not just being adjusted for increased demand during vacation weeks?
- carlosjobim 4y ago
  This has always astounded me. How can somebody have such an unimportant job that their child's school holidays set the schedule? Like - you are a grown man or woman - how can junior "learning" some nonsense in class be more important than what you are doing with your life? Who are these people?
- Ekaros 4y ago
  You could also think about this in other way. The school holidays and public holidays are the normal price. And you get discount for traveling at other times.
jonas21 4y ago
A nice piece of marketing by NordVPN.
- krisroadruck 4y ago
  Their SEO must be foaming at the mouth that it didn't result in a link lol
  - kritiko 4y ago
    They're the #1 result on Google and they run ads on seemingly every podcast or YouTube channel I watch. I think they're fine.
- kristianc 4y ago
  I guess using a VPN to spoof your location to another country is also an excellent way to spend your afternoon on the phone to your bank getting your card unlocked as well..
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Indeed. Since when is NordVPN a "cybersecurity company"? > The research was undertaken by cybersecurity company NordVPN which manipulated the location of their computers on their browsers using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
- mattgreenrocks 4y ago
  Wonder if they've bled the YouTube influencer well dry, where every one of them just loves that NordVPN lets them circumvent geo-blocks on streaming services while they travel. For as dumb as geo-restricted content is, there's a certain irony to the fact that the new form of TV is sponsored by talking heads telling you how to get around content restrictions of other forms of TV, and shilling for that is part of what it means to make it big.
- tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
  And they didn't even have to put it in the content or the chumboxes. Personally, I setup a micro VPN box of my own on AWS in other countries. I'm wondering though if they alter the price depending on the currency or on credit card details.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
brandall10 4y ago
I was surprised to find my airfare go up about 70% for a one way ticket from Mexico City -> NYC, after I submitted payment on the checkout page w/ American Airlines. It was the weirdest thing, payment was blocked and the checkout page refreshed with the updated fare and a note about regional differences related to payment, assuming because of the US address linked to the CC.
- netsharc 4y ago
  This happened to me, Skyscanner quoted the airline's price as (let's say) 300 Euro, a 3rd party site qouted it as 180 Euro. So I followed all the ordering steps at the 3rd party site, entered my CC, hit pay, and the site said "Sorry, the flight is no longer available for that price. The new price is 300 Euro. Buy anyway?". I wish there was a button to tell them to get fucked...
  - kritiko 4y ago
    I think this is a different phenomenon than the parent comment -- some of these 3rd party sites seem to update more slowly than the airline's pricing. I.e. it's rare that a 3rd party actually holds airline tickets these days.
  - rkuska 4y ago
    It's just a lazy price check, nothing to do with US credit card. (I worked at such 3rd party site).
danielodievich 4y ago
Not surprising. When my wife and I went to Egypt ~20 years ago and would be shopping for anything, we decided to test this exact thing out. We'd pick a trinket common to any vendor, like a souvenir pyramid, or a ceramic bowl. We'd pretend to not know each other, and my wife would ask the price in English, and I would ask for price in Russian. Russian price was typically 1/3 that of English. And that's the starting price, to be bargained down. After the test, all of our souvenir shopping was conducted in Russian.
- poisonarena 4y ago
  well since you were in egypt, also maybe because she was a woman
  - George83728 4y ago
    I don't think base sexism would explain it, unless the shopkeeper hates women so much he doesn't even want their money. Or are women assumed to have more spending money in Egypt?
    - poisonarena 4y ago
      no i think you missed my point, they think they are incapable of making decisions with money/negotiations
- tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
  Yep. Us Americans have a reputation of being rich, *sshole tourists.
  - wing-_-nuts 4y ago
    We have a rep for being 'loud' (read, more extroverted than a lot of societies) but I'd challenge the assumption that we're known to be ruder than most countrys. At most we're more likely to be ignorant of local norms due to less international travel.
rootsudo 4y ago
This feels like a solid PR piece for NordVPN. While I do agree there is predatory pricing that takes advantage of IP geographic information, and that USA pays more on average because of USD - the whole article is a marketing mouthpiece for nordvpn.
rightbyte 4y ago
American tourists seem to just be fine paying more. I've spoken to some street vendors about this. They say they start redicilusly high because some Americans pay it.
- tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
  3 truths: 1. Most Americans aren't good with money. 2. If you know someone will start bidding much too high, low-ball them first. 3. The tourist is a universally hated abomination that deserves to be lightened of its burden.
- croutonwagon 4y ago
  I was just in Vietnam. Anytime a vendor tried this I just walked in most instances.. I was with a group that were from Vietnam, so it was easier to spot. And haggling is part of their culture in markets. I am fine to haggle, and heck even realize that as a certain point, happy to contribute to someones betterment if it cost me an extra 20k dong (aka less than 1$). But there were definitely parts of the country where, based on how you looked, the starting price would be x and if you looked different it would be y. If i felt i was being taken for a ride, i would just walk. I even had a street vendor see i went to the next person selling the same thing but was less on the take and bought from them. This guy started following me and basically harrassing me. I had to actually raise my voice to get him to walk away. That said, as a result my favorite parts of the trip were in my buddies hometowns where tourists werent common and thus, I was treated as a local, or at least a curiosity (I definately got looks at some restaurants as they were shocked i would eat the same things everyone else did without hesitation). In a few cases some asked to take picture but it was always warm welcome. In certain parts I felt preyed upon and if you made eye contact it was like you were "hooked". I am much more likely to walk away from those encounters. That said, i dont like tourist traps in general, even in my hometown stateside. We even tested this theory in some places where my buddy would go first and place his order. Then I would get the exact same thing and when we sat compare the cost. It was interesting to say the least. Also what we noticed was that in his hometown, this never occurred. We paid the same anytime we tried this, even in the markets. It was to a point that by the end of the trip i was going out on my own and just getting what I wanted and most cases if my basic understanding of Vietnamese wasnt sufficient i was even comfortable fanning out some bills and having them pull what they needed.
tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
In Mexico, there's a hotel scam. You can book one room only to be told it was "sold out" or "unavailable". There is a quiet "discussion" room to haggle to make other arrangements. You can be Mexican from "real" Mexico and it will still happen even if you "confirm" the room (which is meaningless) because it's a money-maker by holding your vacation hostage by testing your patience and enjoyment through brinkmanship. It's a classic bait-and-switch.
returningfory2 4y ago
This is perhaps a controversial opinion, but at least when it comes to haggling I think this is fine. The wealth gap between traveling Westerners and the average local in countries like Mexico and Peru is staggering. I recently did a 5 week trip in South America with my (South American) partner and my attitude was to generally just accept whatever price we were quoted rather than bargain down. E.g. for a 2 hour taxi in Cusco you could bargain from $20 down to $15 if you tried, but as someone who earns 6 figures in the US it seemed morally reasonable to not bother (and less stressful too IMO).
- wink 4y ago
  There's a difference between "I can afford it", "I must haggle" and just outright trying to rip you off. The example I often quote was me, a blonde European, in Cuba, just walking down the street. Someone with a rikshaw stopping next to me and going like "City tour! 20$" or something without me making eye contact or anything, just out of the blue. I shake my head, "15$!" and when I turn away because the person apparently doesn't want to accept any no, it's "10$!" - so apparently the actual tourist price would have been 10 but the opened with 20, without me even showing interest. [ofc it wasn't $ but you get the gist of the numbers]
glitcher 4y ago
"Google Flights product manager James Byers recently told The Washington Post that browsing history and private searches do not impact fares. He said prices just naturally change 'second by second' and any changes customers see when booking as normal before changing to incognito is merely a coincidence." I never trust anyone whose primary persuasive argument boils down to "trust me".
kaptainscarlet 4y ago
Well they earn 5 times as much as the second highest earning country so there's nothing to cry about XD
xnx 4y ago
Related: "Hotel Booking Is a Post-Truth Nightmare" https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/hotel-booking-sites-junk-fees-travel/673898/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/hotel...

66 points by LinuxBender 4y ago

Another fair but PITA is the child penalty when it comes to traveling. Because the way schools are set up - everyone in a geographic area has to travel on specific weeks. So airlines jack up prices incredibly. Like - from some price that a family might be able to swing to almost medical emergency prices. I'll be sure to take advantage when the time comes. But if you want to know why on average US people are ignorant of the world vs other western countries - you have your answer.

koolba 4y ago
> everyone in a geographic area has to travel on specific weeks That sounds like supply and demand 101. The direct answer here is take your kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period.
- yonaguska 4y ago
  > take you kids out of school This is what I'll be doing. I'm fortunate enough to homeschool for the time being, and that's my number one goal now, ensuring enough financial stability that we can continue to do so.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    This is another symptom of how American society is falling apart and turning into a low-trust society with no real sense of community. Of course, for you personally, it's probably the right decision, despite the problems it causes with childrens' socialization, because of the huge problems in American public schools these days, but for a society, it's terrible. In a high-trust society, people send their kids to public school (which is free) for a high-quality education, and don't worry about things like school shootings. There's no way I'd ever raise a kid in the US.
- ghaff 4y ago
  >The direct answer here is take you kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period. That can be difficult to pull off, probably especially in public schools which probably have less flexibility to bend the rules. But, yeah, it doesn't sound like some great conspiracy. And unless you live near the Canadian or Mexican border, of course it's generally going to be more expensive to travel to another country compared to living in France.
  - sdwr 4y ago
    ?? Is it more difficult than just telling the teachers you're doing it? Give them a bit of notice, get the homework in advance, what are they going to say?
    - ejb999 4y ago
      exactly - did it all the time with my kids, we told the teachers ahead of time, the school didn't like it - we didn't care. Somehow our kids all survived, went on to good colleges and all graduated with great careers, even missing a few useless weeks of school.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    I grew up in the US in the 90s and 00s and I took a week off here and there during the school year with no issue. Less so in high school, but I do not recall anyone caring in elementary school. I remember other kids doing the same, and the teacher would just assign the classwork that was scheduled to be done during that week and you were expected to learn it while not in school.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      In the 60s/70s, my parents regularly took me out of grade school for family vacations but it was a private school and I was a very good student. I would guess that public schools were less amenable to bending the rules in general but I don't have direct experience.
  - 4y ago
- madcaptenor 4y ago
  You also have the child care problem - school, in addition to its educational function, is free child care. I'd like to get as much of that as I can, because I have a limited number of vacation days.
- mattgreenrocks 4y ago
  I was about to say, "school districts don't like that." But I'm not sure they can do much, really, if you dot your i's and cross your t's with advance notice, handling homework/missed class, and it's once a year at most. Ask around. It's not worth foregoing thousands of dollars potentially because you want to avoid a conflict that resides largely in your head.
  - koolba 4y ago
    All school districts will try to dissuade you from taking your kids out of school. It's like asking your doctor if you should eat a cheeseburger instead of a salad. He's not actually going to say no, but he's not going to say yes either. Most States have an specific number of days that you must attend to advance to the next grade. You may have to factor in whether they count sick days, religious holidays, or other allowed days off (e.g. take your daughter to work day). As long as you're under that cap they won't do anything. If you are under that cap, they probably won't do anything anyway. And if missing a few days of school is the tipping point in whether your little Jimmy or Julie has a decent education, you've got much bigger problems.
- eatsyourtacos 4y ago
  >That sounds like supply and demand 101. I really, really hate comments like this. It gives an excuse for pure greed and you basically throw your arms up and say "well, it's supply and demand that's just how it works!" There are only so many flights that can fit so many people, right? So.. instead of keeping the prices reasonable (i.e., basically the same price as other times +/- a few weeks out).. they jack up the prices because they know people want/need to fly then. So they sell out their flights at the price of their choosing- and only people who can afford (or are desperate to go over their budget) get to take flights. 'Supply and demand' isn't some mathematical law of nature that must be obeyed.. it is literally based on greed and charging as much as you can for something. If everyone had similar wealth amounts, then perhaps one can argue that's "fair enough" because it inconveniences people to a similar degree. But since we have such vast wealth inequality, "supply and demand" screws 90% of the population yet again.
  - koolba 4y ago
    In your hypothetical model where the prices stay flat during peak times, who gets to fly? Say you have 10x more demand than capacity for that one week. Do we pick at random? First to book? The techie who builds an automated platform to snipe the tickets? I’d argue that insisting on the low demand price during periods of high demand is pure greed on the part of the consumer. It’s like demanding a ribeye for the price of dog food grade ground scraps.
gtop3 4y ago
I'm sure other western countries have costs increase during peak travel seasons and their children have limited time off school. The reason people in the US are less traveled is because you essentially have to cross an ocean to go anywhere. Some people like to go to Canada, but that is pretty similar to the US. Most of the people that I know that go to Mexico stay at resorts for safety concerns. Edit: I would assume the median number of times an individual has crossed an ocean is still 0. Even for citizens of rich countries. I don't think this number is going to change with the current technology branch being developed by Boeing and Airbus. Maybe in a century Hyper loop, Electric Airplanes, Space Elevators, or trains on floating bridges will have advanced enough to change this to 1 or 2. Maybe a seemingly low-tech solution like Zeplins or Boats can be done fast enough, cheap enough and safe enough for broad appeal.
- notahacker 4y ago
  > The reason people in the US are less traveled is because you essentially have to cross an ocean to go anywhere. Australians manage to travel more than average despite being an island surrounded by ocean. The need to cross an ocean discourages travel much more in a culture which thinks "two weeks paid time off, don't even think of taking them both at the same time" is an adequate amount of vacation allowance and thinks extended mid/pre-career breaks for international travel are a weird anomaly rather than the norm.
  - tallowen 4y ago
    I think another huge difference here is that the Australian continent has ~25 million people living on it whereas United States + Mexico + Canada is ~500 million. There are far more communities and cultures to explore without the need for overseas travel. As an American who has spent 6 years living abroad, I think foreigners vastly underestimate the size and diversity of the United States and North American how many meaningful travel experiences can be had despite the fact that there are relatively few national governments
    - Freedom2 4y ago
kspacewalk2 4y ago
Potentially controversial view: until kids get to high school, and if they're good students anyway, just have them skip school for a week and go on a trip. They're likely not missing anything important in one week of schooling. For example, I'm definitely not figuring my son's grade 2 timelines into my travel plans. He loves school and everything, but he can skip it for a week somewhere if that literally saves the family thousands.
- sdwr 4y ago
  Jesus yes.
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  The trouble with this approach is that it only works because basically nobody does it, so there'll be no kids around his age there to play with. That might be an acceptable tradeoff for you, but it's worth knowing about beforehand.
  - hombre_fatal 4y ago
    I don't get the scenario you're imagining. Each friend goes away for a week 1-2 times per school year and that's somehow catastrophic?
    - incone123 4y ago
      I take it to mean no other children at the holiday destination to play with
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - chimeracoder 4y ago
      > I don't get the scenario you're imagining. Each friend goes away for a week 1-2 times per school year and that's somehow catastrophic? No, they're saying that there's nobody else for them to play with while on vacation. Some people, particularly with younger kids, plan vacations that have some sort of child care component to them, which gives the kid opportunity to socialize with other kids their own age (and also gives the parent some free time to do things that they can't do while taking care of their kids). Some hotels offer this as part of the package, as do cruise ships, etc.
meh8881 4y ago
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the use of emergency medical expenses as something that is meant to be shown as unaffordable
- ghaff 4y ago
  I would take that to mean just about any last minute urgent need ticket. Airlines used to offer discounts for actual (as opposed to business) emergencies but I think that's mostly gone by the wayside.
lnsru 4y ago
The prices during German school holiday suddenly increase to absurd levels. Flights get 2-3x more expensive, rental cars and accommodation at least two times more. Workarounds are to go to some awkward countries or just pick less popular places to get there by car.
mym1990 4y ago
Is the price not just being adjusted for increased demand during vacation weeks?
carlosjobim 4y ago
This has always astounded me. How can somebody have such an unimportant job that their child's school holidays set the schedule? Like - you are a grown man or woman - how can junior "learning" some nonsense in class be more important than what you are doing with your life? Who are these people?
Ekaros 4y ago
You could also think about this in other way. The school holidays and public holidays are the normal price. And you get discount for traveling at other times.

jonas21 4y ago

A nice piece of marketing by NordVPN.

krisroadruck 4y ago
Their SEO must be foaming at the mouth that it didn't result in a link lol
- kritiko 4y ago
  They're the #1 result on Google and they run ads on seemingly every podcast or YouTube channel I watch. I think they're fine.
kristianc 4y ago
I guess using a VPN to spoof your location to another country is also an excellent way to spend your afternoon on the phone to your bank getting your card unlocked as well..
gnicholas 4y ago
Indeed. Since when is NordVPN a "cybersecurity company"? > The research was undertaken by cybersecurity company NordVPN which manipulated the location of their computers on their browsers using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
mattgreenrocks 4y ago
Wonder if they've bled the YouTube influencer well dry, where every one of them just loves that NordVPN lets them circumvent geo-blocks on streaming services while they travel. For as dumb as geo-restricted content is, there's a certain irony to the fact that the new form of TV is sponsored by talking heads telling you how to get around content restrictions of other forms of TV, and shilling for that is part of what it means to make it big.
tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
And they didn't even have to put it in the content or the chumboxes. Personally, I setup a micro VPN box of my own on AWS in other countries. I'm wondering though if they alter the price depending on the currency or on credit card details.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

brandall10 4y ago

I was surprised to find my airfare go up about 70% for a one way ticket from Mexico City -> NYC, after I submitted payment on the checkout page w/ American Airlines. It was the weirdest thing, payment was blocked and the checkout page refreshed with the updated fare and a note about regional differences related to payment, assuming because of the US address linked to the CC.

netsharc 4y ago
This happened to me, Skyscanner quoted the airline's price as (let's say) 300 Euro, a 3rd party site qouted it as 180 Euro. So I followed all the ordering steps at the 3rd party site, entered my CC, hit pay, and the site said "Sorry, the flight is no longer available for that price. The new price is 300 Euro. Buy anyway?". I wish there was a button to tell them to get fucked...
- kritiko 4y ago
  I think this is a different phenomenon than the parent comment -- some of these 3rd party sites seem to update more slowly than the airline's pricing. I.e. it's rare that a 3rd party actually holds airline tickets these days.
- rkuska 4y ago
  It's just a lazy price check, nothing to do with US credit card. (I worked at such 3rd party site).

danielodievich 4y ago

Not surprising. When my wife and I went to Egypt ~20 years ago and would be shopping for anything, we decided to test this exact thing out. We'd pick a trinket common to any vendor, like a souvenir pyramid, or a ceramic bowl. We'd pretend to not know each other, and my wife would ask the price in English, and I would ask for price in Russian. Russian price was typically 1/3 that of English. And that's the starting price, to be bargained down. After the test, all of our souvenir shopping was conducted in Russian.

poisonarena 4y ago
well since you were in egypt, also maybe because she was a woman
- George83728 4y ago
  I don't think base sexism would explain it, unless the shopkeeper hates women so much he doesn't even want their money. Or are women assumed to have more spending money in Egypt?
  - poisonarena 4y ago
    no i think you missed my point, they think they are incapable of making decisions with money/negotiations
tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
Yep. Us Americans have a reputation of being rich, *sshole tourists.
- wing-_-nuts 4y ago
  We have a rep for being 'loud' (read, more extroverted than a lot of societies) but I'd challenge the assumption that we're known to be ruder than most countrys. At most we're more likely to be ignorant of local norms due to less international travel.

rootsudo 4y ago

This feels like a solid PR piece for NordVPN. While I do agree there is predatory pricing that takes advantage of IP geographic information, and that USA pays more on average because of USD - the whole article is a marketing mouthpiece for nordvpn.

rightbyte 4y ago

American tourists seem to just be fine paying more. I've spoken to some street vendors about this. They say they start redicilusly high because some Americans pay it.

tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
3 truths: 1. Most Americans aren't good with money. 2. If you know someone will start bidding much too high, low-ball them first. 3. The tourist is a universally hated abomination that deserves to be lightened of its burden.
croutonwagon 4y ago
I was just in Vietnam. Anytime a vendor tried this I just walked in most instances.. I was with a group that were from Vietnam, so it was easier to spot. And haggling is part of their culture in markets. I am fine to haggle, and heck even realize that as a certain point, happy to contribute to someones betterment if it cost me an extra 20k dong (aka less than 1$). But there were definitely parts of the country where, based on how you looked, the starting price would be x and if you looked different it would be y. If i felt i was being taken for a ride, i would just walk. I even had a street vendor see i went to the next person selling the same thing but was less on the take and bought from them. This guy started following me and basically harrassing me. I had to actually raise my voice to get him to walk away. That said, as a result my favorite parts of the trip were in my buddies hometowns where tourists werent common and thus, I was treated as a local, or at least a curiosity (I definately got looks at some restaurants as they were shocked i would eat the same things everyone else did without hesitation). In a few cases some asked to take picture but it was always warm welcome. In certain parts I felt preyed upon and if you made eye contact it was like you were "hooked". I am much more likely to walk away from those encounters. That said, i dont like tourist traps in general, even in my hometown stateside. We even tested this theory in some places where my buddy would go first and place his order. Then I would get the exact same thing and when we sat compare the cost. It was interesting to say the least. Also what we noticed was that in his hometown, this never occurred. We paid the same anytime we tried this, even in the markets. It was to a point that by the end of the trip i was going out on my own and just getting what I wanted and most cases if my basic understanding of Vietnamese wasnt sufficient i was even comfortable fanning out some bills and having them pull what they needed.

tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago

In Mexico, there's a hotel scam. You can book one room only to be told it was "sold out" or "unavailable". There is a quiet "discussion" room to haggle to make other arrangements. You can be Mexican from "real" Mexico and it will still happen even if you "confirm" the room (which is meaningless) because it's a money-maker by holding your vacation hostage by testing your patience and enjoyment through brinkmanship. It's a classic bait-and-switch.

returningfory2 4y ago

This is perhaps a controversial opinion, but at least when it comes to haggling I think this is fine. The wealth gap between traveling Westerners and the average local in countries like Mexico and Peru is staggering. I recently did a 5 week trip in South America with my (South American) partner and my attitude was to generally just accept whatever price we were quoted rather than bargain down. E.g. for a 2 hour taxi in Cusco you could bargain from $20 down to $15 if you tried, but as someone who earns 6 figures in the US it seemed morally reasonable to not bother (and less stressful too IMO).

wink 4y ago
There's a difference between "I can afford it", "I must haggle" and just outright trying to rip you off. The example I often quote was me, a blonde European, in Cuba, just walking down the street. Someone with a rikshaw stopping next to me and going like "City tour! 20$" or something without me making eye contact or anything, just out of the blue. I shake my head, "15$!" and when I turn away because the person apparently doesn't want to accept any no, it's "10$!" - so apparently the actual tourist price would have been 10 but the opened with 20, without me even showing interest. [ofc it wasn't $ but you get the gist of the numbers]

glitcher 4y ago

"Google Flights product manager James Byers recently told The Washington Post that browsing history and private searches do not impact fares. He said prices just naturally change 'second by second' and any changes customers see when booking as normal before changing to incognito is merely a coincidence." I never trust anyone whose primary persuasive argument boils down to "trust me".

kaptainscarlet 4y ago

Well they earn 5 times as much as the second highest earning country so there's nothing to cry about XD

xnx 4y ago

Related: "Hotel Booking Is a Post-Truth Nightmare" https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/hotel-booking-sites-junk-fees-travel/673898/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/hotel...