Will these new fare rules help us in UK alot?

[Elizanessie]

I was very interested to read this weekend on how rules on buying tickets from outside of your own country are happening as from this weekend.

Although the article stated it would be more Business class etc that would benefit....I wondered what opinion others had on this matter....will it make much difference to us in the UK......I buy my cruises from an American TA cheaper than I can get them at home so would be nice to be able to buy the flights cheaper also.

 

Will the UK companies lower their prices do you think?

 

Liz

[Globaliser]

As I understand it, one of the main drivers behind this weekend's changes has been the EU trying to make sure that anyone in the EU can buy any fare starting from any EU point at the same price. In addition, if you're buying on the Internet, it's difficult to police the question of whether someone is physically present in the place they say they are.

 

The main change for air fares has been the abolition of the four tier geographical sales indicators, which were:-

• Sold inside, ticketed inside [the country from which the journey starts]
• Sold inside, ticketed outside
• Sold outside, ticketed inside
• Sold outside, ticketed outside

But I am still seeing restrictions in the new air fare rules saying, for example, "tickets must be issued in Australia/New Zealand". So it seems that those rules haven't been outlawed, and it's really just the point of sale restrictions that have been removed, for the reasons mentioned.

 

I therefore doubt that the new changes are going to save you much money for an ex-UK air ticket unless you already know of a way in which you can get an ex-UK air ticket cheaper by buying it outside the UK. Generally, that's never been possible.

 

Also, I doubt that the new changes are going to make anything cheaper than it currently is. The most it will do is make it easier to get access to those cheaper tickets. In fact, I think that it's actually even more likely to mean that many of those cheaper tickets will simply be withdrawn because they've become too easy to buy.