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I'm trying to book a one-way flight from Ireland to the UK on the BA website. It seems that because the flight starts in Ireland, they've decided to show all the prices in euros. They also have a disclaimer saying:

If the payment card used is not billed in Euro (EUR, €) there may be a difference between the final amount shown and the amount billed on your statement.

I live and work in London, so my bank account uses sterling. I don't know how much my bank may charge for a transaction in Euros. Surely there must be an easy way to pay in the currency of my destination, rather than the flight's origin, especially when it's also the currency of the country where BA is based.

I've tried emailing them about this, but they've been unable to help me.

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  • I suggest you contact your bank, by phone. – feklee May 19 '13 at 10:57
  • Did you try checking with a travel agent? Most will change the same price as BA directly, but will be able to bill you in alternate currencies – Gagravarr May 19 '13 at 14:59
  • In general the key fact here is the "sales city", which I believe affects the currency you are charged in. I suspect if you book through ba.com there's not much you can do to affect that. Probably the only way to do this is to call BA to book, although they then may charge you for that. – Andrew Ferrier May 19 '13 at 18:35
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    Generally, I wouldn't worry about it. Most UK banks will give interbank rates for Euro:Pound exchange, which will be reasonable, although there might be a small commission charge. – Andrew Ferrier May 19 '13 at 18:36
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If you try a UK-based aggregator like Opodo you are charged in Sterling. So if BA doesn't charge Sterling directly you can use those sites as an alternative.

Having said that, sometimes it can be quite beneficial to pay it in a different currency. I don't know if this is the case with BA or in this specific case. But I had saved quite some money in the past buy paying in a local currency in contrast to the airlines base currency. This can be due to lower taxes (VAT, etc) but also due different market condition upon which the fare is calculated.

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    I would use an OTA like Opodo only if their price is considerably lower than offered by BA. In general I prefer booking with flight companies directly, because if there are issues I can contact them and don't need to go via the OTA, which possibly has an expensive contact number. – feklee May 19 '13 at 10:55
  • I've checked various price comparison sites and they say booking direct with BA is cheaper than OTAs. – lucas May 19 '13 at 13:39
  • @feklee I also do prefer to book directly and usually I take the currency loss it is only a fraction of the difference, but if you prefer to pay in Sterling booking through these sites is an option. BTW I do find some decent offers, only two weeks ago I saved 200 Euro by not booking directly at the airline – user141 May 19 '13 at 18:44
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    Recently BA seems to make sure that the prices on their website are either the best or close to the best comparing to other websites. @feklee, usually the cost of phone call is not the biggest issue, they (e.g. Opodo) will charge you extra for every change of the tickets, on top of the airline charges. – Grzenio Sep 10 '13 at 19:33

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