This is an oldie, but a goodie: I’ve had these screen shots kicking around my hard drive for a few years (one of the many draft posts that were stuck in my own head). I was booking a trip to India when I first started at HTC, and my first stop was Expedia.ca. The price tag? A staggering $5196 Canadian (and this for coach class):
Below is the same trip as booked from Expedia.com, and it’s 52% LESS EXPENSIVE for the same flights on the same dates! There’s a slight exchange rate to factor in there, but not much of one. If ever there was proof how expensive it is to book things from Canada, here’s the sticker shock to prove it!
I just booked a flight and hotel on expedia.com.au I’m too scared to look at any of their other sites as I don’t want to come down wit a case of buyers remorse just before my trip.
The biggest lesson I learnt is after you buy something STOP LOOKING FOR IT..
… Of course before you buy it, go for it.
I also need to learn another lesson.. STOP LOOKING AND BUY THE BLOODY THING ALREADY!
Otherwise by the time i’m done with my research, the product won’t exist anymore.
Thanks for the tip though. Everything is magically more expensive over here too. We call it “The Australia TAX”
You made a great point with this post b/c I have had the same experience with booking and purchasing various things on CDN vs. US sites! So thank you for reminding us Canadians of this ;o) I do have to “call you out” on your comment, though, when you wrote “There’s a slight exchange rate to factor in there, but not much of one.”… you’ve gotta be kidding!?! When you posted this a month ago, we were hovering around 84 cents on the dollar, and now we’re heading towards 75 cents to $1 USD! That’s a BIG deal!…more than a slight factor, I’d say.
Hi Sarah! These screen shots were a couple of years old, as I noted, so back then the dollar was at or very near parity. You’re right though that today the difference would be even more extreme. I can’t believe how weak the Canadian dollar is at the moment…
Good point Martin, although from my perspective, I’m never going to use Expedia again. 😉