That guy at the hostel in Barcelona taught me a trick for cheap flights

I was staying at a place near Las Ramblas back in 2019 and this older traveler from Australia was booking his next leg to Morocco. He told me to search for flights using the country's local language version of the airline site, not the English one. He said they often hide cheaper fares on the .es or .fr domains because they assume tourists wont find them. I tried it for a flight to Rome and saved about 40 euros compared to the US site. The catch is you have to use Google Translate or just guess your way through the booking pages. Has anyone else ever tried this or found a similar trick for trains or buses?

3 comments

3 Comments

averywright7d ago

Wait, so you're telling me I've been paying the "dummy tourist tax" this whole time by just clicking the English button? That's wild. Honestly, that Australian guy probably saved more money than I spend on my entire airline loyalty program mistake. I tried the Spanish site once and ended up accidentally booking a flight with a 14-hour layover in Madrid because I couldn't find the "direct flight only" filter. Google Translate definitely helped, but I also think I bought a "premium pillow" add-on by mistake. Your mileage may vary on this one, but if you're brave enough to click through a few confusing buttons in French, you might just save enough for a decent tapas dinner. Just don't blame me when you end up with a ticket to Mallorca instead of Milan.

the_blair7d ago

Mallorca > Milan anyway, you accidentally upgraded.

-1

viola_butler7d ago

...and that's EXACTLY what happened to me with a train site. I was trying to book a high-speed from Paris to Lyon, used the French SNCF site, and ended up with a ticket that had me changing trains in some tiny town called Montargis at 6 AM. Total disaster. @the_blair probably would have found it hilarious, but I was NOT laughing when I had to stand on a cold platform eating a sad croissant. The savings was like 15 euros, but I swear I lost a year off my life from anxiety. At least the coffee machine at that station was decent.