Convenient way to pay for relatives in South Asia to visit UK and US.

Just found out that if you have an expedia.co.uk account or
expedia.com account (for US), you can purchase a ticket with your UK
or US credit card respectively and pay for a flight ticket for anyone
based in South Asia to visit UK or US from there. I also found similar
arrangements in travelocity.co.uk and travelocity.com. I have not
checked any of the European portals such as Expedia in Germany or
France, but you can try if you are based there and have a credit card
there (try from Canada as well).

British Airways is doing away with Consolidator fares from South Asia
and other parts of the world, and now have published fares that match
closely what people generally pay through consolidators. So it is now
easy to see good BA fares come up on expedia.co.uk for flights from
let's say Dhaka to London or Dhaka-London-Chicago and back. You can
now pay for a relative to come and visit you without having to send
money home. Since BA is also doing away with paper tickets,
expedia.co.uk will not send you a paper ticket for that flight.
Instead an e-ticket will be issued to your relative. Either you or
your relative will receive email notification.

I should mention that this arrangement is most probably not limited to
South Asia. This fascility is probably available for travellers from
any part of the world to visit Europe and North America. Just check
your area of interest.

Happy flying

Riaz

In article ,
(Riaz Osmani) wrote:

Just found out that if you have an expedia.co.uk account or
expedia.com account (for US), you can purchase a ticket with your UK
or US credit card respectively and pay for a flight ticket for anyone
based in South Asia to visit UK or US from there. I also found similar
arrangements in travelocity.co.uk and travelocity.com. I have not
checked any of the European portals such as Expedia in Germany or
France, but you can try if you are based there and have a credit card
there (try from Canada as well).

The only trouble is, are the fares as competitive?

You might also try pricing the fare through AA.com. BA fares ex-U.K. ae
often cheaper than direct from BA.com

British Airways is doing away with Consolidator fares from South Asia
and other parts of the world, and now have published fares that match
closely what people generally pay through consolidators. So it is now
easy to see good BA fares come up on expedia.co.uk for flights from
let's say Dhaka to London or Dhaka-London-Chicago and back. You can
now pay for a relative to come and visit you without having to send
money home. Since BA is also doing away with paper tickets,
expedia.co.uk will not send you a paper ticket for that flight.
Instead an e-ticket will be issued to your relative. Either you or
your relative will receive email notification.

I should mention that this arrangement is most probably not limited to
South Asia. This fascility is probably available for travellers from
any part of the world to visit Europe and North America. Just check
your area of interest.

Happy flying

Riaz