allaboutwomen

If you book tickets on the UK versions of airlines' websites you often end up paying more for your flight than if you used their overseas versions.

There is also evidence that there are fewer special deals available on UK sites. This means it's always worth having a look at a carrier's .com site to compare flights with those available on its UK site .co.uk.

Customers using the UK sites for United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand have noticed differences in air fares between the carriers' UK and overseas websites, suggesting this is common practice in the industry, according to the Observer.

One explanation is that many airlines give preferential treatment to what they regard as their "core" markets. The practice is certainly not illegal.

The only problem is that if you find a better deal on a .com site, you may have trouble getting your booking done. For example, united.com does not accept non-US credit card details.