PARIS, September 29 — A September 2026 test of flight pricing using virtual private network connections found that changing virtual locations had little effect on fares from airline websites but produced noticeable differences on travel aggregator sites like Skyscanner. Researchers tested two long-haul routes from a Windows PC in Europe, connecting to NordVPN servers in different countries before each search, using fresh private windows and accepting each site’s default country and currency.
All fares were one-week round trips for one adult in economy, departing approximately six weeks later, and converted to US dollars using the European Central Bank’s reference rates from the same week. On Air France’s own website, the New York to Paris fare was quoted the same in eight countries, with a range of just $2.60, attributed to currency rounding.
The Turkish site did not switch currency and matched the US price of USD 358. Skyscanner showed wider variation, with Thailand offering the lowest nonstop fare at $670.93 and Indonesia the highest at $704.04, a $33 spread. On the same route, Thailand’s Zipair fare via Skyscanner was $813.17, which is 4.2% below the US fare of $849.17.
However, when booking the Air France nonstop from Thailand through MakeMyTrip, the fare was ฿23,721 (about $711), under the US price of $717, but this required a discount code worth ฿1,219 (about $37) and excluded baggage. Adding a 7 kg cabin bag (฿307.93, about $9.20) brought the total to about $720.60, exceeding the US price.
The MakeMyTrip fare was labeled special, with ticket issuance up to seven hours after payment and required passport details and a Thai phone number (+66), though the country code could be changed. Testing did not proceed to payment, so foreign card acceptance remains unknown. On the return Paris–New York route via ANA, the US market was cheapest at $1,041, with all other countries priced higher; Indonesia was 7.4% above the US fare.
Mexico and India stayed within ±2% of US prices on both platforms, indicating unreliable savings from VPN use in those markets. Indonesia consistently priced above the US on Skyscanner across all searches. Turkey’s Skyscanner site blocked access via bot checks on both routes, preventing pricing.
VPN performance was measured on a Windows 11 PC in Europe with a 190.36 Mbps baseline: NordVPN’s Mexican server reached 178.08 Mbps and Mumbai server 170.95 Mbps; ExpressVPN connected fastest (1–2 seconds) and its UK-based India server hit 182.82 Mbps; Proton VPN’s Mexican servers averaged 76.78 Mbps. Tracker blocking rates varied: Proton VPN’s NetShield blocked 126 of 135 (93%), NordVPN 76%, and ExpressVPN 71%.
The report concluded that speed did not affect fares, recommending VPN selection based on country coverage and features like tracker blocking rather than velocity.
