20% Surcharge For Travel

[Splitty]

Husband just trying to purchase a ticket via aa.com for travel to States, quoted 1226, when he goes to pay gets message that due to his billing address on his card the price has been adjusted to 1400 and change... Is this the AFIP surcharge? Do we know if he'll have any luck getting around that if we pay in cash, or has the 20% fee now been applied across the board?

Cash your USD at a cueva and pay in pesos at the AA office. You still come out ahead 1226 x 5.2 + 20% = 7650.24 pesos (official at airline + AFIP)
$1226 x 8.5 = 10421 pesos (cueva) It is just basic math folks, there is a calculator on your computer.

 

[syngirl]

That's nice fried turkey, but you're assuming wrongly that we have USD to cash. Sorry he's argentine, works in pesos, CCs local, any USD we can get at this point we have to buy off the black market. Your math doesn't work for those of us who actually live here in pesos, earning pesos, and with restricted access to foreign funds.

 

[Splitty]

Find someone in the US (Friend/family/loan shark) that can run your Argentine card and give you cash back. Also leave the card with family in the US to use and they send you USD to cover the expenditures. At this point in the game you don't want to be holding a bunch of Argentine toilet paper.

 

[syngirl]

Does anyone have any useful answers to this? Fried Turkey seems to be only able to sing one tune and it doesn't take into acct anything I tell him, especially considering I'm not even from the US so don't actually have a USD acct back there, and that I have no idea how he thinks people can just send us USD when everyone knows for a fact that any transfers down here go via Banco Central and get converted to pesos. 69 posts and I think they all say the same thing with absolutely zero understanding that there are people on the board that aren't Americans with USD cash in hand.

 

[jp]

The 20% is applied across the board. Bought tickets at the AA office for my family last month - two residents and one citizen. Was told that everyone paying pesos will now pay 20% more.

Also - if anyone has bought tickets for advance travel beware. I have a friend who had to pay the 20% at the airport before they would let him fly. Budget accordingly...

 

[Splitty]

Well maybe if you had inserted more info into your original post instead of people having to assume the details. Every second Argentine and their dog are looking to ship USD out of here, so being a local you should be more acutely aware of that. People are paying 9.20 peso's for every dollar deposited outside of Argentine at the moment.
If you are still using Xoom to send money you are not well connected sorry to say.
Ask around you will find someone you can swap USD in the US with USD here.

 

[Sleuth]

Husband just trying to purchase a ticket via aa.com for travel to States, quoted 1226, when he goes to pay gets message that due to his billing address on his card the price has been adjusted to 1400 and change... Is this the AFIP surcharge? Do we know if he'll have any luck getting around that if we pay in cash, or has the 20% fee now been applied across the board?

Yes, this is definitely the 20% charge being applied to all travel purchased in Argentina. Do not forget that you can claim this back when you file taxes.

 

[dennisr]

Not so sure buying an airline ticket in pesos is a straightforward transaction anymore. Appears AFIP has to approve the sale and they can take up to 10 days to approve. Plus, a CUIT ID number is required to make a purchase.


http://www.cronista.com/finanzasmercados/Por-demoras-de-la-AFIP-agencias-de-turismo-toman-el-dolar-a--524-20130423-0042.html

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A//www.cronista.com/finanzasmercados/Por-demoras-de-la-AFIP-agencias-de-turismo-toman-el-dolar-a--524-20130423-0042.html&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=UTF-8

 

[syngirl]

Ok well to update -- my husband was trying to buy a ticket EZE - SJC -- we got mine and the kid's with airmiles (we have to travel for my sister's wedding, she decided to boo her wedding date for exactly one month after our child's 2nd birthday, boo on her :S ). Anyway, so he checked flight prices on AA, he is super elite or whatever AA's levels are -- platinum or whatever. The price was showing as 1225. He reserved it and then the next day when he goes to book it comes up as 1446 due to location of billing address. So he calls AA, and he talked to 3 different people, spent over an hour on the phone arguing with them, they were saying that no when he reserved the ticket he had used a US credit card, he said impossible because he didn't reserve with CC, he reserved with his AA member number which clearly states he is in Argentina etc. Anyway, in the end, he argued so long with them that they went into the whole system and changed the price to US$1225 "just for him, just this one time" etc etc. So it seems the price change on the AA site was not the AFIP charge, it was the "screw you, you're booking as a non-US resident charge". If this is true, than he saved himself a bundle since the AFIP charge would have been put as 20% of the 1446.

Re buying tickets in pesos, not sure -- we had no problem, gave the CC number and that was that, there wasn't any talk of AFIP approving sale, just said he can pick up the ticket at the AA office in 24hrs. And he's got a CUIT anyway so that wouldn't have made difference (he's local, earns pesos, and is charged official rate on his card for the purchase + at some point we'll get the 20% tax show up on the bill).

 

[syngirl]

Well maybe if you had inserted more info into your original post instead of people having to assume the details.

Sorry about that, but I have 1600+ posts on here, and many of them in this exact thread where I state that I'm married to a local and have pesos, since you've participated so heavily in this particular thread I would have assumed that you've seen that, especially as one of my previous posts in the thread already was directed at you stating that having USD is not the case for everyone on this thread. Thanks anyway for the info. cheers