All Argentine Airlines declining American cards when purchasing airfare

[Sudovest]

Has anyone bought airfare from Argentine airlines recently with an a American credit card? Currently in the US and can’t use the pay in cash option. I have been trying for over a week: I’ve tried FlyBondi, Jetsmart, aerolineas argentinas, and even a third party site Atrapalo. Every time, I make the booking in aregentine pesos (and get the blue dollar rate) the charge goes through and goes to pending on my visa (Capita one Venture X). I call capital one and they confirm everything looks good on their side. But every single time, the company says the charge was rejected a few minutea after the order is placed. The auth falls off and the charge doesn’t remain. Any ideas? Flights keep going up and up in price.

Interestingly, I paid 600 pesos as a test on Jetsmart to reserve a flight for 24 hours and that charge actually posted (at 333 pesos per dollar)
What is going on? I don’t want to buy at the regular exchange rate, I want to be charged in pesos.

The only one I haven’t tried is Flybondi because I’m concerned about reliability and cancellations as we have a very tight itinerary flying within Argentina. Experiences?

 

[julia_en_ruta]

I'm not sure how recent you're looking for, but used a US card to buy an Aerolineas flight from Ushuaia to CABA about three weeks ago and had no issues. I bought it directly through their site.

 

[Sudovest]

I'm not sure how recent you're looking for, but used a US card to buy an Aerolineas flight from Ushuaia to CABA about three weeks ago and had no issues. I bought it directly through their site.

Was this on the American site? It wouldn't work on the Argentine site, I had to go to the American site and pay way more in dollars. If I had paid in pesos I would've gotten the blue dollar rate for a 40% discount

 

[julia_en_ruta]

I wasn't paying attention to that but I assume it was the Argentinian site since I was here at the time. My receipt is in pesos.

 

[Supercharged]

Hi In general you will have no issues if you go to the non Argentine site.

 

[Sudovest]

That's the issue. They charge you directly in dollars and cost is WAY higher as you don't get the MEP rate. Totally fine with Argentinians getting a cheaper fare as locals, but it's just ridiculous that they charge you directly in dollars so they can collect even more pesos than advertised, when they should charge in pesos, which would give us the MEP through Visa/MC.

Hi In general you will have no issues if you go to the non Argentine site.

 

[rickulivi]

Has anyone bought airfare from Argentine airlines recently with an a American credit card? Currently in the US and can’t use the pay in cash option. I have been trying for over a week: I’ve tried FlyBondi, Jetsmart, aerolineas argentinas, and even a third party site Atrapalo. Every time, I make the booking in aregentine pesos (and get the blue dollar rate) the charge goes through and goes to pending on my visa (Capita one Venture X). I call capital one and they confirm everything looks good on their side. But every single time, the company says the charge was rejected a few minutea after the order is placed. The auth falls off and the charge doesn’t remain. Any ideas? Flights keep going up and up in price.

Interestingly, I paid 600 pesos as a test on Jetsmart to reserve a flight for 24 hours and that charge actually posted (at 333 pesos per dollar)
What is going on? I don’t want to buy at the regular exchange rate, I want to be charged in pesos.

The only one I haven’t tried is Flybondi because I’m concerned about reliability and cancellations as we have a very tight itinerary flying within Argentina. Experiences?

To pay in pesos, you have to use a credit card issued in argentina.

 

[Sudovest]

To pay in pesos, you have to use a credit card issued in argentina.

Ah ok, so they get to collect 40% more than the advertised price because they won’t let anyone pay in pesos. They of course give the 185 rate not the MEP when they do their own conversion and charge on dollars. $600 for 3 people for a one hour flight is ridiculous.