Buying A Plane Ticket In Cash (Blue Pesos) To Save Money?

[French jurist]

Would you fly long distance with an Airline that is losing millions each day... not sure about mgmt and operational capabilities

You are crossing Argentinian streets every day and it's far more dangerous

 

[dietzele]

I just purchased a one way ticket home, Buenos Aires to Orlando for $915 with taxes and insurance on cheaptickets,com. And since I used a US credit card I didnt pay the extra 20%, which I heard is going up to 40% soon! I have been in and out of Argentina like 6 times now there is no other fee or taxes to pay at the airport. The only thing would be if you stayed past your visa allowance. Then you have to pay a 300 pesos penalty. I did that the first couple of times and then I got married! haha

 

[dennisr]

Little heads up if you are a member of frequent flyer plan. Purchased some tickets earlier in the year in BA using the blue rate scam (Delta) and discovered some of the tickets were not classified as "published airfare" and were ineligible for credit to my frequent flyer account: $$$. They were classified as "bulk tickets." Some tickets were credited and others were ineligible. Do not know all the ins and out or if this is just a Delta thang, just relating my experience. All a surprise for me. Delta suggested when purchasing the ticket, ask if it is a "published fare" when purchasing to insure credit.

 

[germano]

I just purchased a one way ticket home, Buenos Aires to Orlando for $915 with taxes and insurance on cheaptickets,com. And since I used a US credit card I didnt pay the extra 20%, which I heard is going up to 40% soon! I have been in and out of Argentina like 6 times now there is no other fee or taxes to pay at the airport. The only thing would be if you stayed past your visa allowance. Then you have to pay a 300 pesos penalty. I did that the first couple of times and then I got married! haha

I think you would have been better off paying in cash with blue rate and 20% tax. Here the math:

Price of the ticket in USD = $915 ~ $5240 pesos

Price of the ticket when paid cash : $5240 + 20% = $6288 pesos
With a blue rate of 1:9 that would result in: $698.67 USD - more than two hundred dollars less!

And that calculation is with paying the 20% tax. Some have reported earlier in this thread that they were able to buy an airline ticket without the %20 tax by showing a passport with valid tourist visa stamp. I personally cannot confirm that, though - I had to pay the 20% both at LAN and at a local travel agent recently.

 

[Rich One]

I think you would have been better off paying in cash with blue rate and 20% tax. Here the math:

Price of the ticket in USD = $915 ~ $5240 pesos

Price of the ticket when paid cash : $5240 + 20% = $6288 pesos
With a blue rate of 1:9 that would result in: $698.67 USD - more than two hundred dollars less!

And that calculation is with paying the 20% tax. Some have reported earlier in this thread that they were able to buy an airline ticket without the %20 tax by showing a passport with valid tourist visa stamp. I personally cannot confirm that, though - I had to pay the 20% both at LAN and at a local travel agent recently.

Same case here when porchased in July, an airline ticket paying in pesos had to pay 20 % with valid tourist visa.

 

[Alicia karr]

Here's some more info related to this topic..I recently booked a travel package for the Galapagos and Ecuador for myself paying in pesos. There was no way to avoid the 20% surcharge, whether I paid in cash pesos or using my ARG cc. The scary thing was that I almost couldn't make arrangements for my daughter to come with me! Even though she had already booked her round trip air to Guayaqil herself using her US Cc, my agent here was encountering significant obstacles to my buying her land/air package (only within Ecadr) so we could travel together within Ecuador! After three days he found a "work around" but for a while it was looking like it was going to be impossible to make the arrangements to travel together! I had thought we would be ok because she was meeting up with me in Ecuador, but I was wrong. The good news was eventually I was able to purchase her land packages and everything was really incredibly cheap. But the bad news was the tour operators in Ecuador wouldn't accept my argentine credit card so I ended up having to pay pesos up front for it all. And it almost didn't happen because of some new Argentine laws regarding foreign travel Not originating in Argentina. Maybe someone in this forum can elucidate the craziness around all this?!

 

[Rich One]

Only packages/flights originating in Argentina can be paid in pesos..... Si

However someone said, bought a DUS Ezeiza RT, via ORD/stopover payable in pesos.....?? Amazing and for a fare that irritated me less than US$900

 

[Alicia karr]

Only packages/flights originating in Argentina can be paid in pesos..... Si

However someone said, bought a DUS Ezeiza RT, via ORD/stopover payable in pesos.....?? Amazing and for a fare that irritated me less than US$900

Well then I guess I shouldn't complain-- since I was able to pay for hers in pesos also. I suppose if I had been willing to pay for her stuff with a US credit card or in dollars, my travel agent here wouldn't have had such problems?

 

[dennisr]

Some ground rules for foreigners, foreign tourists must now use Argentina as a starting point, given the constraints imposed by the BCRA.

http://m.iprofesional.com/notas/169758-Paquetes-tursticos-34for-export34-avanzan-controles-para-evitar-compras-de-chilenos-uruguayos-y-brasileos-va-Argentina

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A//m.iprofesional.com/notas/169758-Paquetes-tursticos-34for-export34-avanzan-controles-para-evitar-compras-de-chilenos-uruguayos-y-brasileos-va-Argentina&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=ISO-8859-1

 

[2GuysInPM]

Wanted to share a bit about buying tickets in pesos...

We just bought two RT tickets (AR > US) with United online and went to their local office to pay for it in pesos yesterday.

No issues, the online checkout process adds the 35% to the total automatically (still, we saved just over USD $700 with the blue rate).

While at their office, they did ask me (as the ticket buyer) for my CUIT/CUIL and home address here in BA, which I thought was a bit odd. Then they did the same with another group of locals who were buying tickets there. The agent explained to us that as of yesterday (Jan. 16 2014), for anyone paying in cash (though it may likely apply to card purchases as well), the government is now requiring them to record the purchaser's name, DNI, CUIT/CUIL, local address, razon social, etc. So the agents now have a new online form to fill out when you pay that requires them to collect this info. No word on why, just seems to be more of that "tracking" the government and AFIP seem to be doing lately.

BTW, at the office, they can only accept $10k pesos cash per traveler, so if your total is more than that, they'll direct you to a Citibank 2 blocks away to make a deposit into their account (we did this).