No Hiding And No Running With Delta

[brandon]

Lacoqueta, My ticket was with Delta. They called the ZK an origination tax on the phone and said it was required by Arg law.
Anyone find a way to talk them out of it with a US or non-Arg credit card?

 

[Alicia karr]

So citygirl, that fare with the flight originating in BSAs does show the ZK charge or something similar? On American?

 

[florence]

I don’t know why I am obsessing over this. I just couldn’t believe that a ticket from Buenos Aires to Madrid and then from Rome to Washington, DC and back to Buenos Aires could cost only $1700, if it included a 35% cut for the Argentine govt. So I looked around some more. It appears that the $458 International Surcharge in that fare, originated with Lufthansa and is their version of a fuel charge.

To confirm that, I just booked the same itinerary on the same dates, except using only United and not putting Lufthansa in the mix. The price was $1685 (for a much longer and thus undesireable flight), and in the breakdown below, there is no International Surcharge or Argentine 35%.

Argentina Ticket Tax $22.46 Argentina Ticket Tax $21.82 Argentina Ticket Tax $12.91 September 11th Security Fee $2.50 September 11th Security Fee $2.50 September 11th Security Fee $2.50 U.S. APHIS User Fee $5.00 U.S. Immigration User Fee $7.00 U.S. Customs User Fee $5.50 Argentina Airport Tax $43.93 Argentina Immigration Tax $10.00 Argentina Security Tax $10.00 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge $3.00 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge $4.50 U.S. APHIS User Fee $5.00 U.S. Immigration User Fee $7.00 U.S. Customs User Fee $5.50 Italy Embarkation Tax $32.20 Italy Security Charge $3.50 Italy Security Bag Charge $2.80 Italy Council City Tax $10.30 Italy Passenger Service Charge $1.20 Argentina Ticket Tax $12.91 U.S. Federal Transportation Tax $17.50 U.S. Federal Transportation Tax $17.50 September 11th Security Fee $2.50 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge $4.5


Yes, ZK is the code for the Argentine Retention Tax

 

[dennisr]

It is a catch 22. Origin of travel is where the ticket is issued: Argentina. Non resident cannot pay with pesos. Maybe there is a way around it, think Delta is playing it by the numbers.
http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/es_AR/urls/news_resolucion3450.jsp?anchorLocation=homePage.do&url=aad-air-passport-offer.xml&_locale=es_AR&repositoryName=PromotionContentRepository&repositoryId=16615241&reportedTitle=Conozca+sobre+la+Resolución+General+AFIP+3550&reportedPos=2

 

[Greg2231]

We already had this whole discussion, and I explained how to avoid being charged the 35% when buying a ticket on Delta(you need to use a OTA(expedia, Orbitz, etc)that uses a non Argentine sales city and you wont be charged the 35%, if you buy a ticket from Delta directly you will be charged the 35% as they are issuing all ex Argentina tickets with an Argentine sales city which causes the ZK to be collected, which is their right so you are owed no refund in this case.

 

[nikad]

This ZK IN DOLLARS is a total ripoff! If you are a perm resident here or have a job, get an Arg credit card, if you are an expat with no access to local cc or perma tourist, buy through a third party and change the sales city and pay in dollars. This is blatantly discriminatory and inconstitutional I have never heard in my life of a local tax charged in a foreign currency!!! This should be reported and plastered on all airlines social media sites to bring some attention. And I would report it to my embassy as well.

 

[internationalguy]

Nikad, they're just covering their asses back in their own HQ. If people here are not able to understand how this works, how can we expect the people who run the websites to understand it back where they run the airlines' websites. This is why I say go to a real life brick and mortar ticket office where they can manually override it. Otherwise people will have to be dealing with this. I've tried to explain but people don't seem to get it or pay attention. The 35% has nothing to do with the city of origin, city of purchase, or any other random thing. The 35% ONLY applies when paying in pesos (cash or credit) and the reason is because the government is giving you the dollars to pay for the international airfare at the official rate. Nothing more, nothing less. You can't blame Delta excecutives for trying to comply with the silly local laws. You can call their call centers all you want, they don't know what the situation is here. Unless you want to be screwed over, take the time to go to a place or office with a real person and have them sort it out. Go to a travel agent, they seem to still exist here. For those who have already purchased nonrefundable tickets with the 35% added to them incorrectly, well, you're out of luck. Listen, don't listen, this is the last time I try to help by explaining this.

 

[JoeGillis]

International airfare pricing was my career for 35 years; 15 years with various airlines, then 20 years with Amex corporate travel. Air ticket tax/fee collection always was (and still is, obviously) a contentious issue. Since the beginning of computerized (programmed) pricing, it's rare for different airline computer systems to price the same international itinerary for the same total, regardless if the actual airfare for identical city pairs is the same. Most often the discrepancies have been due to the various taxes and fees required by both the airlines and the countries of origin/destination. There is only way to get an absolutely correct answer to which taxes/fees should or should not be collected by a specific carrier, and that is through the ticketing carrier's international pricing department, or rate desk ( in airline industry jargon). The problem with this is that the general public is forbidden to speak with any airline's rate desk, and since the typical airline reservations agent nowadays knows little or nothing about actual airfare calculation, the passenger must rely, unfortunately, on their answers only to any particular issues raised about tax/fee collections. I never use Delta out of Argentina, for I know that their computer system will collect the 20%/35% (?) tax no matter what.

 

[brandon]

We already had this whole discussion, and I explained how to avoid being charged the 35% when buying a ticket on Delta(you need to use a OTA(expedia, Orbitz, etc)that uses a non Argentine sales city and you wont be charged the 35%, if you buy a ticket from Delta directly you will be charged the 35% as they are issuing all ex Argentina tickets with an Argentine sales city which causes the ZK to be collected, which is their right so you are owed no refund in this case.

Greg,
I see that, any way to earn miles on the OTA sites? Even though they're worth almost nothing, feels like I should get something for my 1500!
Thanks,

 

[internationalguy]

Miles are earned on EVERY flight regardless of who you purchased the ticket from. (there are some exceptions with extremely reduced fares that don't earn miles, not common but they exist)