Questions From American Airlines Rep On Recent Us Visit?

[camel]

On a recent visit to the US, right before you get on the plane (just after they check your luggage the final time), an American Airlines employee asked me what I am doing in Argentina, and whether I was working. I told her the truth (I am a student), and that was it. She asked my travel companion the same thing, who responded by saying "I have residency". The airline rep said "yes but what do you do in Argentina? Are you working?". This didn't happen on any previous trips. This was an airline employee asking, not a government employee.

Has this happened to anyone else, or does anyone know why the airline rep is asking this?

Edit: to clarify, this was when leaving Argentina, not entering Argentina.

 

[ElCordobés]

Weird. Unless AA is getting hit with the deportation fees for perma-tourists. It doesn't seem there would be enough cases to warrant asking the question of everyone. And it's particularly immaterial if one has residency.

They used to give me a hard time about reciprocity at every stop and every flight en route... even though I had permanent residency. They were clearly spooked about all those who had not paid in advance for a time.

Edit: That's still weird.

 

[Noesdeayer]

The Argentine gov't could be getting some airlines to check differnt things for different reasons.
When I flew back from Chile to B.A. on 3/08.The LAN check in agent in Santiago and I got into a hassle over the reciprocracity fee.
She asked me where my proof was that I paid it.
Oviously,badly trained,she didn't say, which fee she was referring to the Argentine one or the Chilean one and we were speaking in Spanish.
i thought that she was referring to the Chilean one and I showed her the receipt stappled in my passport.She said I was entering Argentina without paying the Argentine fee and almost didn't allow me to proceed.Even the LAN supervisor got into the act.Then,it dawned on me that she didn't realize that I was resident in Argentina.I pulled out my DNI and told her that no resident had to pay the fee.It was 25 minutes lost at check in.

 

[Ceviche]

When someone gets some power, they at times go overboard with it.

In my worldwide travels, I meet extremely sweet airline employees and at times, there are some very weird ones who ask extremely strange questions similar to the OP's experience albeit in different countries in different circumstances.

Obviously, the airline penalties for not checking the visa is high and its a major factor but many times its just a nosy employee trying to show his/her authority.

 

[Tangerine]

Market research.... Just truing to find out who their customers are.
No reason to be paranoid unless there is a good reason.

 

[Silvie]

On my last departure flight from BA to NY, the guy at LAN airlines ticket counter asked me too many unusual questions, probably triggered by my almost empty pieces of luggage I was checking in, I guess. He finally the boarding pass and I realized that his ID card did not say LAN Airlines but "policia aeroportuaria". I was under the feeling he was looking for whoever would fit the profile of a "mule".
to catch "mules".

 

[GMXam]

The airline attendant seemed like she was following a script when asking the questions. She seemed to be in training, too.

 

[ben]

I'm not sure about the pay range of an airline agent, but experience suggests that their ranks include few Ruby programmers, or political science majors for that matter. These people function best when they stick to the script they were trained about.

Each and every time I've told an airline agent asking about reciprocity, "I'm a permanent resident", I've seen roughly the same reaction. A momentary "Damn, what now" flashes through their eyes, followed by an insight into that particular person's personal crisis management style.

It ranges from glancing over the card, (trying a bit too hard to show they know what this is - I've been sorely tempted to find a library card in Spanish with my photo and use it) and letting me go, to calling in a supervisor immediately, to scanning it up and down for a minute, then calling in a supervisor. Often it was clear that the supervisor had also not been quite prepared for this scenario, but had nobody up the ladder to consult, so they had to improvise.

It's clear that permanent residents are an infrequent enough category that the airlines don't deem it necessary to include it in their training. Or account for it in their systems - inevitably in the case of AA, the supervisor put in a manual override of the screen that required the fee.

Good thing this thingie has now been abolished.

 

[cwo4uscgret]

One possible thought. If a passenger on an international flight to the USA is deemed to be inadmissible into the USA the airline who flew them to the states is financially liable for the airfare to return them to where they departed.

 

[Somewhereinba]

When I entered Argentina last time I was asked directly by the immigration agent if I was going to work in Argentina - unless you call drinking wine and eating meat work then no !