Greetings,

This is my first post on Flyertalk although I've been lurking around for a few months. I must say I've been very impressed with the level of travel knowledge on these boards; I figured if there was any site on the Net to stock up on details for my upcoming trip to Buenos Aires, this was it.

I've got a mid-morning scheduled arrival at EZE. How long should I expect to take getting through customs/immigration at this time of day? (I don't plan on checking any bags.) On the landside end of things, I see the Manuel Tienda Leon (sp?) airport bus gets good reviews here and elsewhere. How often to the buses depart from the airport for central Buenos Aires? I can't seem to find any information about schedule/frequency. Altogether, about how long should it take from door of plane to door of hotel?

Finally, how far in advance do I need to arrive at EZE for my (nighttime) return flight to the USA? How does the airport compare to, say, the big European international hubs, in terms of lines and time-consuming security checks?

Thank you all for any help you can provide... I'm confident I'll enjoy being part of the Flyertalk community.

Expect anything from 2 minutes to an hour depending on how many flights arrive ahead of yours.

MTL runs about every 1/2 hr. Takes about that long to get to the downtown terminus and then there's free shuttles to most hotels.

2 hours checkin is fine.

If you look at the Miami Herald travel section (www.miami.com) they have some information for this week.

Thanks for posting Factotum and welcome http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

It will take significantly longer than 1/2 hour door to door as you put it. The airport bus or shuttle ride alone will be about that long, and you may have to wait at the airport first. You also may need to transfer from shuttle to car at a transfer point before getting to the hotel.

Why bother with the MTL airport bus when you can get a taxi for 33 pesos (~US$9)to downtown BA - this includes tolls. The cab service was also part of MTL up till this last month, now I believe the concession is run by Central Cab. Just exit the terminal (avoiding all the drivers who will approach you inside), turn left and walk about 50 meters and you will see the taxi cab booth. You will get a receipt listing the fare + tolls. It will take about 30-40 minutes to get to downtown. The taxi fare will be less when going to the airport ...

Many cab drivers don't speak much english (although many people in BA do), so if you can't speak any Spanish, just write the address down in advance for the driver.

Don't bother to exchange dollars into pesos - dollars are accepted everywhere (and appreciated). I take lots of small bills with me to tip and that way you won't end up with pesos. You can charge most things to your credit card, but tips are given separately in cash.

If you're arriving on UA or AA at 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM, you should have no problem getting through customs quickly - assuming you're not going through the Argentine national line - just make sure that you have filled in you immigration card correctly, and you make you way off the plane quickly. Most of the arriving passengers will be Argentines. You will have to have your bags X-rayed again before leaving the airport, but that seems only to be a cursory examination. I've often landed at 9:30 am, and have checked into the Hilton BA in Puerto Madero before 10:30.

If you're flying UA, you must be checked in 45 minutes before departure - and there is a special line for passengers with no checked baggage - it's always very quick in this line. You will have to pay an airport departure tax of US$18 (also payable in pesos), and then you have to go through the metal detector and have your bags X-rayed, and through immigration. The longest this has ever taken for me is 15 minutes in total at ~7:30 PM. However a few weeks ago (at least on UA), ALL passengers now must go through secondary screening of ALL carryons inside their gate. There will be 6-8 screeners who are quick, professional, and thorough. So you will need to be at the gate before boarding starts if you have status and want to get on board before general boarding (thus ensuring a place for you carryons).

Run a search in the Mileage Run and Trip Reports fora for EZE or Buenos Aires for lots of advice - especially where to stay, what to do, and most importantly where to eat (Cabana las Lilas on at least one night!).

If you need any more advice don't hesitate to ask - there are lots of FTers who go there regularly (and it's one of my favorite cities in the world). I've been down there every month since June ...

John


[This message has been edited by SoFlyOn (edited 10-27-2002).]

Well, I'm back from Buenos Aires... Thanks for all the advice; I appreciate the help.

On arrival there was a bit of a queue for foreigners at passport control but the line moved at a reasonable pace and I was through in about 10 minutes. There was no line at customs so even though the officers were X-raying all incoming baggage, it only took a few seconds to get through.

Upon exiting customs there, among the hotel reservation desk and other services of interest to arriving travelers, was the Manuel Tienda Leon desk, big as day. It simply was not possible to miss it; this was a pleasant surprise as I had figured on doing some searching. (Contrast this to the USA where low-cost airport transportation is often kept well-hidden and no one seems to know anything about it, but I digress.) I did notice that the taxi fares were quite a bit less than the USD 35 all the guidebooks quoted, but opted for the MTL bus anyway since their terminal was just across Plaza San Martin from the Marriott hotel where I was staying. At USD 3 the price was hard to beat, and the money I saved over a taxi was enough to purchase a full day's worth of food.

Coming back, I did see the hordes of passengers getting wanded and searched on the United flight (looked like a mess that I was glad to be able to avoid), but I was on Delta where the usual "random security" searches were in effect. (It turned out not to matter since I was a "selectee" and had to hang around until I was "randomly secure" enough to go home.) I encountered one additional security measure that I haven't seen mentioned on these boards: Before check-in for the return flight, security officers were manually searching all checked baggage. As far as I could tell this was the case for all flights to the USA. The checks caused only a few minutes delay for me as a DL Gold Medallion using the Business Elite check-in, but the economy class line looked like a zoo. I'd advise other travelers to get to the airport early if they are flying in Y and don't have status. Even before the check-in opened there were several people waiting in line, and the line certainly didn't get any shorter between then and 90 minutes before departure when I decided to head for the gate.

All in all it turned out to be an interesting trip to an interesting place; I'm glad I got to experience this favorite city of so many Flyertalkers. Thanks again for your help, everyone.

Factotum--
You said you were on Delta. As I'm sure you are aware, Delta is pulling out of EZE next month (very sad about that). How crowded/full was your flight? while high load factor doesnt necessarily equate to profits (as the case must be) I'm interested as to the demographics of the flight. Could you tell if most people were Argentines going to the states or US tourists/businesspeople?
what did you do while in Buenos Aires? how was your trip? I lived in Buenos Aires for a year and loved it.

I, too, was sad to hear that DL will no longer be serving EZE after this month (and I heard it on Flyertalk first - gotta give credit where credit is due). But I figured with the impending end of service, and the reduced fares - I paid $418 (USD) from LGA but remember just a few months ago when people on these boards would jump at a $600 fare for the mileage running opportunity - if I wanted to go to Argentina and get base miles for it, I'd better go now. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

The flights (similar loads both ways) weren't packed, but certainly weren't empty either. Load factors were about what I'd expect, say, when traveling to Europe during shoulder season. Most of the middle seats in coach were empty; a few people were lucky enough to have the whole 3 seats across to stretch out in. I guess with the recent tumble the Argentine currency has taken, plus even the ex-USA leisure fares being down about a third, there just isn't enough money coming in to make the route profitable (just my guess; one must wonder why UA and AA don't seem to be having these problems).

Most of the people sitting in my vicinity were Argentine (both on the outbound and on the return). The flight seemed heavily weighted toward business travelers; I didn't see a lot of tourists like I usually do on the trans-Atlantic sector. There were a few families travelling too - visiting relatives, perhaps? In any event, if there were many tourists on board they did a good job not looking like it.

I liked Buenos Aires, but for different reasons than I like, say, Paris. I found that the sightseeing in the former was not as endless as in the latter, but I thought BA was a nice city to hang around in - go for a walk, do some shopping, grab a few empanadas http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif, catch an impromptu tango show on a street corner... Great place to spend a few days without a plan, which is exactly what I did. I have to say it was nice to take a trip and not feel like I was spending my days crossing items off a "to-do" list.

Incidentally, how do visitors usually get around in Buenos Aires? It is a huge city; it would not be inappropriate to compare it to Tokyo in that regard. The metro covers only limited areas, and information about the local bus system seemed very hard to come by. Do foreigners tend to just take taxis when they need to go somewhere that's too far to walk? It seems this would get real expensive real fast, at least before the recent drop (from a foreigner's perspective) in prices.

Factotum--
yeah, I'm bummed that Delta couldnt make the route work. I hope that they'll bring it back some day when the Argentine economy is better, as BA is a great place and Argentina an incredible country.
As I said, I lived there for a year, from 1999-2000. even then the taxis werent too expensive. they were cheaper than in cities like New York, and so whenever friends from teh states came to visit me they would take taxis. in addition, they took buses and the metro when it was convenient. yeah, buses are hard to learn, but are indispensable in BA because they literally go EVERWHERE all day and night. it really is a great transportation system that only takes a little while to get to learn. let me know if you have any other questions.

The problems with the taxis in Buenos Aires is that they often try to stole you...adding money or working with those machines that goes faster....
But its a great place to hanging around...