JohnnyColombia

Only problem was that they gave it back at the gate so you gave zero chance to spend it. No issue for me but not great for people visiting just the once

craigthemif

Had no issues getting my refund when checking in at CTG, although I didn't pay that much attention to whether the amount refunded in pesos was equivalent to what I originally paid in USD.

I thought it rather amusing at BOG to be exchanging my pesos back into dollars and be required to provide an old-school ink fingerprint...

galego

ok so I was up at San Andres (ADZ) airport to pick up a friend, thought I may as well inquire about the refund.

Lady at the desk didn't seem to know anything about it. Pulled up my reservation number and she said the tax wasn't on there. I didn't have a print out to prove it and in my email (Lifemiles redemption) it doesnt list taxes.... She said I'd have to ask the call center.

Now I'm on Avianca webchat and the person is saying I have to contact the call centre about any refund.

Is it really possible? :/.... I'm flying ADZ-BOG-JFK..... should I ask at check in in ADZ? Or in Bogota? Sounds like someone managed to do it in CTG

galego

Just to add to this, as I was banging on about it and it ended up being easy:

I flew ADZ-BOG-JFK on Avianca (may apply to all connecting flights?)

I arrived in BOG. I went to the check in desk to request an additional boarding pass (I guess to write my info on for the refund, and for Avianca to stamp)

Opposite the check-in desks are the ticketing and finance desks. There is one that says "Refunds" (I believe). There they stamp the boarding pass you filled in, return it to you and give you the refund in Pesos. Off the top of my head it was pretty much what I expected $23 to be.

After passing security, I went to the money exchange place by Gate 36 and swapped any Pesos I had left for dollars. Got a pretty good rate and didn't pay any commission. And yea, leaving a fingerprint is pretty entertaining.

md123

I just had an interesting experience at BOG. Me and my wife were on a one way award redemption connection through BOG to UIO. I noticed I we were charged the Colombia Resident Exit Tax at around $25 each. We went to the Avianca check in booth and were given one slip of paper each and then told to go to the Avianca cashier just across from the check in. After giving the cashier both slips of paper and passports she gave us one form each to sign and then handed us around 75k pesos (about $25). I argued that this is just half of what I was owed and showed her the breakdown of what I had paid. She tried to reason that within the Colombia Resident Exit Tax there were multiple taxes included and they only refund half. I then demanded a receipt and she did not want to give me one. After another Avianca employee came over to help, the cashier finally printed out a form showing the tax breakdown and said that she only owed us $25 - however, I pointed out that this was just for one person. She then claimed we only requested a refund for one person (even after giving her both passports, filling out forms for both of us and giving her both slips of paper we had received from check in, and repeatedly asking if the original refund was for both).

Finally, after about 20 minutes we got the full $50 refund. I suspect she does this often - process a refund for 2 people and pocket half while refunding half. We had to be quite insistent to get the full amount.

Make sure to count your money and ask for a receipt.

flaii

I'm planning on buying a ticket from BOG to CUZ - using BOG as a transit stop (one night in BOG inbound from US, one night in BOG after returning from CUZ).

When looking at fares, it looks like for the BOG-CUZ flight on Avianca, the Colombian Resident Exit Tax is automatically included (whether booking through UA or Avianca), which makes sense. Reading this thread, I should be due a refund.

Does anyone know if it makes any difference, regarding the ease of getting a refund, if I book through UA (on 016 ticket, for PQMs), or through Avianca directly? If I book the Avianca flights through UA, might there be any issues with getting the refund in cash from Avianca at check in?

Thanks in advance.

flaii

Just got back from my trip, and can report that getting the exit tax refunded was painless, quick and straightforward. I had booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards using points, and I was concerned that the booking confirmation did not show a breakdown of taxes and fees paid to prove that I had pad the tax. But at check-in, the agent gave me the paperwork to take to the refund window across the hall, and I was refunded the tax in cash immediately.

hkgg

I know this is the AV forum, but does anyone know if this process is the same for all airlines? i.e. get some slip of paper from the airline check-in desk, fill it in and go to some counter to collect the tax back in cash?

We're flying AA and I tried contacting them before our trip later this year, but they were completely useless over the phone.

tuxedo66

Having just flown out of Bogota, I just wanted to give an update to readers on the process for getting the Colombia Resident Exit Tax refunded. This showed on my ticket as USD21.90 with a tax code of “DG”.

After my boarding pass was issued, I asked where I would get this refunded. In my broken Spanish I said “Donde reimbolso impuesto exit residencia?”. That was enough for her to understand me. Even with Avianca, some staff don’t speak too much English.

She checked our passport entry stamps to ensure that we hadn’t stayed longer than the period that would disqualify us from a refund (60 days maybe).

She called up a supervisor who came with a little bag which had money in it. They reprinted our boarding passes and marked them as VOID. On the back, they stamped an acknowledgement for us to sign. They also stamped and noted the refund in our passports against our immigration entry stamp.

Even though we were airline staff travelling on standby with no guarantee we would get on the flight, we got our money back right there and then. I guess they knew we would be leaving the country in the next few days even if we couldn’t get on today.

Once airside, we changed the pesos we received into USD as we were flying to the USA. The airside departure money changer near Gate 38 has excellent rates when they sell USD.

Note that the arrival money changer has a really bad rate when selling COP. Use the ATM instead if you can!

Etheereal

I find it odd that they "overwrote" a previous stamp. I had to give out a lot of explanations in CUN, cuz the immigration officer had the previous day stamp placed in my passport then he realized he ***ed up and voided it then placed the new one next to it.

tuxedo66

The refund stamp and note was next to the immigration entry stamp and not over the top. The VOID was on a copy of the boarding pass (on the back of which was our acknowledgement). So it was all good :-)