A Couple of Question about PTY (Panama City, Panama)
Jul 27, 2016, 3:26 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 102
A Couple of Question about PTY (Panama City, Panama)
I am flying DEN-IAH-PTY-CUR. I will arrive into PTY at 7:45pm Saturday September 10th and do not depart for Curacao until 9:45 Sunday September 11th. I have a hotel booked at a hotel in the city (Crowne Plaza, got a 5,000 point break room). I want to stay downtown for the night to grab a late dinner and hit a local brewery before getting about 5 hours of sleep. I know taxi/uber will cost about $30 each way. Here are my questions:
1. Assuming no delays on the flight, what would you estimate my hotel arrival time to be with clearing customs and immigration (no checked bags), hailing a taxi/uber, and sitting in traffic? I am hoping about 9:30pm.
2. Any fees I should be prepared to pay on arrival? Online searches seem to provide about 10 different answers
3. Since my stay in PTY is booked as a layover, I have not paid any fees to Panama on my plane ticket already. I booked using points and then paid about $70 in fees which break down as follows:
Fare Breakdown
Airfare:
0.00 USD
U.S. Customs User Fee:
5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee:
7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee:
3.96
September 11th Security Fee:
11.20
Panama Airport Security Fee:
2.50
St Maarten Airport Facilities Charge:
39.00
Since the only fee I have paid is a $2.50 security fee to Panama, will I be subject to a departure tax? Looking online, it shows it was jacked up to $60 per person, is that accurate?
Thanks for any help!
1. Assuming no delays on the flight, what would you estimate my hotel arrival time to be with clearing customs and immigration (no checked bags), hailing a taxi/uber, and sitting in traffic? I am hoping about 9:30pm.
2. Any fees I should be prepared to pay on arrival? Online searches seem to provide about 10 different answers
3. Since my stay in PTY is booked as a layover, I have not paid any fees to Panama on my plane ticket already. I booked using points and then paid about $70 in fees which break down as follows:
Fare Breakdown
Airfare:
0.00 USD
U.S. Customs User Fee:
5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee:
7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee:
3.96
September 11th Security Fee:
11.20
Panama Airport Security Fee:
2.50
St Maarten Airport Facilities Charge:
39.00
Since the only fee I have paid is a $2.50 security fee to Panama, will I be subject to a departure tax? Looking online, it shows it was jacked up to $60 per person, is that accurate?
Thanks for any help!
Jul 28, 2016, 7:47 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,566
I flew three times out of Panama last year on award tickets and didn't have to pay any taxes or fees at all, other than what was included in the ticket "price". Relax, if you've checked-in on line, nobody will want to see your ticket when you leave, just your BP. And certainly no fees on arrival, where on earth did you read that? Finally, plane to hotel in ~2 hours? Doable, but one never knows...
Jul 30, 2016, 3:21 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: IAH
Programs: UA
Posts: 605
1. Customs & immigration can vary greatly, from 15 to 90 min. Lately Customs has been letting US citizens bypass the line for x-raying luggage and let you go straight to the arrivals lobby. At that hour, the ride to the Crowne Plaza should take 25-30 min. 2 hours is definitely conservative.
2. I've "heard", but have no personal experience, that the immigration desk at entry can provide some sort of temporary "pass" for cases like yours. Like KLouis wrote, at exit immigration, the officer scans your BP and checks your passport. I don't know what kind of data is contained in that BP scan, maybe it has data for taxes. But in passing immigration in PTY 20+ times a year, I've never witnessed any officer proclaiming that a passenger needed to go pay a tax. There clearly is no obvious "Pay departure tax here" kind of desk like other countries.
OT: Your post caused me to look over some old receipts, and I find the taxes and fees paid were quite unusual. For one, a r/t departing from PTY, I found these fees for a UA TATL biz class ticket of ~$10k:
Panama Airport Security Fee: 2.50
Panama Airport Development Fee:10.00
Panama Departure Tax: 40.00
Panama Tourism Tax: 907.80
Yes, $900!
2. I've "heard", but have no personal experience, that the immigration desk at entry can provide some sort of temporary "pass" for cases like yours. Like KLouis wrote, at exit immigration, the officer scans your BP and checks your passport. I don't know what kind of data is contained in that BP scan, maybe it has data for taxes. But in passing immigration in PTY 20+ times a year, I've never witnessed any officer proclaiming that a passenger needed to go pay a tax. There clearly is no obvious "Pay departure tax here" kind of desk like other countries.
OT: Your post caused me to look over some old receipts, and I find the taxes and fees paid were quite unusual. For one, a r/t departing from PTY, I found these fees for a UA TATL biz class ticket of ~$10k:
Panama Airport Security Fee: 2.50
Panama Airport Development Fee:10.00
Panama Departure Tax: 40.00
Panama Tourism Tax: 907.80
Yes, $900!