I paid yesterday and fly today. The agent at the counter wanted to see the barcode before boarding passes would print.

When this system first started, there were reports of at least one airline providing a way for their passengers who mistakenly got to EZE to pay at the airport and print a receipt, then go to immigration and customs. Apparently providing this was cheaper for the airline than paying the fine to Argentina and putting the person on the next flight back.

With one's own portable printer and an online data connection on the ground (perhaps even on the flight), it is possible to get this done even after boarding a flight to Argentina. Still I suggest getting this done well before as there is a substantial chance that not everything will work out fine in the hours between (or even just before) check-in and getting to passport control in Argentina.

I still use my previous passport's reciprocity sticker, but some airline staff are unaware that it still works.

The simple fact is that (almost or) every airline will not let you board without proof, whether or not you might be able to obtain a receipt inflight.

Most airlines indeed will most commonly not allow boarding under such circumstances.

However, for whatever reason, when it comes to Argentine-bound flights from the subset of non-Latin American countries where most passengers don't need to pay a reciprocity fee to come in without a visa, there is some chance of not being asked for proof of payment of the reciprocity fee prior to taking off for Argentina. Technically, for those who arrive at EZE without having done what they should have done before flying to EZE, there is some chance that the reciprocity fee could be arranged for on the ground. [I still sometimes carry around my own portable printer and have connectivity on the ground at EZE; and if someone at EZE passport control arrived off one of my European flights and wanted help, I don't see any reason why I would ordinarily hesitate to help if someone asked for it.

I'm definitely not advising anyone to fly to Argentina prior to payment of the reciprocity fee if required to pay it; but there may be circumstances where even the proof of payment is lost and someone may need to pull something off on the ground in order to avoid having the trip cut unexpectedly short by more than a couple of hours.

I can tell you that LAN will absolutely not let you on the plane, and is putting the receipt # info in the PNR. I've flown via LIM and SCL in the past few months. I cannot speak for other carriers. LAN verifies at point of first check in (if dealing with a human), and at the gate.

That is not news to me. Or has LAN stopped being from a Latin American country? :D

Depends which LAN ;) - The one that is imposing this fee in advance improperly thinks it is better than the rest of Latin American countries, and the one controlling the airline show is pretty much a first world country.

Which LAN isn't Latin American? Have Chileans now adopted the claimed Argentine disposition to claim to be more non-Latin American than Latin American? :D A lot of countries think themselves better than their neighbors -- actually most people seem to live in countries which seem to have some kind of national mythology about what makes them more special than their regional neighbors. :o

I'm not sure that there is anything improper about imposing a fee in advance of arrival to the country. Recall that the US has ESTA fees for VWP nationals and those get paid in advance of arrival to the country too.

I was told to hold onto my printed reciprocity receipt for further use.

As I've commented a couple of times now, BA is one of the carriers that does not check at any point along the way, even though they would certainly be carrying the occasional passenger from the US, Canada or Australia.

What they do (which I find somewhat odd) is make an announcement at some point during the 14 hour flight, advising passengers from these countries who have not paid their fee to make themselves known so that ground staff (presumably BA as opposed to airport/immigration) can assist them. The part I find most odd is that the announcement always seems to be characterised as something almost unexpected (the CSD usually starts the announcement by saying he has just received a message from ground staff in Ezeiza, for instance) and there are sometimes factual errors as well (such as the dollar amount of the fee).

Maybe it doesn't happen very often anyway (which is why BA doesn't invest in document checks prior to boarding), and indeed maybe it really is a situation where the ground staff reviews the manifest prior to arrival and only sends the message to make an announcement if they see passengers from US/Canada/Australia (which, of course, would explain why it gets made whenever I am on board!).

Unpredictable enfkrcement is common in Argentina..... Im just surprised BA seems to follow this same carefree approach.... :eek:

It's not even limited to BA. Much the same sometimes happens for some other Argentine-bound flights from non-Latin American countries where most visiting passengers wouldn't need a visa or reciprocity fee to come in without a visa.

I had my first non-BA flight to Bs As in a bit recently, and can confirm that AA is definitely a LOT more worried about checking entry documents and reciprocity than BA is!

First, I couldn't do online check-in (as it happened, I was flying into JFK the night before from SFO, so I went to the lounge and asked them to check why I couldn't check in, just to be safe - they took my documents and spit out a boarding pass in no time, but said it was that they had to check the reciprocity fee).

Even though I had already shown my proof in order to get my boarding pass, I still had to show it when I went to check my bags the next day before flying.

I also had to show it before boarding the aircraft, at which point I happened to mention somewhat casually that this must have been at least the third if not the fourth or fifth time I'd shown this to someone!

They assured me that AA can get fined for passengers who haven't paid the fee, which certainly makes sense to me, but also seems in conflict with the rather disinterested approach BA takes. Just as a matter of sharing, I mentioned to the gate agent that although I understood it why they were checking, I thought it interesting that BA just sorts it out in-flight or on arrival. The AAgent made it very clear that American is not allowed to do that...

So I think perhaps airlines are being treated differently here. My take - if a carrier is likely to have lots of passengers who require the proof of payment (AA, LA from North America, etc), checks are stringent ahead. If there aren't many such passengers (your average BA245 from LHR), then maybe they can just find a printer close to the arrival point and handle it that way.

More than anything, I am just surprised at the variance in handling.

Pay Your Reciprocity Fee... Or Get Deported
 

Thanks for the detailed report !!!