rrgg

Is it possible to pay a LAN non-resident price online billed in pesos? I can't figure it out at their website.

keisari

When I log in as if I am in Argentina (country site) then the prices are lower and in pesos. That is not the problem. The problem will be when you check in for the flight and your ID is a foreign passport and not the national ID.

rrgg

Thanks but I realize that.

I don't want to buy the reduced fare for residents. I want to buy the normal foreigner fare in pesos, not dollars.

Gaucho100K

It seems like you are talking about a form of payment. If I am interpreting you correctly, you wish to use pesos for payment? The only way I can think of doing that is to purchase your ticket here in Argentina and pay in cash (Pesos)..... or, you must have a credit card issued in Argentina that would allow the bank to bill you for the charge in Argentine Pesos.

Else, if you are buying the ticket outside Argentina and/or if you are using a foreign issued credit card, even if the price is quoted in Pesos, it will be converted to the "home" currency of the place where your bank issued the card. However, your statement will normally reflect the charge in both currencies for your reference.

rrgg

I'm sorry for the confusion. I was watching some fares for next winter and noticed that despite changes in the US dollar, LAN.com always quotes the same price when I choose US as my country. So I was trying to find an option to purchase a foreigner fare in the original pesos and see if it works out to be a little less. My US-based mastercard has no forex fee. It appears I can only get it in pesos if I choose Argentina as the country, but when I do that there's no option to buy the foreigner fare. The potential savings is probably small anyway, so maybe I'll just forget it. Thanks.

Gaucho100K

(bump)

keisari

You CAN get a quote in pesos, reales or euros or even peru soles. sign in as another country not US or Canada. Once you price the ticket at the last page on your right hand side you can change the price to pesos. I am not sure if they will bill your credit card in pesos or in US$. The conversion rate they use is 3:1 which is a little better than the 3.08:1 which is the official rate.
remember that most cards, even if they dont have a charge on foreign purchases will use their own rate which may be much different than the official rate.

rrgg

Thanks! I just selected Europe, and I can choose the peso option. I could swear I did the exact same thing a month ago with no success.

Gaucho100K

Keisari, as far as I understand, regardless of how the Airline chooses to inform a certain price (ie. in what currency they quote you), they still need to bill your credit card for a given amount of Pesos which will then be converted to the default currency of your credit card account.

Also, it seems odd that the airline would be willing to incurr in a FX loss by quoting a lower internal exchange rate... I would suggest doing the math in detail to make sure your calculations are correct.

The only way around this would be for the airline to have a legal entity that is invoicing the ticket which is established outside of Argentina.

csdf

I'm trying to work my way through this problem. My travel agent has quoted me £600 (~$1200) for three internal flights:
AEP->IGR
IGR->MDZ (via AEP)
MDZ->AEP
When I price up the same flights on Opodo or Expedia, I get prices of around £250 ($500), and on the Aerolinea Argentinas website (having set my country of residence to United Kingdom), I get about £240.

My TA warned me that the fares I am being quoted by Opodo and Expedia are for Argentinian residents only, but I've looked at the fare conditions and can see no mention of this at all.

How can I tell what's going on? Will Opodo sell me a ticket that I might not be eligible for? And what about Aerolineas Argentinas? If I set my country to the UK, then should the prices I'm quoted be for valid tickets that I will be eligible to use?

Gaucho100K

Hi. Im not an expert on the details and small print of the fares you are being offered... but, I think your case boils down to how much your trust your TA. If your TA tells you these fares are not eligible for your status, and you trust him/her, then its safe to say you will be getting an "illegal" fare.

What I can tell you for a fact is that there are indeed a good number of discounted fares that are only eligible for residents of Argentina (its not a nationality thing).

Now, as has been widely documented here, it is possible for non residents to book and issue these fares... but in the end you will be taking a chance. Aerolineas is known to be lax with enforcement, but there is always the possibility that you get a difficult gate agent and you may be faced with refares, denied boarding, etc. etc.

On a final note, I would advise against assuming that if you select your country setting to the UK this will ensure you will be guaranteed permission to board.

StevePER

I wouldn't trust the TA in this instance - the non-resident fares are higher but I'm pretty sure they're not that much higher. You could do a search on the Aerolineas Argentinas site and compare the fare you get with country of residence set to UK vs Argentina. If the UK fare is higher then you should be fine.

I recently booked a couple of flights through the Aerolineas website. They didn't take payment on the website, but instead you have to call their local office. If you were concerned I'm sure they would confirm your eligibility for the fare at this stage.

Steve

csdf

That's the thing. I trust my TA when they say that the £600 fares are eligible for non-residents, but I don't trust them that those are the lowest possible fares that I could use. £600 seems a lot for three single flights. In Europe I wouldn't expect to pay more than £300 or so for three single flights, but I have no feeling for Argentina so I don't know what would be "reasonable" to expect.

Setting Argentina as my country on the Aerolineas Argentinas website, I get the disclaimer about non-residents:
This implies that if I set the country to UK, I should be getting eligible fares.

Pricing up on the website using the Argentina location, I get a total of around £200, which is cheaper still.

Gaucho100K

Comparing intra-European fares to intra-Argentina fares is a dangerous experiment, as the probability of ending up comparing apples to oranges is very very high. This is due to that fact that the European airline market is mostly unregulated and enjoys killer competition from both traditional (ie. full service) and low cost airlines. Furthermore, the volume of the European market (in terms of pax carried) is so big that carriers can even afford to offer super low fares for one way trips.

In Argentina, things could not be more different. You have a virtual monopoly on many routes, on routes where Aerolineas and Austral (which BTW is the same company) is not the only option, you have maybe 1 additional carrier but with very low frequency so in practice its still a quasi-monopolic situation.

Reverting back to your specific case, after reading the disclaimer you posted above as shown on the website, I think that if you go online with Aerolineas and select the UK as your location, you have a very solid case to insist that they allow you to fly with the fare you purchased.

Gaucho100K

csdf-- Did you finally purchse your tickets?