Taxes when checking in at SCL
 

Just a little heads up about taxes when checking in at SCL on a xONEx: normally it is no big deal and nobody blinks an eyelid, but today is the second time it happens to me that the AA agent does not find the SCL tax (ZQ, I think) in my paper ticket (pretty much illegible anyway). Fortunately, in both cases I had with me a tax sheet AA printed separately, so in the end I didn't have to double pay the tax (it took some talking though). So, when flying out of SCL it pays, I think, to have some tax sheet proving the tax has been paid.

Yes, I always notice the Lan staff looking for it and then checking/circling, or making some other notation on the ticket if it is paper.

Yes, the LAN staff does scrutinize the tax calculation line during check-in. Thanks to AA (who based on my experience tend to be somewhat sloppy while issuing RTW tickets), the tax line didn't show that I had paid the taxes from SCL-IPC-SCL. The LAN agent in SCL insisted that I pay the taxes. The agent in IPC hesitated and said something about there being a problem but then issued the boarding passes anyways.

Yes I've been stung by this on numerous occasions - even when the tax has already been paid. In each instance, I've found LAN's Madrid office obliging (if a little manana) when it comes to giving a refund.

I know LA can be quite pricky about taxes, but these two were AA flights, so it looks like the ones who are getting touchy about this could be SCL airport authorities.

Why would you select the airport authorities instead of AA management? Considering the current AA philosophy of wringing the oil out of the peanuts and reselling it to save a penny, that would be a reasonable place to look for blame imho. AA bean counters somewhere have to cut a check to the Chilean government for taxes, and due to sloppy record keeping they can't find enough money in the ticket revenues, so the word goes out to airport staff to shake the difference out of the pax.

Why not? However, I haven't really selected anybody, hence the wording of the post ("looks like", "could", etc.), basically because I have no idea who is behind the tax drive. Of course AA agents follow their own management instructions, how else could it be?, but that could very well be as a result of some spanking from the airport authorities, right? it is not that far fetched a possibility. Anyhow, who knows, all I tried was to alert the group to a potential problem and offered a workable solution: the politics of it all don't concern me.

It's probably also cultural. From my experience, Chileans like processes and bureaucracy. If there is a rule, the rule is followed even if the interpretation is wrong. Just an observation that was substantiated by a few people who had lived there. I gave up a long time ago with trying to deal with the tax issue with sloppy issuing. I tried to make sure it's there on the tax line, and if not then I just ponied up the 25 bucks instead of raising my blood pressure 100 points since I would ultimately lose anyway.

And I had to pay even when it is included on the tax line. I had 2 flights that departed SCL. One was a transit the next day after arriving from LAX at 6:00 am. The other was a regular stopover. The agent said that since the incoming flight was the previous day, then the tax is due. I believe that the tax rules say that transits do not incur the tax.