Does anyone know how long the passport control/customs procedures take at EZE fo US citizens, on both arrival and departure. I'll be arriving on a Friday AM and leaving on a Wed PM. Thanks in advance.

GRF in DC

Arrival 20 to 30 minutes ... when you are one of the first to arrive at immigration
Departing 30 to 40 minutes

BTW, it doesn't matter what nationality you have ...

Pretty fast in my experience, especially if you are in the front of the plane.

IIRC, you must pay a departure tax when you leave EZE. Cash.

The departure tax is ~$18 USD. Its payable in USD, Argentine Pesos, euros, American Express traveller's checks, AMEX cards, and Visa/Mastercard cards.

http://www.aa2000.com.ar/index.php

I just departed through EZE a week ago and I would disagree with the other posters and encourage you to arrive at the airport 2 hours before departure time.

When we arrived at the terminal there was a huge line of people checking in to the coach area. I mean huge.

First you check in with one agent at a podium, then you go to the regular counter where they check you in as well as check your luggage (or not).

Then you leave that line and go to another line to pay your departure tax.

Then you go upstairs and go through the first area of security, where you show your passport and ticket again.

Then you get in line and get your passport stamped by Customs.

Then you go through a security area similar to the US where your bags go through XRay and you go through the metal detection doorway. My watch set off the alarm and I was wanded.

Then you get to the gate area. When you get there, there is a full bag search with every carry on bag opened and probed by customs.

Afterwards you are wanded by another security individual.

Then you get to board.

At each and every "stop" along the way the line queued up again.

Incidentally our flight left at 9:40, and we left the city at 6:30. By leaving at that time we had to deal with rush-hour traffic which took a full hour. (Also the cabbie charged us $AR70 which was fine, due to the length of time it took).

Also, we were passriders, and so our experience was just a bit (better) than reguar coach. First of all, we were permitted to go to the first-class ticket counter (the first stop on our way) where there was no line at all.

They gave us our boarding passes at 7:30 and were told to rush upstairs since they were getting ready to board our flight. We were two of about 8 passriders on that flight and one of the Delta agents followed us upstairs and had us move through the various lines to get us through as quickly as possible.

I don't know if there were other flights leaving at that same time, or if we were moved ahead of coach passengers (apologies if we did), but the point remains that we really didn't have a whole heck of alot of spare time with all the security measures we went through.

No, I would definitely give myself a full 2 hours at the airport itself to go through all the various steps in the process.

Good luck,
Rita

Wow Rita, what a tale of woe.

I flew from there on the same DL flight the end of November. What Rita mentions is pretty much the process, but I didn't find it nearly as much of a hassle. We got there about 3 hours before the departure time and it was too long.

If you don't have status, Rita is right, the coach checkin line is long. If you have status or are in C/F so can use the premium checkin, it's no big deal.

The pre-check by somebody at the entry to the line is becoming common in a lot of non-US airports. Same thing happened recently in EDI and LHR. It's a preliminary passport and itinerary check, and ensuring you're in the right line.

After you clear security, if you get to the gate itself early, it may seem like it's just a regular US-type gate with no extra security. Don't get too comfortable - about 1 hour before flight time, extra security staff will get there, clear the entire gate area, and then have you line up to be re-checked, for the US-specific extra security. Yes, they check all your carryon and wand you.

Note that you cannot bring any liquids into the gate area to drink once they start this process. So if you get thirsty you have to exit the gate and be rescreened (just the extra gate rescreening).

Nobody ever checked that we had paid the departure tax - no one looked at the receipt at AR exit immigration, at security, nor at boarding. Looked like honor system but you'd better do it.

Typical overseas check-in process AFAIC. Not really any more hassle than FRA or LHR IMHO.

That's about average at a busy time, which is increasingly common. (On a good day, arrival doesn't take even that if off quickly.) That is, arrival is usually -- actually almost always -- faster than departure, given the times of day we are talking about here for both.

It used to be a lot quicker both ways a couple of years ago, but now the hordes have made it what it is.

Given my status with the airline (i.e., frequent flyer status or biz/first ticket) and familiarity with the process, I usually show up 80-90 minutes before departure. It used to be I'd show up 65-75 minutes before flight departure, but now the extra 15-25 minutes are needed.

At the "portal" where they look at the boarding pass and you get out of the general area (to go into the VAT refund/security screening/departure immigration area), that's the only time they generally and actively look/feel/scan for the receipt with the boarding passes.

On my flight EZE-IAH on CO last month, I got nailed for a couple of Isenbecks that I liberated from the lounge. If I had known they were going to check them, I would have hid them better. My infamous device of mass destruction, aka Speed Stick Gel, made it through fine.

However, there was a soda machine *inside* the gate area, so it's all nonsense, basically.