Anyone with experience of "resident only" fares in Argentina?

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cubegame
cubegame Posts: 2,042 Forumite
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in Flights, currency & car hire
Hi.

I'm currently planning a holiday in Argentina. Flights to Buenos Aires are booked and now hoping to book flights to Iguazu Falls and Salta.

The thing is: domestic flights are over priced by European standards. For many years it seems that the Argentine government subsided resident fares but apparently this has now stopped.

However, the two main airlines LATAM and Aerolineas still do dual pricing based on point of sale.

For example, LATAM sell a one way from Iguazu to Salta for £168 on their UK site. The same ticket on the Argentine site in Pesos is equivalent to £53.

There is nowhere on the website to suggest the £53 fare is restricted to residents so I don't see why not to buy like this.

There is much internet speak warning of the dangers of buying resident fares but these mostly predate the end of the practice.

Just wondered if anyone here has experience in the past year or so?

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  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    Take advantage of the favourable exchange rate ;)
  • cubegame
    cubegame Posts: 2,042 Forumite
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    EveryWhere wrote: »
    Take advantage of the favourable exchange rate ;)

    Are you meaning the blue rate?

    I believe that is a thing of the past
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    cubegame wrote: »
    Are you meaning the blue rate?

    I believe that is a thing of the past

    No, I meant that when I was in Argentina a couple of years ago, I was getting less than 19 to the Pound. Now it's over 50. So that is why the flights are cheaper in Pesos and certain items will be cheap once in country.
  • richardw
    richardw Posts: 19,458 Forumite
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    If you have avios or Tesco vouchers to convert to avios, move them into a BA exec club account and then redeem them on LATAM flights.
    Posts are not advice and must not be relied upon.
  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433 Forumite
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    Aerolineas Argentinas has this in their T&C:
    Las tarifas expresadas en pesos (ARS) para vuelos dentro de Argentina s!lo son v!lidas para residentes en el pa!s y para compras realizadas dentro del territorio argentino. Si no sos residente argentino por favor, hac! tu reserva ingresando a la p!gina web de tu pa!s de residencia.

    (Prices given in Pesos (ARS) for flights within Argentina are only valid for residents and for purchases made within Argentine territory. If you are not a resident of Argentina please use the page for your country of residence)

    However, that may just be something that they forgot to remove when government subsidies stopped.

    I did fly once on a subsidised ticket with Aerolineas Argentinas - I checked in online and only took a cabin bag, so no-one asked me for residence documents. I guess this wouldn't be an option for you though.

    I'm not very up-to-date on the subject - if you've researched it and found that government subsidies are no longer made, and the LATAM website is not telling you that you can't buy the ticket, then it all sounds OK to me. The current government is generally undoing quite a lot of the policies of the previous governments, so it's not a big surprise.
    Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
    On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
    And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning
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