American Airlines will only accept credit and debit cards, travel vouchers, and electronic funds transfers and their 3 city ticket offices in Argentina. That’s a change that went into effect this past week.
American Airlines serves Buenos Aires from Dallas, New York JFK, and Miami producing 400 million seat miles roundtrip this month across 307 one-way flights. Their reach in the country is of course more limited having lost their LATAM partnership to Delta shortly before the pandemic.
With 185% inflation in the country, accepting cash is tough.
Here's how it looks to pay for a group dinner (and not a particularly expensive one, at that!)
Paying the bill is a whole event! First the guest counts out the bills into piles of 10,000 pesos, then the waiter recounts to make sure it's right pic.twitter.com/9g2RFWNj5M
— Devon ☀️ (@devonzuegel) December 28, 2023
It’s somewhat odd to be making this decision now since the situation isn’t new. It’s almost as if someone in Dallas noticed media coverage of Argentina’s inflation since Milei was elected. What’s odd though is that payment restrictions in Venezuela made sense after the government there effectively seized airline cash, preventing repatriation of funds out of the country. That’s literally the opposite of the Milei program which is extremely welcoming of foreign airlines.
Very normal for businesses in high inflation countries, and who pays cash these days?
Except I do. US dollars are king because of one thing- we are reliable and the value, while fluctuating a few percentage points per year- doesn’t do so wildly.
At the same time, I applaud what the leaders of Argentina are doing- ending subsidies for commodities like gas and energy- as it will reset their economy on a rational price footing, so that a cup of coffee or gas, (or airline ticket), costs the same in Argentina as it does in the USA or the rest (or most) of the world.
On my last trip to Argentina quite a while back, foreign cash was welcome for informal services and small retail. You had the be the one to offer generally. At that time Euros were particularly welcome, as was British pounds. $US was about 4th on the preference list.
I guess anything would be better than the peso right now though!
I’m a little confused — did AA previously apply similar restrictions in Venezuela?
I was just in Argentina less than two weeks ago. Many businesses accept USD (and sometimes other currencies) and post their conversion rate so customers will know it. It’s an extremely favorable place to go to right now as a foreign visitor with hard currency.
They are already pulling put of EZE on the summer out of Dallas and only one fligbt out of Miami and NY…. troublesome and very stupid from the airline who is also suspending SCL, basically with one flight to South America, soon Delta/Latam will be takinf over this market on its way of American become a domestic airline. SAD for who have built a status and spent year with this airline.
Many US airlines also don’t take cash (or any other form of payment) for otherwise normal bag fees in Cuba to make it easier to navigate OFAC compliance.
You’ll see a lot of things against Argentina with this president. The world banks won’t want it to succeed.
Cards are widely accepted these days in Argentina, and for the past year or two they have been using a special exchange rate (MEP) which is better than the official rate (was MUCH better than the old official rate before Milei devalued it). I don’t think it’s worth the hassle of exchanging USD cash these days.
Looks like AA is preparing for an orderly withdrawal from the South American market. (PS, I doubt many people buying tickets with cash were using pesos)
@Luiza Chaves, you have no idea what you are talking about. AA is suspending DFW-EZE for the Northern Hemisphere Spring/Summer, something it has done in the past. JFK-EZE is only one flight a day much of the year. Currently, they are running an extra 3 flights a week for peak season.
To those claim this is about inflation, it may not be. Inflation in AR has been high for a long while, not just this week.
AR’s new government wants to kill its own currency, that may be the real reason behind this move from AA.
Roughly one half of all US banknotes are held outside the US.
As explained to me by one gentlemen in central Europe, it was not all that unusual for a business to have bank accounts in both US and local currency as a hedge.
I actually never saw a 2k note. I brought a bag for the exchange. Prior to devaluation you were better off using your card and getting the MEP rate
The Twitter person above has already been corrected, but exchanging money on the ground is the last thing you should do. Visa and MC honor the “tourist dollar” rate, and sending yourself money on Western Union is even better.
Argentina has controls and strict ones on moving ARS out of the country, and limits the amount plus any tendered for FX. That’s partly what is driving AA’s policy. It will otherwise have to hold ARS locally, and with the currency wildly fluctuating, this is a way to hedge the risk.
Aerolineas Argentinas, if Milei’s plans proceed, will not be in business much longer.
Yep we get your support for that fascist, but have you thought of how difficult it is to manage such large sums of money? Your personal biases do love creeping through.
Agreed – odd timing, my guess is they dont want to deal with the volume of -physical- pesos anymore.
Having been there recently on an amazing trip, there is -zero- reason to get “bricks” of pesos as the “First step when landing in Argentina”. IMO it’s better (and easier) to just exchange at the Blue rate as you go during the trip, that way you dont fly home with a semi-worthless brick of pesos back to Dallas. Just be sure to bring clean & crisp $100 bills – they can be very picky at Western Union exchanges in BA.