Argentina Wants Access To Your Frequent Flyer Accounts

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: September 30, 2014
Published: September 26, 2014

26 comments

Argentina is in a pretty abysmal financial state at the moment, and it’s having quite an impact on the travel industry. Tourism is down, and some airlines are reducing service as a result. There are rumors of even bigger airline service cuts than what we’re seeing already.

Buenos-Aires

Amidst the financial turmoil, it looks like the government of Argentina wants more information about passengers flying into and out of the country. Per the Buenos Aires Herald:

AFIP and Airport Police joint resolution 3667 establishes that in 180 days from now, airlines will have to deliver more information, organized in 31 categories, of each registered passenger.

The document argues that the new legal framework will enable the government to have “unique, updated real-time information to optimize control and supervision processes, simplify customs, migration and airport security procedures.”

So what information does the government want at least 72 hours before a trip?

Airline ID code
Flight number
Flight departure/arrival time and date
Flight Origin and destination
Total number of passengers
ID of everyone on board of the flight
Nationality
Name and Surname according to ID
Date of birth according to ID
Passengers file number within the national Passenger Names Registry (PNR)
Reservation date
Trip itinerary
Method of payment
Billing address
Billing order
Telephone number
Information on frequent-flyer programmes
Travel agency
Travel agent
Information on divided PNR
Information on ticket issuing
Date of ticket issuing
Passenger’s no show record
Passenger’s go show record
Waiting list information
Luggage information
Seat number
Seat information

That’s a lot of information!

Of course some of the above makes sense, though information on things like frequent flyer programs? Really?

Airlines have privacy policies and a duty to protect passenger data, so will they update their policies to reflect all the data that could be passed on to the government of Argentina, will you have to “consent” whenever you book a ticket to/from Argentina, or do airlines already have the right to share all this information?

I’m not an attorney and won’t even claim to have an explanation. But a reader forwarded this to me and had a more nefarious take on their intentions.

I sure would love to head back to Buenos Aires. Too bad the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires is still priced in USD, or else it would be a steal…

What’s your take on the new data that the Argentinian government is requesting?

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Gabriel Guest

September 28, 2014, 4:36 pm

Lucky, You should check your sources before posting in your blog. As you can read several comments before mine, the data requested by Argentina is very similar to what other countries have been doing for years. The tourism influx has been only growing in the last years. You can check here: http://issuu.com/desarrolloturistico/docs/f0a7c848bb30837f8df1a928549a661e/5?e=0 Besides, all airlines have been adding frequencies in the last years as well. There hasn't been any reduction of frequencies in the last months apart of the normal up and down of seasonal flights. So your post has nothing to do with the facts which makes me doubt about the truthfulness of the rest.

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Lewis Guest

September 28, 2014, 6:53 am

Lucky, FYI I stayed at the Park Hyatt B.A. two weeks ago and although the hotel is priced in USD on their website, the final bill is actually produced in Argentinian Pesos. Which of course meant we paid by cash (having exchanged at Blue Dolar rate). I asked the lady at checkin if this was comment, and she said that very very few people paid by credit card these days - all cash!

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A. S. Guest

September 27, 2014, 6:26 pm

For the record, Brazil recently announced a similar initiative. Brazilians spend an average of $2 billion a month abroad on shopping due to the incredibly high price of everything in Brazil. This is putting a strain on the country's foreign currency reserves and balance of payments. Instead of being smart about it and realizing that the true cause of this mess is the retarded (and debunked) practice of protectionism (high import taxes) as well as corruption which causes politicians to constantly vote for abusive taxes (to fill the coffers so that they can loot them), instead the government is going after its own citizens. The stated objective of the initiative is to catch people bringing dutiable goods into the country. I'm sure an unstated and secondary goal is also to find those with large accounts abroad, but that's really not the big problem here as even middle class Brazilians with no foreign accounts exchange dollars locally and take them abroad to shop. Ironically, the only ones with huge accounts abroad are the crooked politicians and their cronies. :)

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Petter Niklas Guest

September 27, 2014, 2:11 am

FYI Robert Hanson: I don't know if you have traveled outside your trailer park but... Argentina is not Spain.

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hillrider Guest

September 26, 2014, 9:30 pm

No government is as intrusive of personal information as the US, and they are the leaders. They want and get all of that plus hotel and rental car bookings in the same PNR. You should write about that.

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