Today El Mercurio reported that airport authorities will be darkening all of the glass around the doors where passengers enter the main terminal from the arrival area to combat “pirate” taxis that have charged up to 200,000 Chilean pesos for a ride to the city. For a bit of context, hiring one of the official airport taxi chains costs between 12,000-15,000 pesos depending on how hard you push for a bargain and where you are going. I don’t know who these foreigners are that arrive so completely clueless as to what the going rate of a taxi ride is from the airport. Ripping off arriving visitors at the airport is a con job performed round the world. So if you are coming to Chile, save yourself the headache and just hire an official taxi or a “transfer” shuttle bus.
Although probably perfectly legal, the price inflation also applies to hotels. I went to meet someone passing through Chile at their hotel -The Sheraton- just yesterday. I took a cab from Ñuñoa and paid about 3,500 pesos. When I was leaving I asked the hotel staff how much a hotel taxi would cost to the same place: 7,000 pesos...double the price!
3 comments:
You are so right mate. I'm an Aussie and my wife's a Chilena. We had to make multiple trips to the airport. Once we found out about the bus - we took that every time and saved ourselves heaps.
Pardon my language, but holy SHIT. that's the most expensive taxi ride I've ever heard of. Fortunately, even when I didn't speak good Spanish or know where I was going, before I got into a cab I said, I only have 7,000 lukas. He said, no it's going to be like 20,000 so I started getting out and then he was like, no no no, oh fine, I'll take you for 7.
I don't think it's necessarily that the traveller is clueless, it's more likely that after a long, tiring flight the sheer amount of noughts on the end of chilean prices confuses them and unscrupulous taxi drivers take advantage. My first day in santiarsehole four years ago i tried to take 2 million out of the cash point when i actually wanted 200 thousand. Fortunately, I didn't have so much cash in my account at the time...
Kyle...that's quite impressive...7k into town. Cheapest I've ever managed was 10k...
Talking about arriving at SCl though..the scrum that awaits visitors is the very first thing that many people will experience in Chile. And, to me, it's not the impression that Chile should be giving people. For all Chile's advances etc, those first 5 minutes on Chilean soil make you realise that this is still a 3rd world country.
I don't think darkening the glass is going to make any difference-the traveller still has to walk through the mass of people once they leave that area. Banning non-certified/unofficial taxis and having a central desk where everyone has to go to buy a ticket for a taxi would be the simplest way of improving the situation. This is common in airports around the world and, in my experience, very effective. It also makes the weary, sometimes wary, traveller feel more comfortable and safe. And that's an impression that Chile should be promoting.
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