A short account in case anyone is interested.
I flew from London to Buenos Aires yesterday with British Airlines (BA0245). Landed at EZE short of 8 AM, the plane was full as usual. The flight lasted 13:30 hrs, which is short for that route (on average it takes closer to 14:00 hrs) There were other intl. flights coming in that morning, so the arrivals area at T1 was pretty crowded.
The Duty Free shop was well stocked and they even sold the same shortbreads from Walkers that I saw at Heathrow, and if you paid in pesos it was cheaper than at Heathrow. However, the selection was limited.
You can still pay using your Argentinian card and you get charged in pesos at the official rate. No dolar turista nor other weird taxes that I had heard that were going to be applied also to duty free. I asked to a clerk to make sure I was up to date and he confirmed that they convert the prices in USD to pesos and charge in pesos.
There were 10 cashiers opens, 3 lines, and it still took me 30' to pay for my 1 lt bottle of Jack Daniels. Price tag was 38.50 USD, which were converted to pesos at the official rate of 365.50 (about 14.000 pesos). Unfortunately I didn't have more money in the bank to shop more.
Converting back those 14000 pesos at the blue rate, it means about 20 USD, which is less than I would have paid at the supermarket in Italy (1 lt costs about €24 on amazon.it, i.e. 26 USD) - not a big difference, but with the convenience of 1 kg less in my luggage and a 30' wait.
By the time I had paid and was ready to collect my bags, they were the last ones on the carousel and an airport staff member was about to take it off from the belt. Note: London's carousel was no. 9, but my bags showed up on carousel 7. At this point, I am not sure if they travelled with me... I believe so because I just a 1:50 connection in London, but who knows!)
The duty free was literally assault by locals, some shopping two hand carts worth of chocolates, perfumes and sweets. I am wondering if the man buying 3 fragrances is planning to resell them or if they are actual gifts.
The guy at the cashier mistook me for a tourist, which I took as a good sign as I hope that at the Aduana check they wouldn't inspect my bags. There is still the infamous AFIP button, but a nice lady decides whether to press it for you or not. Otherwise, she just directs you to a line (there were 9) where you place your bags on the scanner belt.
If it wasn't for the duty free line, I would have been out in 30'. The machine passport control worked well, although the machines themselves were bloody slows, to the point where a manned passport control would have taken the same. It was just that the line was shorter at the machines. I still don't get why there are separate lines for each machine, whereas there is a single line for the manned passport check.
The machines are only for Argentinian citizens over 13 years old (travelling on an Argentinian passport).
Seriously, do you feel it was better than it used to be in the old terminal? If it’s possible to get out of the airport in 30 minutes, that actually sounds very good.