Parking at Ezeiza

Today I had a nightmarish morning at Ezeiza. As usual, I entered the airport using Telepase lane.

However, they have changed the parking system and I couldn't figure it out. The first parking lot is called E1 (Estacionamiento 1), and it is the large outdoor one in front of the Intl. Arrivals. However, both lanes had a barrier - a sign reminded to pay before leaving the parking.... A camera read my plate, but it said it was not recognized (the Telepase had no issue in reading it a minute before). It was asking for a ticket with a QR code, which I didn't have because I had accessed using Telepase, not the manual lane. No Help button was available and no human was in sight. I put the car in reverse and drove out the lane.

I went a little bit further and I was now offered to enter E3. This time, there was a lane with the barrier and the Telepase logo. This is a multilevel parking, but all spaces were taken and the ones not taken had signs "do not park here". I went down one level, and since I didn't want to pay to park (as I never had to in the past), I skipped -2 level and left.

What a mistake! From thereon, I must have drove around the airport at least 6 times, seeing other people as confused as me driving in reverse the lanes of E1. At a certain point, I simply stopped the car in a non-parking area and checked on the Internet how the heck do you park at the Airport. But it was hot and I needed to see the loo, so I kept driving. 4 lap on, I was tempted to go to the Long Stay area, which also has a free waiting area (up to 1 hr) and shuttle to the Arrivals. It is next to the Airport barrier. Since I also wanted a coffee, I kept driving. In the end, I stopped next to the bus area of the arrivals. I must have looked stranded because a nice old man told me that if someone tells me something, just drive around and wait 3' to come back. He was also nice enough to tell me to stay on the sidewalk for my own safety.

This was a nice gesture, but I really needed to use the bathroom and in the meanwhile my husband was finally ready to exit the building. Of course, he went left when I told him to go right, so I took one more lap, kissed him and dashed inside for a pee.

I probably paid $4400 for a parking I didn't park into.

Estacionamiento - Ezeiza - Aeropuertos Argentina

I'll have my husband check how much I spent in Telepase yesterday. Not only you have to pay to access the airport, but also to park your car. Because usually people arrive by car at the airport and put their car in their pocket and fly.

I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in Milan you can access the airport for free, and pay only to park.

The old system in Ezeiza seemed pretty fair to me: you paid based on the amount of time spent inside the premises. Obviously, you had to park somewhere while there.

In Milan Malpensa (recently named after Berlusconi.... eeeeewwww!) there is a kiss&fly zone where you can stay for 10' to kiss your dear one goodbye. There is a system reading your plate when accessing the zone. If you park the car somewhere, you just pay for the parking and not to drive into the airport, as you aren't accessing the kiss&fly zone.

We were just lucky to have missed the strike on that day! I won't complain about my trip to Ezeiza anymore after watching pictures of people stranded at the airport and on planes.