It took about a year and a half of occasionally asking airline employees, making calls to customer (non) service, etc. and getting nowhere but I finally decided to make a mission out of it. I got one of about $20 US and today got one for just under $300 US for 15 trips. Life is good. I was able to creatively break into the airline employee directory and found the tax manager. I really have no idea just yet how to tell anyone else to do this but am trying to get to that point, now that I have my Dough-Rey-Mi. My ex used to say that I chased dead people for a living and bought their now unwanted land. So this was really a snap. The only thing I can offer up is that Spirit refers to this as the UK tax, but at the airport level they called it UKA. But it is the tourist tax we have heard about and if you have immigration status in Mexico you are exempt. One secret is to originate your trips here but you are entitled to the refund just as long as you enter and leave or leave and enter Mexico and you have an FM3 or presumably an FM2. Yippee,
Yep. Not easy the firt time but once you figure it out it is fairly easy and worth it. I never did myself but have someone who did.
I imagine the same applies if you are a citizen, but my interests are totally self serving. Spirit told me that NOW, with their new system, if the flight is round trip and originates in Cancun, which is their only location in Mexico, that the system presumes that you are not a tourist. A call to the airline that you use, or even a review online of the taxes, could give you the answer. I think you can "pretend" you are making a reservation and there should be an "about taxes" link before you complete the process. But you would have to be able to identify if a tourist tax is there or not. At the current US$ exchange rate, the tax is approximately $20 per incoming passenger. In my case I have always booked from Florida to Mexico but I changed that after talking to the Spirit Tax Dept guy. I booked a one way from Orlando to here for October. I have yet to book any more after that so don't know if the system will omit the tax or not.
Hi TJ - Thanks for the info. Were you able to retroactively request a refund of the tax, and if so, how far back in time did they retroactively allow you to request the refund?
Yes Gringa, I got it retroactive the the first travel date after receiving my FM3, wish was Nov. 1, 2006. Something like 12 or 13 trips total on Spirit.
Bump to update. Thanks to the information provided here, we too have been able to recover the Mexican Tourist tax portion of our US Airways' flights by providing copies of our FM3's to the airline along with detailed flight/date information. Seems as though what we have recovered is just about paying for the incredibly personal renewal services of Sr. Mauricio Mendoza whose name also came highly recommended here at this Site. Thank you to all.
