I just had to pay US$30 to fly out of Ezeiza Airport to Washington D.C. as a airport departure tax that was not included in my ticket. This was the first time I had to pay this without been told by the Airline it was not included. My ticket was on United and this was never mentioned to me. Did anyone out there have the same experience?

I've paid departure tax when leaving New Zealand and Bangkok. I knew about the NZ tax because I'd been there before, but I wasn't prepared for the Bangkok tax. We never left the Bangkok airport, as we stayed in an airport day room for four hours. We didn't have any baht since we were just passing through. So we had to change money just to pay the tax, as they only accepted local currency (cash only).

It was about $12 US per person in Bangkok and NZ$25 per person in Auckland.

I've never been told by an airline whether or not departure tax would be required. I realize that many, many taxes are included in plane fares these days, but individual country departure taxes seem to be independent of these.

Your question piqued my interest, so I did a little online research. Apparently, the rule of thumb is that European countries and the US include the departure tax in the price of the ticket, whereas other countries do not. These taxes can run as high as $50 US, so I guess it's a good idea to have some local currency on hand when you head for the airport.

Whether the departure tax is or isn't included in your ticket depends on the country. Also certain airports require an "airport improvement fee" that's not included in the ticket, YVR comes to mind. It's really up to you to find out. Airlines don't generally inform you of these fees.

More and more countries are including the Departure Fee/Tax in the airline ticket price. That said, there are still airlines/countries that do not. And it is your responsibility to inquire about this.

We also arrived BKK and planned to leave next day for Cambodia. Also stayed at airport hotel, but immediately upon arrival withdrew Baht from the ATM to cover our departure tax (500 Baht) for next morning and enough for spending in Cambodia where they prefer Baht or USD rather than their own currency.

Upon return to Thailand and during our stay, we crossed the border to Myanmar (Burma) and there was a fee of USD$5. And finally departing BKK to return home, another 500 Baht fee.

So it's not unusual, but again, it's just one more question (whether taxes, fees, other) you'll have to remember inquiring about, especially if traveling to distant places.