I can’t believe this has happened to me twice in the last 6 weeks. First from Sydney into Bangkok, then from Bangkok to Vancouver. Both Jetstar and China Airlines wouldn’t let me on the flight without having an outbound ticket from the country.
As an Australian, I am allowed to stay 30 days in Thailand without a visa, and 6 months in Canada. 6 months!!! How can they expect me to have an outbound ticket if I may leave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzhFDHQeHEsomewhere within the next 6 months!
I understand the logic, kinda. I understand that if people don’t have an outbound ticket, there is the possibility that they may jump ship and stay in the country. But if someone is running away from their country to start a new illegal life and they have the money to buy a ticket, do you think that’s going to stop them? Do you think that they may just not get on that flight?
When I was in Sydney dealing with Jetstar they blatantly told me over the counter “we can book you a refundable ticket, and for a $40 fee you can get a refund when you land in Thailand” – so that’s what I did. Big deterrent if I was trying to stay illegally in the country – ohh no, not a $40 cancellation fee. To my amazing frustration, once I landed in BKK, nobody checked to see if I had an outbound ticket.. I just got my bag and walked off. Very annoying.
In Bangkok (I’m sitting in the airport drinking away my frustration) I bought a ticket out of Canada to England. So I’m not sure if they will check in Canada about my outbound flight but if I’m allowed to stay 6 months – I highly doubt they will.
(Edit: Canada did check my ticket. They actually screened me quite thoroughly. It seems countries think it’s weird when someone is travelling with no exact plans or job.)
Luckily I’m in Canada for training and need to be in Sudan in a month’s time so have some dates to work with and the ticket will get used. I would have liked a little more time than the 1 hour and 300b per hour internet to find and book a ticket tho.
It pisses me off how they let you book the one way ticket on the internet with no notification until you are checking in that you need an outbound ticket.
I need to find a way to get around this… I was thinking maybe I could have bought a cheap bus ticket into the US? Or maybe just taken an old flight confirmation email edited the dates and locations in word to fake I had a flight? (Edit: I don’t think this is a very good idea now)
The China Airlines “supervisor” said that it was immigration law and that the airlines can get fined if I don’t have a ticket. I think that’s a load of crock. (Edit: It’s actually the truth) But when your flight leaves in 2 hours, you don’t really have much choice.
Anyone know and sneaky tactics to get around this?
2 responses to “Outbound Flights… F*&k!”
Yep, I’ve ran into this few times.
I never buy return flights; I just print out a (fake) itinerary that I never fully fulfill from travelocity or such.
But that’s rarely necessary, sometimes they simply ask and I just say yes, and name another airline (different than the one I’m dealing with).
Never had an issue.
Really? thats pretty brave. In Canada he took my iteniry and started typing stuff into the computer as if he was checkig it out in detail… not sure. But then again I flew from London to Budapest, and they asked for my outbound fligh (I had one so gave it to them) but was not asked when I arrived in Budapest. I then flew a round trip from Budapest to Ireland and back, and was not asked once…. Its a strange system.