So how do I solve the onward ticket problem? Usually I would buy a cheap throw away ticket, but I am travelling with my wife and mother and dont wanna throw away hundrends of dollars. I dont want to book some expensive refundable ticket just to be told that I didnt read some hidden fine print and am not eligible for a refund either. Not an american btw, so not qualifiying for the 24h mandatory cancelation.
Are third party onwardtickets services reliable? Which are the best one?
What even is the onward ticket problem?
Proving you have a ticket to leave the country you are visiting for a limited amount of time
check visa
When entering another country, usually you must present proof that you have booked a flight out at the end of your scheduled stay. Its supposed to be a proof that you are not trying to stay illegal or some bullshit like that.
In any case its difficult to present such an onward ticket if you dont know yet when you are going to leave, or where.
White people never need these
Just because im in a good mood, use this onward ticket site and get a legit onward ticket that you can use
>onwardticket.com/
Is it reliable though? I heard its only a reservation and border guards / check in agents can see the difference
NTA, but I use that site too. The reservation email you get looks generic but it has the airline name and reservation code, and if you go to the airline website and look it up, it shows as a legit reservation.
I've heard some people pay for the 14 day ticket (the 2 day valid ticket is the cheaper option) and use it apply for visas where embassy staff want to see a booked return ticket. Personally, the very rare time I've ever been asked to show an onward ticket, I just zoom in on the date and name part of the confirmation on my phone's screen and the agent glances at it and moves on with the checking-in process.
I'm solo travelling indefinitely for the first time and I'm planning on buying one way tickets and using this website to show proof of onward travel if the agents ever ask for them. How often did you use this service and how often did the agents ask for it in your experience?
Really depends what countries your going to and what airlines your flying. Bring proof of countries you've passed thru and prove you have enough money and a plan to leave and they should'nt bust your balls.
You could photoshop the onward ticket thing, Or just wait for the rare occasion they ask and then buy a fully refundable ticket and then return it after you show them and tell em to lick your balls
Only time they ever busted my balls was US to Ecuador and I had to buy a ticket and show the cunt, and then I called and canceled it as the plane was boarding.
Why not get a return ticket?
>Why not get a return ticket?
Sometimes you don't want to pre-plan your exact date of exit and next destination. It's not a problem for normies who travel directly to and from their 2-week vacation, but it's a hassle for those of us who work remotely and travel between countries.
Three options here
1. Tell them you aren't sure exactly when you will leave and if you will see another country after or go back home so you will book it soon, and show you have enough for that, no one has ever even asked me to show funds or ticket but I have a good passport
2. Find an airline that lets you reschedule without fees, and book a roundtrip. I know a lot of airlines did this during covid so I rescheduled a flight a fee times, but double check
3. Find a flight and print the information so it looks like you booked it, they do not check that you really did. Bring a proof of funds to be safe whichever way you choose.
All of this.
Depending on the country, I would also just book like a 10$ bus ticket out of the country on some border that actually permits foreigners to cross or something. Or a similar train ticket.
It really, really depends on the specific country how strict they are with this stuff, though.
read the fine print then. grow a pair of nuts
I see this shit always on SighSee but never have experienced for myself it in my 7-8 years flying internationally. Like where the fuck does this even happen? Every time I've gone from places in Asia strict as China to very relaxed Bergen airport in Norway, I've never been asked more than business/pleasure and intended length of stay with a few questions of places I intended on going.
Serious question, are you guys showing up to border patrol looking begpacker levels of unshaven/showered, with no idea where you are staying or going, and mutter every response without looking them in the eyes or something? I don't get it, generally I've always tried to make myself look fairly close to my passport photo with collard shirt+jeans and as good a shave as possible+haircut. Have some basic itinerary for any questions about where I might stay and done. The absolute most I've ever had happen is someone ask me how I intended to get around, ask for my first hotel stop booking receipt, open my bag, peak for exactly 5 seconds and then wave me through.
It seriously boggles my mind that I've never experienced this with the places I've been.
Never had any troubles either but places that require you to apply for a visa beforehand usually want some kind of itinerary and tickets that show you'll leave the country.
China used to be fairly relaxed, accepting all kinds of fantasy itineraries but countries like Russia made sure that you paid some local company for "invitation letters" and "accommodation vouchers" that meant exactly dick asides from letting the bureaucrats tick the correct boxes.
Countries like Japan and the US want to know your first address when arriving, usually they just accept whatever you wrote on the form, any suHispanicious people probably will have to wait until they confirmed it.
I mean that's understandable but still almost always validated by a hotel reservation. Like who is actually flying to another country(barring shit like flying within EU where passport just werks) without a hotel reservation? Maybe it's a culture thing or whatever but even in the earliest days of me traveling domestic or internationally I'd always have a hotel/hostel/airbnb lined up as generally the first thing I want to do after a plane ride is drop my shit off and maybe shower/shit/shave.
China is strict with their 144hr visa but even that's a simple tick by registering your hotel/showing proof of hotel reservation and done.
Never had issues but know friends who look like hippies or begpackers get absolutely shat on in searches and questions simply because they didn't want to shave or cut their hair.
Ex-USSR states are generally fine though never been to Kazakhstan or that far, and no interest in MENA. Maybe that's it, but dunno seems like such a common thing given how often this pops up here.
>Like who is actually flying to another country without a hotel reservation?
People who don't need to stay in a hotel because they crash at someone's place.
Although to be honest, I nowadays book one night in a hotel nearby anyway to not have to worry about bothering them in case of delays and to arrive in peace. Not having to explain the arrangement to the CBP officer is an added bonus.
>Like who is actually flying to another country without plans/reservations
People who are either intending to marry someone in the country or seek work illegally (usually staying with friends or relatives). Or you're a drug mule who is going to leave after getting paid. That's really all it's about. They don't actually care where you plan to stay other than you having a story that looks somewhat touristic instead of saying you'll stay at a cousin's house, he'll support you and that you'll be there for the maximum allowable time with no plans for what to do.
Apparently ex ussr and se asian countries ask for bribes at the border, you pay them off they look the other way.
Usually not a big deal in the West, happens more in places in the ex-USSR, MENA and various third world countries.
Their local officers need to feel important, especially if you're from a first world country and make more in a month than they'll make in a year.
It happens with me all the time at the check-in counter. The check-in agents need to enter a booking/reservation number into their system before they let me board any flight to a 3rd country. They do not have any ability to bypass that.
You'll never notice this limitation if you only ever book return trips or if you only fly to and from your home country. Or to and from 2 different Schengen countries (assuming you are a Schengen citizen). You also won't notice this when all your flights are part of a single booking. Cause the check-in agent simply pulls up your entire booking, and copy-pastes that info without you seeing what they're doing.
I make a lot of bookings separately, so the check-in agents have to type it all in manually.
It has nothing (read: nothing) to do with how you look. It's not a security check or border control who asked me this info ever. It's everything to do with an interface that doesn't let the agents print the boarding pass in every single similar scenario. My passport is one of the top passports in the world, so no, it's also not because of a shit-tier passport. It's just cause of separate bookings.
If I want to use a service like onwardticket.com, do they care if it's a reservation and not an actual plane ticket? Judging by what you're saying, it seems like they just need a valid number to be added into their system. I'm wondering what the actual reason why they want proof of onward travel. Services like this one just rent a reservation and then they get cancelled automatically for a small fee. You can't fly unless you pay the full price of a ticket. Is this simply to please some bullshit requirement from the airline, because these onward tickets won't actually ensure you fly back home or to another country at the end of your tourist visa, for example.
>Is this simply to please some bullshit requirement from the airline
Exactly.
>because these onward tickets won't actually ensure you fly back home or to another country at the end of your tourist visa
Indeed.
But they absolve the airline of any responsibilities, as they have successfully ticked the right boxes.
Do you know if the onward ticket will also be used as part of the interrogation process by the immigration/border employees?
Depends on the country you're visiting, the passport and visa regime you're using.
I have never had this happen to me and I used to book one way flights all the time.
I've had this happen to me when flying from Malaysia to Vietnam and from Vietnam to Japan. Both flights were with Vietjet though.
>Flown into Finland on a 1 way ticket from the US
no issue, explained I was taking a boat from Helsinki in a few weeks to norway. Simply got an "oh okay"
>Flown into Korea 1 way ticket
no issue, Explained I was taking a boat to Japan
>Drive into mexico
Never even asked, same with canada they just asked me if I had a job in the USA
>fly into London last summer
Never even talked to a person just was going to book a flight later
>Fly into HK
Only asked to look in my bag and my intended length of stay
>Fly into Japan
No issue(pre covid), the new covid app forces you to state at least some onward travel. The times I've gone they just saw I'd been there before and waved me through.
I've never experienced it but I stick away from the COOMER places of SEA because who the fuck actually needs to go to those places to have a fuck? Like at most I just answer and show my basic itinerary and state my intended leave date+next destination, boom done.
>It has nothing (read: nothing) to do with how you look
It has a lot to do with how you look and most importantly act, I 100% disagree with your statement. My friend who refuses to take care of himself gets stopped all the fucking time like every single time. If you look good, act confident during their questions, be willing to show some kind of plan for intent of stay, and be willing to let them go in your bag without going on schizo rants about shit. You generally will be let through.
I guess it's generally because places I go I always have some itinerary with hotel booked+things to do, and always willing to comply and show the guy at the border it. That's the only thing I can think of.
Did you need to show a ticket from services like onwardticket.com and they accepted as proof of onward travel while on a one-way ticket? Did they also question your occupation or employment status?
No.
Cool I'm from the US, even
>It only gets interesting when you fly BETWEEN third countries where you need a visa to BOTH of the third countries.
Again regardless what countries are on my stop never asked I don't get this meme of needing onward travel. Every time I travel though I generally have an itinerary and ready to show whoever what my plans are.
Dude, nobody asks me either when I leave my home country or Schengen or wherever. It only gets interesting when you fly BETWEEN third countries where you need a visa to BOTH of the third countries.
And nobody asks after landing, it's about BEFORE boarding the plane in country where you needed a visa to another random country where you needed a visa.
If you always go to places where you don't need a visa, obviously nobody will ever care about what you're planning to do.
A lot of posters here have less than ideal passports. There’s at least a few from Eastern Europe and LatAm. There is a risk of getting detained at immigration basically anywhere you go with passports like those, because the fear is that you are planning on staying there illegally. It can theoretically happen the other way around (e.g. American traveling to Colombia), but its less likely since they are mostly just concerned with preventing socially burdensome people from entering.
>Serious question, are you guys showing up to border patrol looking begpacker levels of unshaven/showered, with no idea where you are staying or going, and mutter every response without looking them in the eyes or something?
yes and they still let me in because US passport
>if I will use the return flight eventually
non-refundable, changeable ticket with a major carrier
>if I'm applying for a visa but enter/leave overland
cheapest possible ticket in and out the country, Mainland China to HKG could be had for cheap
>if I'm entering overland
self-made booking confirmation document with whatever data they require
>hotel reservations required for visa
Any big chain or OTA will let you reserve a room without a hold on your credit card and will let you cancel without problems late enough.
As for the address some countries want you to write down on microscopic sheets of paper when arriving, I'll just write the name of the local Hilton or Marriott, that way I don't have to remember the address and the border control officers will know.
What kind of shitty passport do you have to be asked this question?
nah it's kind of the inverse, retarded countries tend to ask this question. i have aus and uk passports and get this consistently in third world countries, even when i make it clear that i intend to stay long term.
ITT: retards
99% of these threads exist because europoors can simply not fathom traveling to the US has a requirement to show you plan to leave. It's almost like they have an immigration problem and want to validate you aren't trying to sneak in, knock someone up, and become a citizen. This flusters and confuses the europoors as they are "real travelers" TM and go from EU state to EU state effortlessly or their "exotic wild trips" to SEA where they don't get bothered either.
Once you realize this board is full of shitty threads most of which are euros realizing that outside the Schengen region may have different rules, their brain blue screens.
>US immigration
>validating anything
I know that the USA is well on the way of becoming a third world country but their bureaucracy is not that functional yet.
The US would be lucky if there were still any Europeans willing to move to that shithole. They let in thousands of illegal Mexicans a day so why bother harassing some white European travellers? The truth is because black and brown border agents hate white people that can afford to travel. Most Americans don't own a passport.
If you’re white and have a passport from a country that doesn’t suck 90% of countries don’t care. I was all worried thinking I would need a bus ticket for Colombia but they barely even looked at my passport.