Peakview

Does every country have a protocol in place for not permitting people into their country without an onward ticket? I am not asking for people's experiences at immigration as I know there will be a ton of responses along the lines of "they have never checked me at .....". I am looking for more definitive knowledge of the regulations. Singapore? Indonesia? Thailand? I do know that the Philippines is quite likely to ask and I was made to sign a waiver when flying from Singapore to Manila on a one-way. I am confident that immigrations in Jakarta, Bangkok, and Singapore won't ask to see an onward ticket from a US citizen, but on the other hand it would sure ruin my trip if I had to deal with buying a costly return ticket on the spot.
My plan is to fly from the US to one of the above locals and purchase a RTW ticket and then keep it going.
Thanks in advance!

Jaimito Cartero

I've flown to much of Asia including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and was never asked for a return ticket. I think you'll be fine in those countries. I'd touch bases with a TA in those countries and have an itinerary penciled in, so if there is any question, you can refer them to the TA.

glob99

You may not be allowed to board the plane in the USA going to BKK. You could buy a fully refundable ticket for BKK -> SIN to satisfy the airline.

Kiwi Flyer

Welcome to FT peakview

Jakarta asked me to show return ticket. Note that even if countries don't have compulsory return ticket requirement for entry, any immigration officer may refuse entry on various grounds - one of which may be no return ticket. If there is no official requirement then you can argue (perhaps with the help of your embassy) but that may take some time to resolve. Bottom line is countries can refuse to admit visitors for whatever reason.

The IATA visa database (on DL website) may help with any official rules.

Peakview

Thanks for the speedy replies! Good ideas. Buying the refundable ticket would be the safest, but I think having a printed itinerary from a recognizable travel agent should be sufficient. I'll keep the board posted if I run into trouble anywhere.

htb

Aren't discounted return tickets normally much cheaper than the typical one-way ticket (unless you are talking about a one-way award)? Therefore I never understood this fixation on "onward" tickets to enter a country. If someone arrives on a one-way ticket, that person obviously has enough money...

I had problems when checking in on Continental one time. I flew to Guam from Japan and left my international tickets with friends in Japan. I had no problems getting to Guam, but the Continental stuff didn't let me check in for the way back to Japan and made me buy a full fare ticket from Japan to Guam. It was fully refundable (even though I had to fight with Continental for over one year to get the last 100 dollars back) and just plain stupid in terms of achieving anything

HTB.

Kiwi Flyer

Most countries perceive that a foreigner arriving without an onward ticket is more likely to overstay and work illegally than one arriving with a return ticket. Same logic applies when countries check how much cash you have/have access to.

htb

Yes, I understand this part of the thinking, but who in the world is going to buy a one-way ticket which is more expensive than a return ticket whether or not they want to stay? The logic above only works if return tickets are more expensive than one-way tickets: you don't buy the return part because you have no intend of using it. It also only makes sense as long as there are no fully refundable fares: just buy another ticket and have it refunded (needs some cash, however).

My point: the hole "onward ticket" thing is pointless.

HTB.

mcgahat

I have bought a loto fo one way tickets to asia....typicallyy BKK. Normally I have an itin booked via a local travel agent but not ticketed and print that out and show it to immigration if asked. It has come up before. Now, I may very well change that held reservation and book something totally different but the held reservation is usually enought to satisfy immigration. I did get questions in BKK several times as to whether I had a visa since they only saw the one way and they assumed I was staying longer term but the only reason they asked me was because ky wife who is thai was there with me....otherwise they never ask. Not sure about the other countries.

FTraveler

As an American with travel originating from Japan, NRT-ATL-NRT for example, while checking in for the ATL-NRT return flight, I have always been asked for proof of a return tkt back to the U.S.

Loren Pechtel

We have hit the onward ticket rule once. The country was Zimbabwe. We planned to leave by train--tickets to be purchased in-country.

They wouldn't let us in without a ticket. The obvious solution, a refundable ticket. Note that the ticket was stamped saying that we couldn't cash it in in Zimbabwe unless the restriction was lifted. This let us in, we got our train tickets and then went to whatever authority it was, they stamped the train ticket and cancelled the stamp on the air ticket.

This was back in the era of paper tickets. e-tickets were unheard of.