Ever need evidence of onward/return travel?

I have had to show onward tickets when entering some countries, not others, Solomon Islands in particular. They insist on seeing an out-bound ticket before giving you a landing visa up to one day before the flight out. Fiji got sticky on the return leg of a trip when travelling on my EU passport (my Canadian had expired a year before) and they did not want to let me board the flight back to Canada because I didn't have an onward ticket. Copies of my Canadian passport, birth certificate, driver's license, etc., wasn't good enough for them. Got my way in the end when I told them they'd be financially responsible for any extra costs incurred if I had to go to Suva to hunt up the Canadian representative, and as there were two of us travelling together they'd have to compensate both of us. That worked.

Edited by: Watsoff

Flew from Buenos Aires to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines recently. They asked for an onward ticket when I checked in. Fortunately, I had a flight from Malaysia to another SEA country booked on Air Asia. I hadn't expected to be asked, so I just showed them the pdf file on my phone and they were satisfied; I had the feeling if I didn't have it I could have explained I would be crossing by land into Thailand. Depends on the clerk I guess. I also guess it was a touchy time there as a few guys that had just flown in from KL were being sent back for having counterfeit visas. I learned this from another passenger who had helped translate from Chinese to Spanish for the incident.

One time I landed in Indonesia, already had the visa, but the imm. guy wanted to see the return ticket. Also happened crossing by land from Malaysia to Singapore once, but maybe he was suspicious because I was going to be flying out a few hours afters after entering the country.

Stories are coming out about Thai embassies in SEA demanding more documents when applying for visas, check other boards for more chatter on that.

Let me make sure I got this right: Continental will give you a one-way ticket for the half the miles of the round-trip? I tried this in the past (6+ years ago) and was told you can only use miles for round trips. Is this part of the new FF scheme? (haven't looked into the details yet).

Let me make sure I got this right: Continental will give you a one-way ticket for the half the miles of the round-trip? I tried this in the past (6+ years ago) and was told you can only use miles for round trips. Is this part of the new FF scheme?<<

Right. Half the miles of a RT.

United introduced this feature more than a year ago. When I went to SE Asia last October with United I had two one-way tickets, one to go and one to come back. But as my come-back date (in April) approached I hadn't had enough of Vietnam, so I extended my trip by 6 weeks--paying $150 for that privilege.

I didn't want to do that this time; I wanted total flexibility.

Last year Continental didn't offer one-way tkts for reward travel. I suspect it was the merger with United that prompted them to get in sync. And, of course, after Jan. 1 it'll be one FF program, anyway.

So obviously, to gain flexibility, I've had to pay with a bit of uncertainty, hence this thread. But I'm still going with just the one-way ticket and no return ticket.

Lee

In 2010 the only time I was asked for proof of onward travel was at the airport in BKK for a flight to Brunei, they accepted my RTW ticket with the next flight Singapore to Perth as proof, traveled by bus through Brunei, Malaysian & Indonesian Borneo & never had to show proof of onward travel.

#13: which airline was that?

I booked with Royal Brunei but flight was Thai Air, can't remember who manned the check-in counter but they made a phone call & let me on the flight.

Update.
I went ahead with my one-way ticket, and no return flight or onward travel booked, and sure enough, not a whisper about it from anyone.
In fact, I checked in with 3 different airlines on that trip from Seattle to Ho Chi Minh City. After checking in with United, and waiting 5 hours for the plane to be repaired, I was re-booked for the next day on Korean Air to Seoul and Asiana from Seoul to HCMC. Again, nobody mentioned it at all, and immigration in HCMC couldn't have cared less.

Lee