One Way ticket into Mexico [insufficient for airline agents and Mexico immigration]
Mar 6, 2014, 3:34 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 209
One Way ticket into Mexico [insufficient for airline agents and Mexico immigration]
I have been purchasing ow tickets msn-cun for the last several years. Basically don't know when or where I will be returning. This year (Jan 4) the delta madison baggage desk did not want to let me go because I was lacking onward ticket. I explained that I am taking the bus to Guatemala. After some discussion and calls to "headquaters". They let me go.
Two weeks later, a buddy was doing same trip and they made him buy a return ticket at the airport (24 hour cancelable with 35usd in person booking fee).
Anybody with similar experience. Did they let me go since I am a Delta Million Miler? Really a bummer for flexible independent travelers.
PS absolute no problem/questions at Cancun immigration ..15 seconds at most. Leaving mexico march 15 via bus and will stay in Guatemala for a couple of weeks.
Two weeks later, a buddy was doing same trip and they made him buy a return ticket at the airport (24 hour cancelable with 35usd in person booking fee).
Anybody with similar experience. Did they let me go since I am a Delta Million Miler? Really a bummer for flexible independent travelers.
PS absolute no problem/questions at Cancun immigration ..15 seconds at most. Leaving mexico march 15 via bus and will stay in Guatemala for a couple of weeks.
Mar 7, 2014, 6:04 am
#2
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Bainbridge Island, WA
Posts: 8,964
This has happened to me once w/ American Airlines about 4 years ago but I caught it before getting to the airport when I called in to reconfirm. I have seen discussion about it on other forums and it really is ambiguous whether it is a real Mexican immigration issue or a hard nosed check-in agent interpreting the rules.
FWIW...I have flown in numerous times since then on a OW ticket into Mexico.I have never been questioned about my lack of return by US airline agents or Mexican immigration since that one time.
FWIW...I have flown in numerous times since then on a OW ticket into Mexico.I have never been questioned about my lack of return by US airline agents or Mexican immigration since that one time.
Mar 7, 2014, 3:09 pm
#3
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: WAS
Programs: enjoyed being warm spit for a few years on CO/UA but now nothing :(
Posts: 2,507
same here, for years I have been going to mexico on one ways - never a question or comment about it. Did have one immigration official remind me my passport was due to expire in a couple of months....
This sounds to me like poor or overzealous training on the part of the agent.
This sounds to me like poor or overzealous training on the part of the agent.
Mar 7, 2014, 4:51 pm
#4
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
When this is run on IATA TimaticWeb, the result is, in part:
further, for Mexico it exists as well. Though agents Mexico immigration agents generally do not check, they can demand it.
The issue used to be addressable by purchasing an airline MCO (Miscellaneous Charges Order), which was also refundable; MCOs are not generally offered by airlines for those purposes any longer.
IMO your best bet is a fully refundable ticket back, but of course, it means a significant investment.
Mexico immigration officials are generally not the problem. Airline ticket counter agents, however, can be personally fined and the airline fined, iirc, $10,000 and required to provide transport back to the country of origin - and most airline agents do not want to have one of these "stick" to them and their personnel record. So, they will often be sticklers rather than risk the issue.
Warning:
- Visitors not holding return/onward tickets could be refused entry.
- Visitors not holding return/onward tickets could be refused entry.
R38) Ticket (US Citizen to Mexico, no transit elsewhere)
......
Immigration authorities may request visitors and transit
passengers to prove that they will depart from the country
within the prescribed period, by showing a return or onward
ticket to their next international destination.
Unless stated otherwise, return/onward ticket is defined as:
a. International airline ticket (i.e. any types of airline
tickets, reservation confirmation, booking code etc.); or
b. Evidence of departing from the country by other means of
transportation (e.g. confirmation of joining a cruise, train,
bus or ferry tickets, proof of departing by private boat or
plane, etc).
......
Immigration authorities may request visitors and transit
passengers to prove that they will depart from the country
within the prescribed period, by showing a return or onward
ticket to their next international destination.
Unless stated otherwise, return/onward ticket is defined as:
a. International airline ticket (i.e. any types of airline
tickets, reservation confirmation, booking code etc.); or
b. Evidence of departing from the country by other means of
transportation (e.g. confirmation of joining a cruise, train,
bus or ferry tickets, proof of departing by private boat or
plane, etc).
IMO your best bet is a fully refundable ticket back, but of course, it means a significant investment.
Mexico immigration officials are generally not the problem. Airline ticket counter agents, however, can be personally fined and the airline fined, iirc, $10,000 and required to provide transport back to the country of origin - and most airline agents do not want to have one of these "stick" to them and their personnel record. So, they will often be sticklers rather than risk the issue.