Originally Posted by schoflyer
However, some of my concern has to do with the Sri Lankan law says "imported tickets" are not permitted. I am aware that the IATA rules now permit issuance of tickets in locations other than Sri Lanka, but the question still remains that wether or not these tickets are legal in Sri Lanka. I've heard that this is enforced like the 55mph speed limit. But I'm not too excited about having to re-ticket in Columbo if I hit a snag.
Where is this coming from? I saw a similar post on the (very) long thread in the Mileage Run forum. I've been in the business for 21 years, and can tell you from experience that there is no such law in effect at this time. IIRC, there were a few years in the 90s when Sri Lanka, among other countries (Egypt and the Philippines are the other two I remember) had a rule like this. I think it was to stop local residents from having tickets issued overseas in a (stronger) foreign currency, then refunding them outside the country for cash, therby skirting currency export regulations.
Also, there was never an IATA rule stating that you could not issue tickets outside Sri Lanka for travel originating inside Sri Lanka. You could do that. It was called a SOTO ticket, which stood for Sold Outside (country of origin), Ticketed Outside (country of origin.) However, by doing a SOTO ticket, the rules for checking HIPs (Higher Intermediate Points) changed. A ticket issued as a SOTO transaction required that a HIP check be performed for all
connecting points along the route, rather than
stopover points. This made a HUGE difference in the fare. For example, the popular routing CMB-SIN-NRT-LAX, if issued as a SOTO ticket, had to be brought up to the NRT-LAX fare, even though the passenger was only transiting NRT. This was avoided by sending a PTA (Prepaid Ticket Advice) so the transaction becamce a SOTI (Sold Outside, Ticketed Inside.) A SOTI transaction only required that the HIP check be performed when a passenger stopped for more than 24 hours along the way. In January this year, under pressure from the European Union, IATA did away with the International Sales Indicator on tickets, allowing us to issue tickets originating anywhere without checking HIPs at connecting points. Carriers are now getting around this by instituting Country of Sale restrictions on fares in certain markets. Sri Lanka may be the next target. We'll see!
Sorry for the off-topic post above, but I feel that clarification is needed since a rumor seems to be spreading about whether tickets issued outside Sri Lanka for travel originating in Sri Lanka are somehow "illegal." They are not.