Originally Posted by 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.
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.