morrisunc

Had a terrible experience last week flying Jfk-aua. I purchased a one way ticket for a 3 day trip to meet my partner for a board meeting. Flying back I was on a private aircraft. When I checked in the machine wouldn't print me a pass and I had to see an agent - who told me the system would not allow me to check in unless I could show proof of a return. Said this was Delta policy - I sure as hell know it's not policy of aruba. After about 30 minutes of escalating this And refusing to buy a return I was eventually printed a boarding pass and was told they will let this "slide" when I showed an email with non specific details about my return from my partner. Probably half of my international trips are booked without a return on mostly one world airlines and I've never encountered this. Really turned me off from Delta. How can this type of policy align with the "high value" passengers Delta is trying to win.

flyerCO

Sorry, but that's the law. Just about all countries require proof of onward travel for entry. They may not ask for it, but if asked you're required to have it. As an American I find most 1st world countries don't bother. However others can require all the time.

Thus just like having a valid visa, or valid passport, you must also have acceptable proof of onward travel. This isn't a DL thing, all airlines are supposed to ask for it. If they don't they can be fined and required to fly you back.

DLMiddleSeats

According to Timatic (what DL uses to determine international travel requirements) for Aruba you need proof of return or onward travel.

Airlines can face large fines for transporting people without the proper documents.

AUA may be very lax enforcing this provision but the GA stateside wouldn't have a way of guaranteeing your entry without being show proof that you meet the listed requirements

bennos

Actually, it is the policy of Aruba.

And generally speaking, you need proof of onward travel or a valid resident visa/document for any international travel. I'm genuinely surprised they "let it slide" without proof of the return trip, as airlines can get fined big $ for transporting a passenger with invalid travel documents.

NoStressHere

Yep... them are the rules. Enforced all the time -maybe not. But if somebody just got chewed out for yesterday, you can bet they are gonna be all over your butt!

By the way, if this ever happens with no option... buy a fully refundable ticket and cancel it later. And, THERE is the fallacy in this whole thing. And by the way, the rule is usually ONWARD travel. They don't care where you go, and just want to know you have a ticket to leave and go somewhere.

By the way, many countries have rules that you must show reasonable funds to sustain yourself while in the country. Again, they don't usually bother anyone about that.

Kacee

And the solution here is so easy: Just buy a fully refundable return.

ijgordon

I suppose this is why we're told not to believe everything we read on the internets?

Fwiw, technically the purchase of a (refundable) ticket that you have no intention of using is fraud, but if you buy it far enough in advance, cancel it promptly (subject to stay limitations), and don't do it repeatedly with the same airline, it's not likely to go noticed.

"Better" course of action would be documentation of the return charter/private plane, though I don't know exactly what would be available/acceptable.

morrisunc

Looks like I was wrong. My last 2 trips for work to Australia on quantas and 2 trips to the uk on AA were all booked one way as I didn't have any idea when I would return. Had no problem on any of the trips. Would have left Aruba a day early if I could have.

MADPhil

It seems to me that if you don't have proof (whatever that is) of a guaranteed return flight on the private plane then it would be prudent to purchase a refundable commercial return ticket. Since the whole point of such tickets is to accommodate changes in plans then the airline cannot reasonably complain when your plans do change.

pbarnette

Indeed, it does look like you are wrong. And what happened on your work trips or what have you does not make DL wrong. The laws are pretty clear and proof of onward travel or right to residence is pretty much international travel 101. Your anger at DL is, frankly, completely misplaced. Indeed, I'd be more angry at whoever booked your work trips as they should have booked you a fully refundable return rather than putting you at risk of being denied boarding. This is what my company does in such circumstances, though perhaps your corporate travel agent isn't as versed in arranging international travel?

flyerCO

If it's a charter then there should be a travel itinerary just like on the airline's. If it's a private plane, then they may need a little bit of detail to document. Either way theY need some type of proof.

gooselee

Side question, mostly as a hypothetical.

I'm going to AU/NZ this fall. My tickets as booked are US-AKL / MEL-US. Clearly, I am planning to return to the US well before any stay limitations for either AU or NZ are reached.

In my case, I plan to buy my NZ-AU ticket well before my trip, just once I firm up plans for how long I'm staying in each country. But, for the sake of discussion, suppose I were to really wing it, and say I'm just going to go to NZ, hang out for a bit, and then when I'm so moved I'll grab a ticket to MEL to hang out there and then catch my flight home. In that case, I would not have a ticket for travel exiting NZ at the time that I enter the country, though I would have definitive proof that I am planning to eventually leave/go home.

Does this meet the requirements for "onward travel"? Or must it be proof that I actually have passage out of NZ?

Other places where this might be more of an issue, for example: Air tickets booked into London but return from Paris. Plan to take Eurostar ex-London, but haven't purchased ticket because unsure of date. Does the ex-Paris ticket satisfy onward travel requirements?

sethb

That's a lot harder these days. I have credit cards. How do they know if there are any funds available on them? (They could try checking an authorization, but that will tie up the very funds they want me to have.)

5khours

I do 50 entries a year into foreign countries. I never have a return or onward ticket, and I have never been asked either by an airline or by an immigration official. If I were asked, I'd just book one on my phone and show it.

MSPeconomist

In some circumstances, such as TWOV for China, you absolutely must have purchased the ticket and this is checked by immigration officers. Maybe you could get away with purchasing the ticket, printing the receipt, and then cancelling within 24 hours, but IMO there's some chance that they will actually check with the airline to determine whether you have a valid itinerary and ticket upon arrival. One would not want to get caught attempting to cheat on this.