Japan Ticket Collection
 

Could somebody please offer advice with the following

I have received pricing for a 20 segment DONE4 ex NRT.

My problem is that the agent will not courier tickets to my Australian address.

I have received advice from QF that I may be denied boarding at SYD or be refused entry in NRT on my arrival there by immigration.

I am travelling on a One Way ticket SYD-NRT and I need to prove that I will be departing Japan and I have been told a receipt for the paper ticket or a letter from the agent may not be enough proof.

Has anyone had experience with a similar scenario or does anyone know of an agent in Japan that will courier the tickets to a Australia.

Thanks in advance

Although I have not heard of that happening and would seriously doubt being refused if you could show documentation that your ticket is waiting on the other side of immigration, you could also re-do your reservation so that there are fewer than 16 segments (counting open jaws) so that the RTW could be issued as an e-ticket, paid for in advance (assuming you're able to arrange this with QF - it's not a problem with AA) - thus allowing you to show the actual e-ticket printout (with ticket no.) if asked. Later, you'd pay the re-issue fee to have the "missing" segments reinstated.

Japan is pretty sticky about admission (visas were required until recently), and most countries require showing proof of onward travel and only accept a ticket number -- not just reservations. So it really is necessary to issue the tickets prior to travel commencing. The e-ticket route is the obvious solution, and can always be arranged, as Gardyloo described. I think the alternative accepted by Japan is a letter of credit from your bank for some huge amount (USD 50,000) -- then they don't worry that you'll be a financial burden to Japan.

The e-ticket is the obvious answer, although it shocks me that e-documents are accepted for almost any purpose - anyone with a computer can print himself up the most wonderful "e-ticket". It won't fool the computer at check-in, but no one else will know the difference.

It probably won't assuage OP's fears, but I don't recall ever being asked by NRT immigration for any kind of onward travel documention. Just my faulty memory? At SYD check-in, if the agent cares, s/he will probably be satisfied by pulling up the OP's ex-NRT booking and seeing that it's ticketed.

Reading these postings I started to worry about flying in to NRT in June to pick up my own DONE4 paper ticket that AA said they would have waiting at the airport. AA Japan, in making the airport pickup arrangements, did not raise the question about what to show the immigration officials upon arrival. Then I remembered that my flight to Japan is an intermediate part of another RTW ticket that has a Japan departure on it later. So no apparent problem for me. But does the fact that AA Japan didn’t raise the issue suggest that they don’t see the problem that QF does?

This is what I would be doing - knocking up an e-ticket receipt (using the real actual paper-ticket number) and presenting this. As mentioned, the QF check-in droid at SYD will be able to see that the itin is ticketted, and the NRT immigration droids won't be any the wiser.

Why won't your TA courier you the tickets? You are paying them for the service, remember, and they need to provide it. (I used to work as a retail travel consultant, and know what should be happening here). Make them work for the money you are paying them.

Dave

Been considering the NRT option for a while due to the uncertainties surrounding CMB.

Am aware of the need to present proof of onward travel.

My xONEx would be paper - don't see how i can get it down to 16. I'd have to get to NRT on an award ticket from MEL. It costs the same getting one way vs getting return AA All Partners award. Is it possible to book dummy return segments or will the AA computer detect double bookings (since the return portion of the award will obviously coincide with part of the xONEx) and cancel everything including the xONEx flights?

Alternatively, could i simply print out a copy of my xONEx itinerary from AA.com and get some form of validation letter with tix number from AA to prove that the itinerary is indeed ticketed and ready to be picked up at NRT (ie just a few feet away from the immigration hall...)?

Then again I inexplicably lost my eticket receipt on my flight to the US in Dec and was panicking over what to show the immigration officer at ORD. I entered fortress USA without the need to show proof of onward travel as the officer simply asked when I was leaving and to write down my return flight details on some questionnaire, and allowed me through!!

Another option is to book a separate ticket Japan to Seoul/Hong Kong - either cheap or refundable according to what works for you.

I visit Japan 3 - 4 times every year and never been asked to show my air ticket. If you hold an Australian passport, you should be OK.

They do not routinely check, however on the rare occasions when it is checked, the consequences are severe: refused admission (so the airline bringing you gets to take you back) and ineligible for admission to Japan for several years. Targetting is partly random, and partly profiled. If you are targeted, all your papers must be in order, and close doesn't count. Any forged documents, such as invalid ticket numbers, will be detected and you probably won't ever be going to Japan again. The US and most countries have similar procedures, it isn't unique to Japan. As mentioned, any ticket out of Japan solves the problem (even tickets to countries where you would not be admitted, ironically enough).

Hmm - just a thought; would the printed itinerary from AA.com with the real ticket number attached to it work?

Otherwise can someone confirm whether my xONEx will be safe from AA computer cancellation if i do the dummy award return segments?

It never occurred to me that I would need proof of onward travel for Japan. I've been through NRT several times this year, including one-ways from HKG and Europe. I had no problem whatsoever at immigration and was never asked for such proof. In one case I was there to pick up an AONE4 issued by AA. I'm not even sure I had the right documentation printed. Something to bear in mind for next time.

Providing a valid ticket number by any means works fine.

AA does have special software for detecting duplicate bookings, so if you had an award and OWE booking for the same name and flight/date, then it would be detected and one of them would be canceled by the software (in theory it would prevent booking the 2nd one at time of booking). But within the past couple of weeks AA seems to have changed this software to be more lenient in allowing duplicates. Still booking an award that you don't intend to use does deprive someone else of an award seat. Often canceled awards are not returned to award inventory.

That's what I'd do then.
I'm assuming QF check in at MEL will somehow be able to verify that I've actually got a ticket with that number alone?

Yes. That is routine. Ticket number works with any airline (PNR only works with the same system).