carrotjuice

My original point exactly. No more than a CYA action.

carrotjuice

Gosh. This is silly indeed. Wonder if you’d be checked in if you say that you plan to hop on a bus after a few days to JB… and your plans are flexible and bus tickets are plentiful and don’t to be bought in advance.

geoshina

And by doing so, the airline is not required to bring the person back if he is not accepted into the country.

Some years ago I did flew o/w GRU-BCN with SQ. In order to check me in the agent had to input the e-ticket of the return flight back into the system.
More recently I flew out of BRU with TG in an award redemption as well. The agent just asked me if I had return flight, which I did.

Dave510

If foolproof is the standard for doing anything, then I'm not sure many things would be done at all.

moondog

As long as people overstay, these policies will remain on the books in countries that care about that sort of sort of thing.

Even though they are rarely enforced IME, when immigration people decide to ask for proof of onward ticket, funds, insurance, etc, ...and, the traveller can't provide such, it's on the inbound carrier to get them back to the point of origin ASAP.

As such, I don't find it the least bit confusing that some airlines have a policy of asking (assuming the underlying requirements are listed in timatic).

I frequently travel to Thailand without specific plans on when/how I'm leaving. I'm only asked to show proof of onwar/return travel by the airline ~10% of the time, but have no problem making a reservation or buying a ticket while checking in. No big deal imo.

carrotjuice

Imagine the collective efficiency / resource savings from that…

alamah

This is the border policy of many countries. Airlines are simply following the rules. Why blame the airlines or the check-in agents for it?

The immigration officers in some countries do ask for proof of onward flights. If you can't produce them, you are at the risk of being denied entry.

SilverChris

It's more nuanced than that. In some countries, you just need to prove you have the means to leave when your stay is up. The trouble arises when check-in agents can't distinguish the difference.

NetJets Germany

I don’t think OP is blaming the airlines or check-in agents. He is simply stating that this policy makes little sense in today’s day and age.

In the past maybe it made a lot more sense, when you had to go to a travel agent’s office to purchase a ticket or have it sent to you in an envelope.

Today virtually anybody can buy virtually any ticket to go virtually anywhere. Most people can at least book a ticket at very short to no notice to go somewhere.

So the rule appears to be in place as a remnant of a different era. And there appears to be little incentive by the people who could change or abolish it to do so.

I find it highly inconvenient at times as well having to show an onward ticket. If it was easy to buy one that could be refunded at no cost, then maybe it wouldn’t bother me so much. But these days it is getting ever more difficult to find such a ticket. And then it is very annoying when you have to shell out $50 or more in cancellation fees to simply show a check-in agent proof of a ticket that you never intended to use in the first place.

moondog

Sure, it's easier to game the system now, but governments in countries like Nepal have no incentive to remove the rules from the books, even if they rarely enforce them in practice. They "make sense" because they provide some means to deter or reject undesirables.

lokijuh

As an Australian traveling to UK, I used to be given the third degree about why I was visiting UK and what my plans were. As I became older the interrogations became less and less, to the point where (in 2017) the officer at LHR just glanced at my 3/4 full 64 page passport that I'd had for 5 years, and said, I can tell from the number of stamps in your passport I don't have to worry about you overstaying ... But jump to LGW one year later, same passport, now 90% full and I was asked by immigration official to show proof of my onward travel to ARN. So it does happen from time to time.

(Jump to LHR in 2022 and straight to electronic entry, no interaction with immigration officer...)

pogonation

To get around this I used to use AA.com to make award ticket reservations "on hold". I would then cancel the reservation after arriving at my destination. Haven't had to do it for a long time but was a fast and effective wy to deal with the situation albeit a little bit naughty.

carrotjuice

To show how stupid this whole charade is, you can also waitlist for an SQ flight, then send the itinerary to a travel management app like TripIt or TripCase, and show it when asked. Obviously a waitlist may never clear...

chris63

Same here, Lufthansa Miles and More tickets can be refunded for free within 24 hours, costs me nothing & satisfies check in agents

itadakimasu

My understanding is this stems from some really archaic immigration rules of entry, which are very much at the discretion of the immigration official one comes across at the port of disembarkation. If someone fails to fulfil the requirements, there is the potential for immediate deportation on the next flight back for which the airline can be forced to bear all costs, and also face a fine. I've had a passenger in precisely that position (an NZ national) seated across the aisle from me on a flight to AKL some years back - she'd been refused entry at PVG and put on the very same aircraft she'd arrived there in, and routed home via SIN.