Coming into the Kingdom on a 1 way air ticket, how do you handle proof of onward travel ?

[momo5]

9 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

For tickets purchased in the US (at least on domestic airlines), you generally have 24 hours to cancel and get a refund after purchase.  I don't know if it applies to foreign airlines.

By buying a fully refundable ticket, it should be fully refundable up until about an hour before take-off.

Be sure to read the terms & conditions closely to be certain you get the right kind of ticket -- some charge a cancellation fee; others will refund a credit.  Neither of those are "fully refundable" in my book.  

It’s federally mandated by law for tickets purchased in the USA, including tickets sold by foreign carriers in the USA, that full refunds to the original form of payment are allowed within 24 hours of booking for tickets booked at least seven days prior to scheduled departure.  
 

Many airlines extend this to within the seven days prior to departure period.   Delta will extend the refund to midnight the day following the day the ticket is purchased, so if you make your reservation at 12:01 am you get nearly 48 hours to request a full refund. 

[bestmate]

5 hours ago, Max5151 said:

Technically you need a long stay visa or work permit etc. 

The issue with short term tourist visas is that you can still be denied entry into Thailand, even though it would be unusual.

There were some of cases pre covid of people being denied entry even with a tourist visa. These cases involved the person being in Thailand for 18 months or more out of the last 2 years on various short term visas or visa on arrival. They were basically trying to stay permantly in Thailand on various short term visas and the Thai immigration cracked down on it.

I personally don't like to take any chances when travelling. Just 1 small paperwork mis-step can ruin an entire trip. Hence I always had a fully refundable ticket out of Thailand before I had a long stay permit.

You can be denied entry with or without ANY type of visa, as it is at the discretion of the customs officer to let you in no matter what visa you hold (on ARRIVAL). That's not the topic here. The question is about showing an onward ticket as proof you will leave the country when checking in to board your flight (at DEPARTURE). Without a visa, you generally need to show proof at the checkin counter of an onward ticket. But with a visa, you just need to show you have a visa at checkin which then allows you to fly one way to Thailand.

Edited April 11 by bestmate

[kd_traveller]

Given the time it takes to get from Ireland to Bangkok from check in, transfers and arrival a 24 hour window is quite tight and recognising that the cost of fully refundable tickets can be high and can take time to be refunded I previously just went on Skyscanner and searched for the cheapest flight out of Thailand.  I just did this again and came up with a €33 flight which in my opinion is tvery convenient as you don't have to outlay on a fully refundable ticket, worry about any 24 hour expiry period!

This was for late April

 

[kd_traveller]

13 minutes ago, bestmate said:

But with a visa, you just need to show you have a visa at checkin which then allows you to fly one way to Thailand.

That maybe the correct position but not all check-in personnel are aware of the rules for entry into Thailand.  I have a "Retirement Visa" and when checking-in the agent wanted to see that I had a flight out before the expiry of my visa, which was the case. 

However, I did mention that with the visa I had I was not required to leave before the expiry of my visa as I could renew it. I might as well have been trying to have a conversation on "metaphysics" as the agent only seemed to understand you need to exit before visa expires. As this was the situation in my case, I did not pursue the "metaphysics" conversation!!!

[momo5]

42 minutes ago, bestmate said:

You can be denied entry with or without ANY type of visa, as it is at the discretion of the customs officer to let you in no matter what visa you hold (on ARRIVAL). That's not the topic here. The question is about showing an onward ticket as proof you will leave the country when checking in to board your flight (at DEPARTURE). Without a visa, you generally need to show proof at the checkin counter of an onward ticket. But with a visa, you just need to show you have a visa at checkin which then allows you to fly one way to Thailand.

Except that customs officers are responsible for enforcing customs laws, things like what you’re permitted to bring into the country with you and what tariffs may need to be assessed on the value of imported goods.  These are the guys/gals near the X-ray machines as you exit after baggage claim.  
 

It’s the immigration officers that assess whether you’re allowed entry into the country or not based on visa and visa-exempt requirements. 
 

The requirement for onward travel is firmly established; whether a particular airline makes an issue of having proof of such is a bit of a crap shoot and airlines mostly use Timatic as their resource for requirements for each individual destination and they’re not likely to give much credence to arguments otherwise.  

[bestmate]

1 hour ago, momo5 said:

Except that customs officers are responsible for enforcing customs laws, things like what you’re permitted to bring into the country with you and what tariffs may need to be assessed on the value of imported goods.  These are the guys/gals near the X-ray machines as you exit after baggage claim.  
 

It’s the immigration officers that assess whether you’re allowed entry into the country or not based on visa and visa-exempt requirements. 
 

The requirement for onward travel is firmly established; whether a particular airline makes an issue of having proof of such is a bit of a crap shoot and airlines mostly use Timatic as their resource for requirements for each individual destination and they’re not likely to give much credence to arguments otherwise.  

Irrespective its clear i used the wrong wording customs/immigration and you are nit-picking and something that is still irrelevant to the topic. I already answered the guy's question about using bestonwardticket.com so not even sure why we are having this conversation that has nothing to do with the thread and question of the OP.

[bestmate]

2 hours ago, kd_traveller said:

That maybe the correct position but not all check-in personnel are aware of the rules for entry into Thailand.  I have a "Retirement Visa" and when checking-in the agent wanted to see that I had a flight out before the expiry of my visa, which was the case. 

However, I did mention that with the visa I had I was not required to leave before the expiry of my visa as I could renew it. I might as well have been trying to have a conversation on "metaphysics" as the agent only seemed to understand you need to exit before visa expires. As this was the situation in my case, I did not pursue the "metaphysics" conversation!!!

The correct position cannot account for human error or even discrimination in any number of scenarios when travelling. We can only go by the correct position and hope for the best!

[Max5151]

21 hours ago, bestmate said:

Irrespective its clear i used the wrong wording customs/immigration and you are nit-picking and something that is still irrelevant to the topic. I already answered the guy's question about using bestonwardticket.com so not even sure why we are having this conversation that has nothing to do with the thread and question of the OP.

I used the wrong wording too and inadvertently started a small ruckus 😁 🤣😂

I apologize for this  @bestmate   🙏 

21 hours ago, bestmate said:

The correct position cannot account for human error or even discrimination in any number of scenarios when travelling. We can only go by the correct position and hope for the best!

I agree with this, we are basically at the mercy of the powers to be on the day. 

[Evil]

Take this as a grain of salt ... I came to the Kingdom  on my last 3 visit with no onward passage and had no problem entering the country. I have a US passport but like many have said your milage may vary. 

[Shamrock71]

What do the check-in staff ask you at the departure desk, once they see you have a one-way ticket to Thailand ? 

Do they ask about your travel itinerary ? And what do you tell them if you have one of these fake onward tickets ?

Do you just show them it and hope they don't ask any more questions ?

 

[kd_traveller]

12 hours ago, Shamrock71 said:

What do the check-in staff ask you at the departure desk, once they see you have a one-way ticket to Thailand ? 

Do they ask about your travel itinerary ? And what do you tell them if you have one of these fake onward tickets ?

Do you just show them it and hope they don't ask any more questions ?

You are not always asked, but if you are it has usually gone this way for me! In Dublin it has been nearly every time in recent years

They look at your return date and if it is longer than 30 days they will ask if you have a visa.  If you have a visa, they ask to see it and they check your return is within that period. If you not have a visa they may then ask if you have an onward ticket, if you have you just show them the ticket and that it is valid within the period of your visa or visa waiver. 

Usually that is the end of it, but twice, once in Dublin and once in Bangkok they actually took the ticket off me and entered details of the ticket into their system.  I don't know what details they actually put in but as is usual with everything when checking in there was loads of keyboard activity!!!

After that there were no more questions, they really could not care about your travel itinerary of whether you have a hotel booked etc.  The airline are responsible for repatriating you if you do not have a proper visa or onward ticket and can be fined if you don't, so that is all they are interested in!

I have never had any issues with immigration in Thailand, never been asked for proof of onward ticket and they can see more easily if you are the appropriate visa. However, in the past when you had to have an arrival card with details of your hotel on it, I have seen a person sent away and told to book a hotel.

You no longer need to fill in one of these forms but you must keep your boarding pass as this is how they now get your flight details from. I have seen someone without one being told to go back to the aircraft and get his boarding pass and another told it was no issue, so make sure you have your boarding pass with you at immigration.

Hope this helps!

Edited April 17 by kd_traveller

[Hamchang]

On 14/04/2024 at 20:08, Evil said:

I came to the Kingdom  on my last 3 visit with no onward passage and had no problem entering the country.

Its not about entering Thailand. Check in should check and stop you. If they do not its a failing with the check in desk. Immigration in Thailand assume it has already been done. 

 

12 hours ago, Shamrock71 said:

What do the check-in staff ask you at the departure desk, once they see you have a one-way ticket to Thailand ? 

 

They ask for proof that you will exit Thailand before the end of your permitted stay. If you can not satisfy that agent you will not be allowed to board the flight

12 hours ago, Shamrock71 said:

And what do you tell them if you have one of these fake onward tickets ?

I assume they will not know it is a fake ticket. They will see the ticket and assume it is genuine and perhaps check the booking code. It's probably that the fake ticket company is actually booking a ticket and cancelling it as that would not cost them anything to do, and travel agencies pay 3 months after the ticket issue so it will be a genuine ticket. 

 

However what visa are you planning in getting? Non Imm O-A? Retirement I assume? Might be easier to actually get the visa in the UK / Ireland before you arrive and avoid the unnecessary hassle. If you have the funds they require its fairly straight forward an no need to waste  money on an agent in country.

[Shamrock71]

4 hours ago, Hamchang said:

 However what visa are you planning in getting? Non Imm O-A? Retirement I assume? Might be easier to actually get the visa in the UK / Ireland before you arrive and avoid the unnecessary hassle. If you have the funds they require its fairly straight forward an no need to waste  money on an agent in country.

Yeah, non imm O visa, via an agency so no issues with money in bank etc.

[Shamrock71]

Two more questions.

 

I assume you need to buy this onward ticket as late as possible (as near to your departure date as possible) because it only lasts for 24 hours (48 hours according to one of these services websites) ?

 

Which date do you pick for your (fake) onward travel departure ?  Obv before the 30 days, but is there a minimum period (say at least a week after arrival date in Thailand) to avoid looking suspicious ?    Probably over-thinking this, I know.