Onward Departure via E-Ticket - Cant get on plane!

Have any of you had trouble showing an itinerary for an onward flight from Taiwan when you boarded your flight to Taiwan on a visa exempt status?

I have a confirmed itinerary for an e-ticket from TPE to BKK from KLM within the 30 day visa exempt period.

United is telling me that I cannot board the plane unless I have a physical ticket from KLM showing onward departure from Taiwan within 30 days of arrival.

KLM wants to charge me $50 per ticket to print them at the airport to show United. Since it is a roundtrip flight and my fiancee is coming with me, it will cost $200 to have the tickets printed. Crazy!

[color=blue]UPDATE: [/color]I tried my luck and called United back. As luck would have it, I got a nother story. This time it was in my favour. haha. Spoke with a different woman and the same supervisor. This time they told me that the e-ticket confirmation of an onward flight will suffice. :doh:

Since luck decided to play its hand in my favor this time, im going to stop with this call and hope for the best.

Wheel of fate: round and round she goes where she stops nobody knows! :eh:

Does this seem odd to anyone? All of this information was obtained over the phone. Do you think in person it will be any different? I just dont want to be left stuck at the terminal the day of my flight. Thanks for any help!

Usually, evidence of a ticket is enough - an itinerary from a travel agent, etc. However, since they’ve asked . . . can’t you just go to the KLM desk and get them to print something off?

I was almost stopped on a flight out of Singapore, luckily I had an old itinerary on me that had dates sufficently suitable.

HG

I have come across this before and without a physical ticket, the airline made the person sign a waiver of airline responsibility.
I can’t remember the exact term, but some sort of disclaimer thing.

My Taiwanese wife got stuck in Macau as we were trying to board a one-way flight to Singapore. They would let me on without proof of return/onward flight, but not her. Utterly fucking rediculous… Singapore is a tiny tiny tiny city-state and you most certainly dont need a flight to get out of the country. I strongly believe that the customs officials wouldn’t give a damn at all, since almost without exception it’s the airlines that ask for proof of the ticket and never customs. On the same journey, I almost got caught up in Singapore going back to Taiwan since my ARC is expired and I don’t have a current visa. Fortunately, my story about visiting my wife and extended family was sufficent enough for the ticketing agent to let me ride.

This “proof of return/onward flight” requirment absolutely makes no sense. First off, they will almost always accept any piece of paper that has the right dates and destinations on it…so, you can go to Yahoo travel, make like you’re booking a return flight, choose your dates put in the passanger information, and on the last page (just before you pay for the flight, where they show you the intinerary and want you to confirm that this is what you want) print it up…you don’t pay for anything, but the paper looks official enough (it has the agency name, the flights, dates, times, passanger names, and price) and this WILL work. Secondly, if I was planning on going to a country to work illegally, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to pay an extra $100US or whatever to get a return flight and just simply not use it… especially since, in many cases, a one-way flight is MORE expensive than the return flight. Completely stupid… it really just doesnt make sense.

Nothing about air travel or airlines makes sense. The whole travel industry is simply a con. The sort of lying and cheating that goes on with planes and hotels would not be allowed in any other industry. The travel industry as a whole is completely exempt from 30 years of consumer rights legislation and in the UK is the only business not subject to the Law of Contract.*

Why?

(*Try enforcing any “contractual right” to travel. Go on. I dare you. Start with asking for Specific Performance for a laugh. Specific Performance of nothing. What you have purchased in the Chance of travel. Nothing more. Not even a Reasonable Expectation of travel. They are carrying you out of the goodness of their hearts.)

Actually, the airlines are trying to cover themselves. Many countries that have a “visa-waiver” program have the onward/return ticket written into the law. If you get stopped coming into the country, guess who has to arrange (and sometimes pay for) your flight back…the airline. It’s simple, if they don’t want the hassle/expense, they won’t let you get on the plane.

With that said, it probably is a good idea to print out the confirmation screen/itenary that comes up after booking an e-ticket online. Doing that, my family and I have had no trouble going through many Asian and American airports.

Sorry, didn’t notice that the OP showed the itenary. That is a weird situation. Go with what the second person told you.

You could always make a “fake” itinerary using your computer and just type in the relevant dates and such, then print it out :slight_smile:

Having flown around Asia-Pac recently, whenever my destination is Taipei, Taiwan, the airline ticket counter agent will usually ask me (1) do I have a Taiwan visa and/or (2) do I have a Taiwanese passport. The implication is that they will not allow me on the plane to Taiwan on the visa-exempt entry. Sole exception to this treatment is HK Airport.