Solutions for Onward Ticket Requirements

“Return ticket please,” the gate agent said when I approached to board my flight from Mexico to Costa Rica. 

“But I have your annual pass,” I told the Volaris agent. I can only book a flight back three days or less in advance. 

“You can’t board without a return ticket,” she said, falsely telling me that Costa Rica immigration would require it. (Of course they didn’t.) So I stepped to the side, bought a one-way ticket back on Volaris, showed it, and boarded the plane. Before I had even gotten to my hotel on the other end of the airport taxi ride in San Jose, it was cancelled. 

When I first started running this Cheapest Destinations Blog back in the early ’00s, people would ask me about some official requirement they read about saying they had to to have an onward ticket when landing in a new country. I’d say some form of, “Don’t worry about it” because in trips to dozens of countries over the course of 15 years, it only came up once.

Until the past few years, I had only been asked for proof of this one time, and that was in England. That was 1995 if I remember right. Lately it has happened a few other isolated times though, so I’ve had to deal with it at the boarding gate or immigration.

We’re living in paranoid times though, times when a lot of refugees are on the move and immigration fears are at a peak. I’m getting more and more messages from people about running into border problems. Places where passports were formerly rubber-stamped without a thought are suddenly becoming hassle zones, such as the Costa Rica borders with Panama and Nicaragua. The European Schengen zone may soon be no more if you listen to some pundits and the free movement we westerners have taken for granted may not be so free.

I do think this is and isolated still. After all, most countries want the money tourists bring in (even those cheapo backpackers) and want to make it easy for us to stick around for a while. What they don’t want, however, is people who are going to stay past their visa period and try to work illegally.

So now many border guards and airport customs agents are being asked to show proof that new arrivals are moving on afterward. This isn’t new for many people: when coming back from Istanbul once I listened to Turks being grilled about whether they had ever been to Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq and they all had to show a return ticket out or a college acceptance letter. Some spent five minutes answering questions—and that was just at the boarding gate!

The difference now is that we’re all suspect in some places. The rules are being applied across the board, even in locations where a lot of travelers are going overland. So, if you’re planning on just winging it, you could be in for a nasty surprise. You could be denied entry to your flight, get your visa application rejected, or get a negative immigration record when in a tourist or business visa situation. You could be asked for proof of onward travel at immigration, an embassy counter, or most notably an airline check-in desk.

According to recent reports, the US, New Zealand, the Philippines, the UK, Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Peru require onward travel proof, but other countries such as Panama and Mexico may require it as well, depending on the airline. (If you’re on Aeromexico, they seem to ask for it sometimes just to be spiteful.) It’s important to research the country you’re traveling to if you’re not planning on having a return ticket off the bat.

My usual advice still applies first: find out what’s really happening on the ground. Read local news online, visit online message boards or Facebook groups for that country. Read expat blogs for the area.

Then take one of the following steps to be safe:

1) Buy a Real Onward Flight Ticket Out

Obviously, the easiest way to show that you’re leaving eventually is to have a round-trip plane ticket for where you’re coming from or a ticket to the next stop. If that’s done, no sweat.

Going for a cheap ticket to the nearest country solely for this purpose often ends up being inexpensive as well. Bus, ferry or train tickets out could also be accepted in some cases, but it’s not guaranteed. A flight is always accepted.

A flight to a neighboring country will often be the least expensive option. In Asia and Europe this is super-easy via the likes of AirAsia and the various Thai airlines in the former, RyanAir, EasyJet, and WizzAir in the latter.

It’s getting to be much easier in the Americas as well. Some Mexican budget airlines will get you to Central and South America. When I had the Volaris Annual Pass last year it got me to Costa Rica and the year before that I flew Colombian carrier Wingo from Cancun to Bogota for under $150.

We’re finally starting to see reasonable options between countries in South America too. Brazil and Colombia have lots to choose from and in the high season in the Southern Cone, you have multiple choices between Chile and Argentina and it goes beyond just the capitals. You can fly between Santiago and Mendoza, Cordoba, and Bariloche on the two main carriers plus some regional ones.

2) Rent a Real Onward Flight Ticket

There’s a company called OnwardTicket.com and another called Onward TicketVisa and either will basically rent you an onward ticket for $10 – $12. Think of it as insurance and it’s a great bargain. I haven’t worked with either, but some in my Cheap Living Abroad Committed group have vouched for them. Someone suggested BestOnwardTicket ($12) in the comments when I put up the original version of this article.

OneWayFly is another that has popped up, and at $16-19 it gives you a real return ticket you can show, canceling it for you later.

These companies tend to come and go, but if you do get an error message then do some web searches you should find others. Trying to conjure up a fake ticket is difficult and risky, so you’re better off shelling out a few bucks to avoid running into any issues. You do not want to be turned back at the airport gate or even worse, get stuck in a transit country!

3) Purchase an Overland Bus or Train Ticket in Advance

You don’t have to be on a plane to leave the country. Most bus and train companies with reserved seats sell tickets online now, so you can purchase an advance ticket to depart if they have routes to other countries. This is especially common in Europe and you can find trains between countries in Southeast Asia as well. There’s now even one between Thailand and Laos.

You can get tickets directly from the bus or train company or use a site like Busbud or Omio to figure it out faster and be sure the options are in English.

Worst case scenario is that you have to forfeit the ticket later if it’s not refundable, but usually you can just transfer the date with no penalties at their office or the bus station.

4) Carry proof of wealth and don’t look like a homeless bum

The main thing an immigration officer wants to know is, “Can this person support himself/herself already?” Will this person just pass through as a tourist or remote worker, spending lots of money, and not try to get a job here?

In other words, do you have plenty of money to travel to the country and then leave? If you are close to broke, does it at least look like you have money? First impressions are hugely important when someone is giving you the benefit of the doubt or not. 

Probably half the reason I have almost never been asked for an onward ticket is I’m not wearing tattered clothing, sporting neck tattoos, and showing silver studs in 10 places on my face. Some backpackers think they’re too cool to look respectable on airport days. These are also the first people who complain about being hassled by immigration. Not a coincidence.

I wear decent clothing on airport days and am friendly to anyone I encounter in a service job. If an immigration officer asked me for financial info, I could pull out four or five credit cards and show healthy bank statements on my phone. If you’re traveling long-term, I suggest having these bank statements printed out too or at least saved to your phone since you may not have data access. Don’t forget, retirement funds and real estate holdings count too if they’re documented. Make their decision one they are sure they won’t regret.

5) Buy a Refundable Ticket Last Minute

If you’re not concerned about waiting weeks, or in some situations, months to receive your money back, a refundable ticket is an option. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I went with this option when I was ready to board a flight to Costa Rica and the gate agent told me I couldn’t get on the plane without showing a ticket out.

Purchasing a ticket to show as proof that you won’t end up using that has a good no-strings refund policy may be a viable last-minute fix. In most cases you can cancel if you do it within a day.

Examples of airlines and booking services with free 24-hour cancellation periods:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Delta Airways
• Expedia
• KLM
• Orbitz
• Priceline
• Travelocity
• United Airlines
• WestJet

A handful of other airlines have hold or price lock systems for a minor fee. Others have 24-hour cancellation periods as long as the departure is at least a week in advance.

Airline miles from credit card points can often be easily refunded as well, usually right away, so if you’ve racked up enough of those that’s a quick fix you can take care of with a few mouse clicks.

A few frequent flyer programs that offer free 5-7-day reservation holds:

• American Airlines
• Cathay Pacific
• Singapore Airlines
• Turkish Airlines

Have you had to show proof of an onward ticket recently? Leave it in the comments below. I’ve left a few pertinent ones from the original version of this article about onward ticket requirements. This article was updated in October, 2024.