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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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 Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:03 am Post subject: |
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Goodness me. More bad advice on the forum.
| jason_seeburn wrote: |
| I've flown there twice on one way tickets and never had any problems. |
No one has suggested that it is not possible.
The fact is that airline practices and Immigration Legislation in Taiwan mean that you could, at any time in the travelling process, be required to buy a return ticket, or return home. That is clear, and there are as many cases of that having happened as there are cases of it not having happened.
It is important to put this all into context. Seeburn has only flown into Taiwan once, and out once. I have flown into Taiwan probably close to twenty times over the last ten years and my experiences differ from his one experience.
| jason_seeburn wrote: |
| The way I see it is, if you are stopped at the airport (which I never have been) on your way out of your country, you buy a return ticket at that point. |
What do you mean 'as you see it'? This is what people have stated as having happened to them. The problem is that buying a return ticket at the airline counter at the airport is apparently much more expensive than buying the same ticket in advance. Why take this risk, and go to this trouble when some simple precautions can be taken?
| jason_seeburn wrote: |
| If you are stopped at customs on taiwan, then you buy a return ticket then (or they force you to go back to your country, at which time you buy a return ticket, then you have a return ticket and you can then stay because you aren't breaking any rules). |
Surely you can't be serious.
Your advice is to come on a one way, and if you are stopped at customs in Taiwan then simply fly home again, buy a return ticket and then return again. Bear in mind that airline policies dictate that you need to reimburse them for the costs of carriage out of the country, so effectively by following your advice the person pays for the cost of TWO return tickets just to get here!!
Also, it is important to note that the regulations do not require the airline to take you home, they just require the airline to take you out of Taiwan. Therefore they could likely arrange for you to be taken basically anywhere unless you pay for the ticket upfront, and you would then need to secure a one way ticket back home, or a return ticket back to Taiwan.
| jason_seeburn wrote: |
| So that is my thoughts as I line up at the airport counter and that keeps me from being too nervous about travelling on one way tickets (which I always do without exception). |
Why would anyone want to go this trouble?
The suggested benefit is that you can then have flexibility as you have no return date. Yet, to get this benefit you need to pay almost as much money for a one way as you would for a two way, you take the risk of being refused carriage, and you face the risk of being deported.
There is a much easier way to achieve the above. Don't buy a return ticket. Buy a ticket to Taiwan with an outbound ticket to Hong Kong or Bangkok. This will get you through check-in and immigration with nary a worry. If you find that you need to do a visa run then you have a ticket to do this. If you don't need to do a visa run and don't want to use the outbound portion of the ticket then you can cash it in.
Personally though I would recommend getting an open return ticket. They are the most expensive type of ticket but they come with the security that you can return home at any time should things not work out as expected in Taiwan. |
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TaoyuanSteve
Joined: 05 Feb 2003
Posts: 1028
Location: Taoyuan
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:14 am Post subject: |
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| A lot of people will disagree... |
Yup. Alot of people will disagree. Most in fact. Does that say anything to you? It says the consensus of opinion among people who've lived here for more than nine months (left here after nine months, two years ago in Seeburn's case) is that your advice is not worth following. Sure, you can probably get away with entering on a one-way ticket, but you will be doing just that: getting away with it. There is no guarantee you will get away with it every time either. The rules are that you must have a ticket out of Taiwan in order to enter on a tourist visa. That ticket can be going anywhere. It can be back to your home country or to any other port of call outside of Taiwan. Here's what I did: I got a one year-open ended return ticket and set a provisional return date on it to satisfy the return ticket requirement. Once here, I cancelled that date and left it open until I was ready for a visit home, at which time I booked a seat and went. Seeburn left within a year. He could have saved money had he done as I did. Instead, he bought two one-way tickets in the end. It's well known that one-way tickets cost much more than half the price of returns.
The best advice for people just arriving here is to not take avoidable risks. If you obey the ticket out rule upon entry, you will not have any problems, period. If you don't, you may get away with it. However, there is no guarantee you will every time. I'm for problem free, soft landings (with ticket out insurance in case things go wrong). |
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jason_seeburn
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 399
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:35 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by jason_seeburn on Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jason_seeburn
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 399
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:39 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by jason_seeburn on Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:55 am Post subject: |
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| jason_seeburn wrote: |
| There are two ways of doing things...my way, and the expensive way. If anyone knows of a third less expensive way (than my way) then please drop me a line. |
Your way is the expensive way.
You were here for nine months. That means that you bought a one way ticket here, and then another one way ticket home to Canada. Everyone knows that two one way tickets are more expensive than a return ticket. So assuming that you are lucky enough to get through check in back home and through immigration here, you are still out of pocket.
Now assuming that you are not as lucky and are forced to upgrade your ticket to a return at check in or here at immigration in Taiwan then you will be paying more than you would have paid for a return ticket anyway.
Either way you look at it, Jason's advice does turn out to be the expensive option!
| jason_seeburn wrote: |
| Otherwise shut up. |
Now, now Jason. Don't get angry because people don't agree with you! |
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Miyazaki
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 635
Location: My Father's Yacht
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:32 am Post subject: |
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Seeburn,
You are correct.
Many people come to Taiwan and never get stopped at the airport on a one-way ticket.
If they ask you for one, you can buy a ticket at the airport.
Once or twice I've run into problems coming from the Phils or Thailand on a one-way ticket. The airline wouldn't give me a one-way ticket, I had to buy an outbound ticket from Taiwan.
Immigration, however, will very likely never ever ask you about a return ticket. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 10:23 am Post subject: |
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| Miyazaki wrote: |
Seeburn,
You are correct.
Many people come to Taiwan and never get stopped at the airport on a one-way ticket.
If they ask you for one, you can buy a ticket at the airport.
Once or twice I've run into problems coming from the Phils or Thailand on a one-way ticket. The airline wouldn't give me a one-way ticket, I had to buy an outbound ticket from Taiwan.
Immigration, however, will very likely never ever ask you about a return ticket. |
Miyazaki have you even been reading these posts?
Seeburn claims that no one gets stopped nor is it a requirement to have an outbound ticket! You say that you agree with him, but then you go on to give an example about how you yourself have been stopped twice and required to purchase an outbound ticket before you are allowed on the plane. So your experiences quite clearly contradict what Seeburn is saying!
I think what you meant to say was "Popfly, Taoyuansteve and Clark, you are all correct. Seeburn is wrong as I have been stopped myself at check in twice for not having an outbound ticket!" |
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Xenophobe
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 163
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:17 am Post subject: |
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| Under the MOE/CECN program, the Canadian teachers hired all came to Taiwan on one way tickets, paid for by the MOE. Mind you they already had their work permits and resident visas issued in Canada. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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No one is suggesting that it is impossible to get into Taiwan on a one way ticket. I really hope that we can move past this as this not what the discussion is about.
Seeburn gives the impression that it is standard practice to arrive here on a one way ticket when it isn't. He bases this upon his single experience from his single entry into Taiwan. Obviously a single experience is just that - a single experience.
Seeburn has previously scoffed at my suggestion that the Immigration legislation requires an outbound ticket. I proved that it was the case.
He then scoffed at my suggestion that airlines have their own regulations that enable them not to carry you if you don't have an outbound ticket. Once again I proved him to be wrong.
The fact is that you can come to Taiwan on a one way ticket if you are lucky. It happens, there is no doubt about that. Another fact is that many people who try to do this get stopped and end up paying a lot more money for their tickets than they needed to.
The question is why take the risk when there is little to no financial benefit in doing so, yet there is a risk of inconvenience and extra cost if you are refused carriage on the plane, or entry to the country. |
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DirtGuy
Joined: 28 Dec 2004
Posts: 529
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:25 am Post subject: |
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OK, folks, help me out here as there is something I simply do not understand.
Let's say you buy an open ticket that has to be used in one year. It takes a while to find a job. You get hired and sign a one year contract. All this time adds up to (much?) longer than one year. My experience with airlines is they pretty much stick to that 365 day (or less) limit to use the 2nd 1/2 of the ticket. How, then, do you get the airline to extend the ticket to be used after the 1 year time limit?
I like the idea of buying an onward ticket to someplace like Hong Kong and then converting it at a later date. The problem I see is that every time friends come here from Taiwan, their ticket prices are much higher than what I pay. So it seems that a one-way ticket from Taiwan back to the states is going to cost more than 1/2 the cost of a round-trip ticket originating in the States.
Am I missing something? |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:41 am Post subject: |
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| DirtGuy wrote: |
| Let's say you buy an open ticket that has to be used in one year. It takes a while to find a job. You get hired and sign a one year contract. All this time adds up to (much?) longer than one year. My experience with airlines is they pretty much stick to that 365 day (or less) limit to use the 2nd 1/2 of the ticket. How, then, do you get the airline to extend the ticket to be used after the 1 year time limit? |
That is a really good question, for which there is more than one answer.
1. If you are coming here under contract then you will be leaving on or close to one year after you arrived. As you say most contracts are for a full year, and assuming that it takes you a week of two to get settled, this will mean that your contract will end after your ticket expires. One way to get around this is to save your vacations till the end of your contract if you are really only intending to be here for a year. Assuming that you have two weeks vacation and you don't use these then you can leave two weeks before the end of your contract and therefore use your return flight. You need to work all of this out with your school, but is a good option for people who are only here for year.
2. If you are here for more than a year then you can use the return portion of your ticket for a trip back home during the course of your contract year. Take a holiday back home and then come back again. You never know when you might need to head home for a family crisis or such so having a return ticket in your pocket can be reassuring to know that all you need do is book a seat.
3. If you are intending to stay here for more than a year and are sure that you won't be heading home for more than a year then a return ticket is probably not the right ticket for you. You are probably best served with an outbound ticket to Bangkok or somewhere and you can then either get a partial refund on that outbound ticket portion, or use it for a break away. |
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