Job Discussion Forums

[Thomcat]

After much time contemplating and gathering resources, I am finally planning to come to Mexico to take a TEFL course in Guadalajara in July, after which I plan to stay and work for approximately one year, if not more. I have tons of questions! For now, what I would like to inquire about is plane tickets.

I am planning on flying to Guadalajara from Minneapolis, MN and was thinking about buying a one-way ticket, but was advised to get a round-trip ticket due to the high prices of one-way tickets out of Mexico, not to mention possible hassles entering Mexico. I have heard of people buying round-trip tickets with no fixed return date that are good for a year, but am having trouble finding that available anywhere. If anyone has any helpful suggestions I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

[scottmx81]

It isn't necessary to enter with a round-trip ticket. If you don't have a fixed return date, I wouldn't recommend it, either. You'll end up losing much more money when you end-up forfeiting the return portion and / or paying to change the flight.

I can't speak for the Minneapolis/Guadalajala flight in particular, but I do not believe there is much of a "one-way premium" on flights to/from US/Mexico or Canada/Mexico. The one way price is usually pretty near 50% of the round trip cost, perhaps with only a few dollars difference.

Immigration officers are much less uptight in Mexico than in US/Canada. Based on personal anecdotal evidence, it seems that it would be out of the ordinary for the immigration officer to even talk to you these days at the Mexican airports, in particular Mexico City. One of the things that the Felipe Calderon's administration has done is institute a general policy of automatic-180 day tourist cards, seemingly with few or no questions asked. So you really have nothing to worry about, especially if you speak a bit of Spanish. Technically you can only stay for up to 180 days as a tourist, so you would have to apply for an FM3 once you are in the country, if you get a job and are going to stay and work.

[guatetaliana]

I would echo the OPs thoughts - I have often flown one-way out of Monterrey to Chicago, and always cringe when I see the difference if I had a round-trip ticket. There is definitely a price difference, sometimes over $200 more for the one-way vs. half the cost of a RT. But again, it's only worth it to fly round trip if you're confident those dates are going to work for you. I've often felt sure I was going to be ready to fly out on a certain date, only to discover that things came up I'd much rather stay around for, but because of the cancellation cost, I ended up leaving anyway. So only do round-trip if you're positive you want to return that date and nothing could interfere with that plan.

On the other issues, no worries about one-way. I have also flown into Mexico one-way (or on the back end of a round trip) all the time, definitely never a problem, and in the past 7 months, I've never even been asked a question, just given the 180 days automatically on my FMT. So don't let that be the concern.

[Thomcat]

Thanks for the info! I feel much more at ease buying a one-way ticket.

[notamiss]

About the one-way ticket, also check this thread: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=62242.

Various people's experience shows that Mexican immigration doesn't care about your ticket in the least, but some airlines can be sticky about it.