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Gone Too Far
Joined: 09 Oct 2005
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 Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:21 am Post subject: One way ticket to Korea? - Quick reply needed please |
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Hello one and all,
My better half and I have decided to risk it all and head out to Seoul to look for work, after receiving little in the way of jobs from the internet.
We will be travelling in on a tourist visa and then looking for work.
Our travel agent says that we need a return ticket or proof of an onward journey otherwise we might not be let in!! Is this true?
Obviously we would perfer to just buy a one way ticket.
We are hoping to head out in a weeks time, and as ticket prices continue to rise I need a quick answer on this one if you can.
Thanks in advance to everyone who answers. 
Pete |
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Lizara
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:14 am Post subject: |
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Is this a sticky anywhere? Because it really should be.
I've come in twice on one-way tickets, and several other people I know have also done so with no trouble whatsoever. I guess if you want to be safe you could make sure you have a return ticket. |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:14 am Post subject: |
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| I was once forbidden to travel because I only had a one way ticket. Had to wait until the next day once I had a return. What a nightmare that was. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:31 am Post subject: |
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| someone said that you can just book an onward ticket to japan without actually having to purchase it.. |
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Swiss James
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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Checkin desk staff at the departure airport sometimes get a bit edgy about this. In Hong Kong I had to sign a form saying it wasn't the airline's fault if I was refused entry to Korea, and in Japan they often have to call over a manager before they'll let me on.
However, I've never been asked to show a return ticket on arrival at Incheon, didn't have any problems flying from Heathrow, and have never actually been refused by anyone. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Lizara wrote: |
Is this a sticky anywhere? Because it really should be.
I've come in twice on one-way tickets, and several other people I know have also done so with no trouble whatsoever. I guess if you want to be safe you could make sure you have a return ticket. |
I agree it should be a sticky.. I've answered this question at least 10 times over the last few years.
But YES you can buy a one-way ticket.. I've gone all over the place on one-way tickets!
The worse-case scenario that happens (I've had this twice - once in the Philippines and once in Chile).. is that they make you buy a refundable ticket at the airport on your credit card to prove you are going out - but then once in the country you immediately cancel it and reverse the charges.
This being said, I've come into Korea at least 10 times on one-way tickets without a problem - case in point is our many visa runs from Korea-Japan-Korea and arriving back in Korea without another return ticket out again. In short, Korea never ever seems to enforce it. (but even if they did, you now know how to solve it immediately at the airport). |
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trevorcollins
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:22 am Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| case in point is our many visa runs from Korea-Japan-Korea and arriving back in Korea without another return ticket out again. In short, Korea never ever seems to enforce it. (but even if they did, you now know how to solve it immediately at the airport). |
Korean immigration law says you have to either have a)-an onward ticket out of the country or b)-a visa. People doing the visa run to Japan have the visa when they are returning. Actually both visa runs I've done to Osaka the Asiana chick has entered my visa details into a book when I check in.
Generally it's the airlines responsibility to ensure you satisfy the basic immigration regulations of the destination country when you check in for the flight.
And they can be fined if they let you on the flight and you get stopped when you arrive at your destination.
Generally it depends on where you fly from (Western nanny states tend to enforce it the most, while many Asian countries couldn't care less) , and the airline you are travelling with.
I've been stopped before coming to Korea and denied boarding a flight.
No amount of arguing, begging, crying whatever would have gotten me on that flight. It's a nasty experience.
Essentially the way it goes, the law says you have to have the ticket or a visa. You may get away with it, like you may get away with driving drunk, but it doesn't make it legal.
No hard and fast rule. Plenty of people have had no problem. Plenty of people have been stopped. Up to you on whether you want to take your chances. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:46 am Post subject: |
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| trevorcollins wrote: |
| Up to you on whether you want to take your chances. |
Thats about right.. I've taken many chances from the USA.. you get busted.. you just buy a refundable onward ticket and reimburse it once you get past immigration.. got busted twice.. no problem.. just a couple paperwork transacations on your credit card bill and you are in scot free.
Yeah, depends if you are really straight-and-narrow or stretch things to the limits of what they are stretched. |
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ejmlab
Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Location: Pohang
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:03 pm Post subject: Same here |
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Tiger Beer,
The same thing happened to me from Canada. I was not allowed to check-in until I purchased a refundable return ticket. Once I bought the ticket I was allowed on the plane. If you go to the airport with the 1-way and are prepared and allow yourself time to purchase the other portion if needed than you should have no worries. One addendum though, when I refunded my ticket I had to go to downtown Pusan to the Air Canada office to do it. I couldn't just do it over the phone or in a travel agent. No problem if you're living in a bigger city but could be a bit of a pain in the provinces.
Cheers |
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peony
Joined: 30 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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i went to korea on a one way ticket (but i did have a 90 day visa stamped in my passport)
but why would you want to? return tickets are usually a lot cheaper than singles, arent they? |
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plattwaz
Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Location: <Write something dumb here>
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| someone said that you can just book an onward ticket to japan without actually having to purchase it.. |
Possibly that was me. Air Canada will NOT let you onto the plane without the visa or the return ticket. (Or, rather, that was my experience a couple of times).
The last time I flew in on a one-way, I had my travel agent reserve me a flight to Japan and then email me the itinerary. At the bottom where it would normally say "ticket not confirmed until paid for" she simply changed it to say "ticket paid for in full by credid card" and emailled it to me. She then cancelled the reservation in her computer. This was, however, an agent that I have used for years and she knows me very well, I think if it were some random travel agency they may not have been willing to do that. . .
The printed itinerary was enough to check in at Air Canada.
I think a lot depends on the airline.
The other option is to email a travel agent in Busan and reserve a ferry ticket onwards to Japan. They don't need to be paid for until you pick them up, but they will email you a confirmation of a seat reservation. It's proof you are leaving the country (Korea) and should be accepted as much as an air ticket. I had one of these as "backup" if the flight email didn't work (my plan was to tell the check-in desk that I hadn't decided if I would fly or go by ferry, if I had to resort to showing the ferry ticket).
Yes, please someone make this a sticky - it seems to come up here once every couple of months. |
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just because
Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Location: Changwon - 4964
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| Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 12:34 am Post subject: |
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I do the Japan thing..
I book one of those ferry tickets from busan to Fukuoka for about 90 000won as my outward ticket..
I have been stopped before and denied boarding until i booked a return ticket....
Even when i had that Japan outward ticket the dude behind the counter was adament that I wasn't allowed to go as i didn't have a return ticket to my HOME country...i called bullcrap on that but it took me 30 minutes of convincing them and that time i did have an out ticket |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| plattwaz wrote: |
| tzechuk wrote: |
| someone said that you can just book an onward ticket to japan without actually having to purchase it.. |
Possibly that was me. Air Canada will NOT let you onto the plane without the visa or the return ticket. (Or, rather, that was my experience a couple of times).
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only flew on Air Canada once and it was to ICN on a one-way ticket w/out a visa. Guess I got lucky.
But yes, it depends on the situation and the airline. For instance, for the AC flight, I departed from SFO (via vancouver), and i'm guessing the AC check-in people in SFO had no clue about the visa thing- nor cared.
Other time I did it was on Singapore air, which probably was clueless and didn't care about it either. I imagine it would have been another story had I flown directly from Vancouver on AC or on a Korean airline. |
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ilovebdt
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: Nr Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 2:49 am Post subject: |
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| This time around I bought a one way ticket with Korean Airlines from London Heathrow to Seoul. I already had an E-2 in my passport, but before I showed the check in lady this she wanted to know if I lived in Seoul. Therefore, I think if I had just been going as a tourist she would have wanted me to buy a return or see some proof of my onward passage out of Korea. |
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Gone Too Far
Joined: 09 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:34 am Post subject: Booking ferry tickets |
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| just because wrote: |
I do the Japan thing..
I book one of those ferry tickets from busan to Fukuoka for about 90 000won as my outward ticket.. |
Is there a site where you can reserve these ferry tickets online. I can only find phone numbers for travel agents?
Cheers
Pete |
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