Onward Ticket

A lot of people take the bus to Tacna and cross the border to Arica in Chile. From the bus station in Tacna, cross the road and go to the 'colectivo' area - big cars that are shared by up to 5 people. The driver will take your passport,  the paperwork will be filled in for you, give you back your passport and drive you to the border, guide you in how to jump the queues and deposit you at the colectivo station in Arica. If you like, you can stay in Arica, or join the queue to take a colectivo back to Tacna - same procedure, once back in Tacna, mission is accomplished and visa renewed for another 183 days - we took 2 overnight buses to and from Lima.

Onward ticket checked!

I hereby revive this five-year-old thread

based on an incident involving an

airline's refusal this week to allow a

passenger to travel to Lima without

a return or onward travel ticket.

That passenger is yours truly.

At the LATAM check-in counter at the

Quito airport, the LATAM agent was

unable to find my reservation booked

through CheapoAir .. Quito to Lima.

When the agent called over to her

supervisor, the Karen supervisor

(apparently oblivious to the fact

that they had lost my reservation)

announced that I could not board

my pre-paid flight without an onward

ticket.  This is the first time any airline

has enforced the onward-ticket

rule against me .. and I have flown

around South America on one-way

flights a lot.

---

At this point, it appeared I would have

to go to three different sections of

international departures to resolve

the problems: 

(1) to find WiFi and open my email

to verify the existence of my

reservation  (2) to buy a return ticket

and thus satisfy the onward-travel

requirement  (3) to come back to the

check-in desk to load my suitcase

onto the conveyor.

Fortunately, I found another

supervisor who went to a location

where he found my reservation.

He then produced a LATAM tag

for my suitcase .. and directed me

to another agent to buy the

return ticket.

---

The non-stop flight to Lima went

smoothly and the pilot got us here

in just over two hours.

I will choose an airline other than

LATAM going forward for future

travel whenever possible.

cccmedia in Lima

How to get on the plane.

It has been a while since threads about

onward travel requirements have been

active on Expat.com .. so it's probably

time to review how to deal with

the situation when an airline is

adamant about such.

a.  If flying Quito to Lima, as an example,

one can demonstrate compliance

with a return or onward travel ticket to

any city outside of Peru.

b.  A refundable ticket can be purchased

and then canceled for the refund within

24 hours.

c.  A bus ticket out of Peru can satisfy

the requirement.

---

I recommend doing what I did -- research

all airlines´flights on a consolidator

website before going to the airport, so

you can decide what airline and flight you

would choose for onward travel .. without

unwanted time pressure at the airport.

cccmedia