Perma-tourists and round trip plane tickets from BA

[mendozanow]

I will be in this situation on Thursday, flying with Lufthansa on the last leg of an Orlando-Madrid-Buenos Aires ticket. I plan to purchase a bus ticket to Montevideo beforehand, bring a printed copy of my receipt to the airport, and hope that suffices at check-in. Vamos a ver.

Be sure to report back Lucia.

 

[Utopos]

A few weeks ago I flew out of Miami on Aerolineas Argentinas. Before being allowed to board I needed to explain why I had only a one-way ticket. I showed them my visa (pensionado) and all was well. But I got the distinct impression I would have not gone anywhere without that or a return ticket.

 

[starlucia]

Well, that turned out to be uneventful -- no need to buy a refundable flight, bus ticket, or any other proof of onward travel. I checked in for both Lufthansa flights (Madrid-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Buenos Aires) online and printed my boarding passes before heading to the airport. When checking in my luggage at Barajas, I used my US passport as identification, was handed hard copies of my boarding passes, and listo.

 

[mendozanow]

Yes, there seems to be less nonsense from most European airlines than many US airlines and now (apparently) Aerolineas Argentinas.

Keep posted, and keep those experiences coming.

 

[kurtdillard]

I've had a related experience. I have permament residency and a valid DNI. I fly round trip from Argentina to the US 8 - 10 times per year, have been for the last 4 years, always on American Airlines. A few times I've had AA staff ask me why I was flying one-way to Argentina when I was checking in, I simply said I live here and have residency and that was the end of it. But for the first time this past summer I was flying out of Boston when the agent demanded to see my DNI. I showed it to her, of course she couldn't really read Spanish so she made a mess of interpreting it. I tried to explain to her what the various data fields meant, but she didn't trust me. She wanted to know why there was no expiration date, and she was suspicious simply becuase DNIs contain lots of hand-written data. I asked her to get her manager, but he never showed up. I asked her for her name, and to see her employee badge, she refused. I asked her to call someone for help, I know the airlines have internal helpdesks set up for just this sort of situation, where someone familiar iwth the weird documentation from some oddball country can walk the agent through interpreting a passport or ID. After more than 30 minutes of her petty refusal to get help and let me proceed another agent took the DNI from her, spent 10 seconds examining it, and told her "He's right, he's a permament resident, why don't you give him his boarding pass?!?!" I reported my experience to American Airlines customer service, they acknowledged my report with great concern but never told me what, if anything, they did about the original agent's behavior and apparent lack of training.

 

[HeyBA]

Hey Kurtdillard, were you running late? I think that's when the airlines try to get you to by a last minute ticket that is overpriced.

If you show up early, they know you have time to go on-line and make other arrangements that are less expensive.

 

[jontyjago]

This has happened to me twice - both times with GOL, both times flying one way to EZE, once in Lima and once in Bogotá. The first time I did actually have an onward flight booked a month or so later which I printed out and showed the checkin lady.

Before the second flight, just in case, I emailed myself a fake e-ticket (modifying a real one from the past) which I printed out and produced when asked. She glanced a it, and checked me in. Nothing was said on arrival at the airport on either occasion.