Proof Of Exit Required Prior To Boarding

[airiq]

My girlfriend and I returned to EZE from Colombia this weekend. I have residency, she does not.

When we were checking in for our flight in Colombia (via Aerolineas Argentina) the attendent requested for my girlfriend to show proof of travel that she would be leaving Argentina. We had come into Colombia with round trip tickets from EZE -> Bogota.

We travel regularly in and out of EZE and this was the first time she's been asked this.

After speaking to her manager, their position did not change and they would not let her board without some sort of ticket showing her leaving Argentina. They said this was a change that started about two months ago.

They suggested that we buy a one way ticket to Montevideo on the spot. Luckily, we have another trip at the end of March planned for Peru, and I was able to dig up the email confirmation of that booking on my phone. With that, they let her go through.

They also said a bus or boat ticket showing exit would work too. And for what it's worth, the way they looked at the email confirmation on my phone, I suspect that a doctored flight "confirmation" would have sufficed as well.

When we arrived to EZE, going through migrations they asked her no questions and gave her a new tourist stamp without any questions.

Just a heads up to anyone who may be travelling to keep this in mind.

 

[PhilipDT]

I've had that happen to me 3 or 4 times on united when boarding in the us and I just tell them that they are wrong . It's taken up to an hour of arguing at one point but I've never had to buy or show proof of onward travel. It goes without saying that I've never been bothered about it upon landing.

 

[citygirl]

It's pretty common when traveling from Colombia. It has nothing to do with Argentina per se, it's the policy of the Colombian airlines. I had a similar conversation with them several years ago when a friend and I were traveling back from Colombia. She didn't have residency and they were giving her a hard time about it. They finally agreed to let her through but it took about 30 minutes and multiple people in the airline agreeing to it.

 

[trennod]

This happened to me on Qantas about 18 months ago flying out of Sydney, as my office (stupidly) told me to come in on a tourist visa and then the work visa would be organised once I got here. I spoke with a Manager at Qantas and said it was now their policy that as there was a risk I may be refused entry if I did not have a ticket out (he showed me a beautiful little book to prove it). He recommended purchasing the cheapest cancellable flight out of BsAs and then just footing the $80 fee. I knew work would foot that bill so that was okay.

Anyhoo, I guess the morale of the story is that quite a few airlines have adopted these sort of policies now (which I assume although as Citygirl said they are airline specific, the airlines would be basing them based on each countrys particular immigration rules) so if your coming in without residency its a good idea to be prepared and have an outgoing ticket of some sort (bus/boat/plane) that you can change/cancell etc as needed.

 

[JoeGillis]

The old proof-of-exit/onward-travel/return-trip-required provision has been in effect for many decades now, beginning in the years following WWII. I began working with Pan Am in 1970, and during the next 15 years I was an employee of several other carriers, including Air France, Qantas, TWA. At all of these airlines, we were required to advise passengers that one-way tickets were permitted ONLY for citizens/ permanent residents of said passengers' destination countries, which meant that a non-citizen/non-resident customer needed to purchase a return or onward travel ticket prior to being issued a one-way ticket. As others have noted, this provision is upheld by either the carrier of transportation or the country of travel origin, or both. After leaving the airline industry, I worked in corporate travel for American Express in the US for 20 years, where this ticketing provision was enforced by company policy.

 

[Crema Americana]

Thanks. I usually travel with a roundtrip ticket, but this is the first time I will be traveling to Argentina on the return leg.

I will have to find an old Buquebus confirmation and fix it up a bit and hope that works.

 

[arlean]

I've posted here before that this is a scam--and yes it is airline specific. Colombia being the worst but perhaps there are others. I won't tell all the details again (you poor longsuffering people who see my posts again and again) but credit cards are a wonderful invention. The airline would not allow me to board in Ft. Lauderdale Florida unless I bought a return ticket ($1200 incidentally). Even pretended to phone Imigraciones in Argentina right in front of me and claim that they verified Argentina would not allow me to deboard without the return ticket. I charged the ticket, then put it in dispute and never had to pay it. Later I checked with American Airlines and Lan and both said they do not do that. Now that may have changed. This was a few years ago.

 

[2GuysInPM]

Simple solution.... go to expedia (or favorite travel site), pick up a return itinerary and SAVE the itinerary without booking it (ie, don't pay for it). Then show a print out of the itinerary to the gate agent or show it on your phone screen. They don't bother to look at it carefully, so it seems like a booked trip to them. If they do figure it out, complete the booking on the spot (assuming you have smartphone with internet) and then you have 24 hours to cancel it (expedia) with a full refund.

 

[John.St]

My girlfriend and I returned to EZE from Colombia this weekend. I have residency, she does not.

When we were checking in for our flight in Colombia (via Aerolineas Argentina) the attendent requested for my girlfriend to show proof of travel that she would be leaving Argentina. We had come into Colombia with round trip tickets from EZE -> Bogota.

We travel regularly in and out of EZE and this was the first time she's been asked this.

After speaking to her manager, their position did not change and they would not let her board without some sort of ticket showing her leaving Argentina. They said this was a change that started about two months ago. ...
When we arrived to EZE, going through migrations they asked her no questions and gave her a new tourist stamp without any questions.

Just a heads up to anyone who may be travelling to keep this in mind.

I had the same happening a few days ago in Porto, Portugal, with Air Nostrum (Iberia's regional company). I asked to speak to the manager who showed me a company guidebook, which confirmed it.

No time to buy any sort of ticket, but fortunately I was flying via Madrid, so I told them to send me to Madrid where I had a 4 hours stay-over. In Madrid, however, Iberia checked me in without any hassle. Arriving in Mendoza via Santiago I got my 90 days w/o problems and no questions asked, but it does seem a very good idea to have some sort of ticket out of Argentina.