kangagirl80

My partner and I will be spending one year traveling around South America.

If I buy a one way ticket to Quito, am I going to have issues getting into the country?

Will they deny us access without proof of onward travel?

I contacted Avianca and they told me that it is the immigration office who decides if you can enter or not, but this is contrary to what I have read on forums.

From what I have read, it is the airlines who question you about onward travel.

If I buy a bus ticket out of Ecuador will this be sufficient proof of onward travel?

Thanks in advance.

thursdaysd

"I contacted Avianca and they told me that it is the immigration office who decides if you can enter or not, but this is contrary to what I have read on forums."

Both are true. The immigration officials have the ultimate call, but the airline can decide not to let you board if they think you will be refused entry.

If you are really concerned buy a refundable airline ticket out and cancel it after you arrive.

crellston

In principal you do need an onward ticket for most countries in South America. In practice no one checked or even asked about onward travel arrangements when we flew into Quito ( or any other South American country we have visited) so I doubt you will be asked on arrival. As Thursdaysd points out there may be an issue re boarding the plane at you departure airport but again, I feel that this is unlikely.

Buying a long haul one way ticket usually costs about the same as a return so I would first check both fares to see if there would be any savings. I am currently looking at flights for a year long trip and the prices fro returns and single fares are virtually identical. Airlines only release flights 11.5 months ahead and we are looking for an outward flight in Nov so the latest return I can get is for April 2015. The airlines tell me they will issue the ticket now and change the return flight when they become available. Could be a lot cheaper than a fully refundable ticket. (NB I fly out of the UK where refundable tickets tend to be very expensive. If you are in the USA it could be different.

If you do buy a return it might make sense to get an open jaw ticket which usually cost about the same. On our last trip we flew into Quito and out of Lima.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

I disagree. I think it is very likely that you'll run into problems when you try to check in at your departure airport for your flight to South America. I doubt very much that a one-way ticket will be good enough to satisfy the airline to let you board.

thursdaysd

crellston - my point about the fully refundable ticket is that you can cancel it without losing any money. Buy a cheap one way ticket in and a refundable ticket out, fly to SA, cancel the return leg. Or a refundable return ticket and cancel the return leg.

crellston

I understand your point Thursdays but mine is that a fully refundable tickets will be more expensive ( at least that is my experience). I am facing a similar issue In the process of trying to book fares to Asia/ Australia I checked with Trailfinders. As an aside I ask them for fares tickets for London to Lima ( Quito was just too complicated!) return were:

Cheapest non refundable £722
Cheapest fully refundable £1449

Even assuming a refund of half the cost of the ticket the cost of a one way flight works out the same as the non flexible return, but without the return. There is no charge for amending the return date on the non flexible ticket which would be done as soon as the flights are opened up. Bizarrely the single fare was £917! Maybe I am missing something?

thursdaysd

crellston - I think the difference is the fares from the UK vs. the fares from the US. There is one exceedingly low cost carrier here plus JetBlue competing with AA on routes to SA.

mlgb

JetBlue started service Lima to FLL, I don't know if it is worth buying London to FLL round trip and then separate one way tickets FLL to LIM/

crellston

Thanks guys that makes sense. I think part of the problem with flying from the UK is the riduculously high level of taxes on flights out of the country. Last time I checked the total taxes accounts for 60% of the cost of an intercontinental flight. Some of the airlines refuse to refund taxes which seems to skew the numbers somewhat. Budget airlines here only seem to operate in Europe and often the fares are not a lot different than the full service carriers.

Worth bearing in mind flying via FLL for my next SA or Central America trip.

thursdaysd

You might also look at taking Eurostar and flying out of Paris if UK taxes are a problem. Personally, I'd opt for a couple of days in Paris over Miami! And I'd certainly rather fly in/out of a French airport rather than a US one.

BTW, if you do look at the option of flying via the US (don't forget you'll need to use the visa waiver program even if you're only in transit) avoid Sprint, which is the low cost airline (think Ryanair). I can recommend JetBlue.

kangagirl80

Thanks everyone. This might be a stupid question, but would it be a problem if I buy a return ticket out of Quito with a return date that is 10 months after arrival? Is that going to cause issues do you think?

mlgb

Would they be wondering why you are exceeding the visa limit?

I wonder if you can find better answers looking on some of the expat forums, I'm sure there is one for Ecuador. They probably know all about getting in and out on a regular basis.

crellston, if you fly a US based airline and not out of Heathrow, does that help with the taxes? Or do they all just match the BA airfares anyways.

I have been thinking of visiting my brother's place in SW France and the airfares just made me sick. I have a hard time going to Europe when US to SA is 1/2 to 1/3 the price.

kangagirl80

In the end, I bought a one way ticket to Ecuador and a refundable exit ticket, which I will cancel when we land in Ecuador. The one way ticket was about $300 less than buying a return, and I really have no idea where or when we will be flying out of South America. The fees to change a non-refundable ticket are pretty hefty so I'll deal with my real exit when the time comes. Thanks everyone for the advice. Buying plane tickets is not easy!

kangagirl80

So we're finally here in Quito and I thought I would quickly write about my one way ticket experience. In a nutshell no issue. We had a one way ticket from Montreal to Quito through new York and Houston. We did self check in at Montreal and received no questions from anyone (I guess self check in helps?). At Quito the immigration official didn't ask anything about how long we were staying. So now I just have to cancel my refundable flights to Bogota. Thanks again everyone for the help. Quito is beautiful my the way. Loving it so far.

mlgb

Thanks for checking back. Hope you are having a great time. I also enjoyed Quito.

kangagirl80

Yeh it's really beautiful. Exceeding expectations.