When it comes to long term budget travel, flexibility is the name of the game. However, that means that we frequently don’t know how long we’re staying in each country, and don’t have an onward ticket out of a country when we arrive. Many airlines will ask to see an onward ticket before they allow you to board.
People have used many different options to get around this onward ticket requirement, including photoshopping fake tickets (don’t do this), or using onwardticket.com to create a temporary booking. However, neither of these ways are fool proof, as it’s not a real flight booking under your real name.
A trick that we use when this issue arises is booking a fully refundable/fully cancelable ticket through Expedia. Expedia has a 24-hour cancellation policy on most bookings, meaning we can book a random flight out to show the airlines and immigration, and then cancel it for a full refund once we arrive.
USING EXPEDIA FOR YOUR ONWARD TICKET
Here’s a step by step on exactly how to use Expedia to purchase your onward ticket:
- Download the Expedia App
- Search for a one way flight out of the country requiring an onward ticket.
- Choose any random flight and select that option
- You’ll be able to choose from different cabins, we always choose the cheapest (Basic Economy or Economy)
- Once you have selected your flight, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and make sure that you see “Free Cancellation. There’s no fee to cancel within 24 hours”
- Once you have ensured that your ticket has free cancellation, you can go ahead and book that flight
- You’ll receive an email with your Expedia confirmation, and that will be enough to show the airlines or immigration officer
- We always wait until we are fully through immigration before we cancel the ticket (but make sure it’s within the 24 hours of booking!)
- If your selected flight does not include this specific message, it is NOT eligible for a free 24 hour refund and you will be stuck paying full price. MAKE SURE that the flight you’ve chosen includes 24 hour free cancellation
- Once you have ensured that your ticket has free cancellation, you can go ahead and book that flight
- You’ll receive an email with your Expedia confirmation, and that will be enough to show the airlines or immigration officer
- We always wait until we are fully through immigration before we cancel the ticket (but make sure it’s within the 24 hours of booking!)
We like to wait until we are at the airport to book an onward ticket, which maximises the 24 hour window.
This is a fool proof and game changing feature that allows us to present an authentic onward ticket, but still be flexible enough to alter our plans as necessary. Obviously we do not and will not overstay our visa, but sometimes budget travel requires flexibility that doesn’t fit the policies of the airlines and immigration.
