Another Booking Complexity
The problem: my Turkish Airways ticket to Paris needs to be picked up in Bangkok, Thailand the day I arrive there. I had oh-so-intelligently booked a flight out of Bangkok to Chiang Mai earlier this week, leaving at 6:45 AM on the day I arrive. Why so early, you ask? Because I get to Bangkok from Hong Kong at 1:30 in the morning. Yeah. Blah. It was a cheap flight. So to minimize my agony, I decided to make use of my being at the airport and got a ticket out as early as possible the next morning. You say this is still not a problem. All looks good, ideal even. Aha! Evil lurks within.
Further complexities: Not only must the ticket be picked up (because Turkish Airways does not issue electronic tickets out of Bangkok), but it needs to be picked up before 11:00 AM on the 18th. Luckily, I'll be in Thailand then. Unluckily, I'll be in Chiang Mai.
Further malchance: I can no longer change my ticket to Chiang Mai.
Probably outcome: Because I doubt the budget airline from whom I purchased my Chiang Mai ticket will give a, shall we crudely say, 'horse's ass' about my dilemma, I predict I'll have to wait around in the airport until the Turkish Airways offices open, get my ticket, and then buy another ticket to Chiang Mai or change my plans. This isn't such a big deal since the ticket was only 40 USD and I didn't have any plans in the first place. However, it's the principle of the thing. Every airline should issue e-tickets from every destination to every destination. It's 2006 people.
Also, this is a good opportunity to complain about the institution of the onward ticket. Most of my travel problems have been caused by the onward ticket. In fact, far more conniving than the &*(^er who stole my shoes is the Tourism Bureau or Immigration Department that requires those entering a country to prove they will leave it by buying an onward ticket. First, as if a few hundred dollars would stop anyone from immigrating to another country if they really wanted to. People pay thousands to have someone smuggle them across the US border, and they're poor. I'm not, and I don't want to live in Manila anyway.
Second, it's a rip-off. Let's say (hypothetically) that you're in Manila. You already have your onward ticket to Hong Kong (which you had to buy to get into the Philippines in the first place). You want to buy a ticket from Hong Kong to Bangkok because it seems you need an onward ticket to get into Hong Kong. However, if you try to buy said ticket from a travel agent in Manila, it will be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than if you buy it in Hong Kong. Now, obviously this is bad for Filippino business; as if travel agents weren't having enough of a problem these days.
The solution for you is to buy the ticket directly from the airline online (even if you buy the ticket directly from the airline's office in Manila, it will be more expensive). Of course, when an airline doesn't offer e-tickets from certain destinations (and they tend to choose the same places not to issue tickets from) the spontaneous travelor will find it economically difficult to purchase a ticket. Big, fancy airlines like PAL and Emirates tend to be out of those cheap tickets rather quickly; the window to buy them is small. So you suck it up and pay it out or you change your plans.
My major beef with the whole system is that it benefits no one. Maybe I'm being spoiled to expect to travel around the world without making any plans; maybe not. Tourism is great for both the travelor and the host country. I'm happy because I'm having fun, the country I'm in and its people are happy because I'm spending money. Onward tickets are just another inane policy that makes it less enjoyable for me and less profitable for them (because I won't use their expensive travel agents). Countries, especially less 'developed' ones like the Philippines, should be doing everything they can to make foreignors stay as long as possible. Why make them leave? All they do is spend money. Even when they set up business, better they do it in your country than in someone else's.
If anyone has any ideas about the onward ticket: why it exists, why booking it has to be more expensive from one country to another, I'd love to know about it. As it is, I don't understand it.
Further complexities: Not only must the ticket be picked up (because Turkish Airways does not issue electronic tickets out of Bangkok), but it needs to be picked up before 11:00 AM on the 18th. Luckily, I'll be in Thailand then. Unluckily, I'll be in Chiang Mai.
Further malchance: I can no longer change my ticket to Chiang Mai.
Probably outcome: Because I doubt the budget airline from whom I purchased my Chiang Mai ticket will give a, shall we crudely say, 'horse's ass' about my dilemma, I predict I'll have to wait around in the airport until the Turkish Airways offices open, get my ticket, and then buy another ticket to Chiang Mai or change my plans. This isn't such a big deal since the ticket was only 40 USD and I didn't have any plans in the first place. However, it's the principle of the thing. Every airline should issue e-tickets from every destination to every destination. It's 2006 people.
Also, this is a good opportunity to complain about the institution of the onward ticket. Most of my travel problems have been caused by the onward ticket. In fact, far more conniving than the &*(^er who stole my shoes is the Tourism Bureau or Immigration Department that requires those entering a country to prove they will leave it by buying an onward ticket. First, as if a few hundred dollars would stop anyone from immigrating to another country if they really wanted to. People pay thousands to have someone smuggle them across the US border, and they're poor. I'm not, and I don't want to live in Manila anyway.
Second, it's a rip-off. Let's say (hypothetically) that you're in Manila. You already have your onward ticket to Hong Kong (which you had to buy to get into the Philippines in the first place). You want to buy a ticket from Hong Kong to Bangkok because it seems you need an onward ticket to get into Hong Kong. However, if you try to buy said ticket from a travel agent in Manila, it will be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than if you buy it in Hong Kong. Now, obviously this is bad for Filippino business; as if travel agents weren't having enough of a problem these days.
The solution for you is to buy the ticket directly from the airline online (even if you buy the ticket directly from the airline's office in Manila, it will be more expensive). Of course, when an airline doesn't offer e-tickets from certain destinations (and they tend to choose the same places not to issue tickets from) the spontaneous travelor will find it economically difficult to purchase a ticket. Big, fancy airlines like PAL and Emirates tend to be out of those cheap tickets rather quickly; the window to buy them is small. So you suck it up and pay it out or you change your plans.
My major beef with the whole system is that it benefits no one. Maybe I'm being spoiled to expect to travel around the world without making any plans; maybe not. Tourism is great for both the travelor and the host country. I'm happy because I'm having fun, the country I'm in and its people are happy because I'm spending money. Onward tickets are just another inane policy that makes it less enjoyable for me and less profitable for them (because I won't use their expensive travel agents). Countries, especially less 'developed' ones like the Philippines, should be doing everything they can to make foreignors stay as long as possible. Why make them leave? All they do is spend money. Even when they set up business, better they do it in your country than in someone else's.
If anyone has any ideas about the onward ticket: why it exists, why booking it has to be more expensive from one country to another, I'd love to know about it. As it is, I don't understand it.
posted by bethany at 09:45
<< Home