Open Ended Airline Tickets..........can It Be Done?

[daveb1]

Heres an interesting one, we are planing our full time move out to Thailand later this year and as we want to take advantage of not having to come back to the UK for 15 months to renew our Visa how can we get an airline ticket for that long. Could we just get a one way ticket out or can a ticket be extended to 15 months. We normally fly with EVA or THAI how does everyone else get round this one? Whats the most cost effective way of doing this? Any ideas?

Thanks

[Maigo6]

Tickets are only ever valid for up to as maximum of 1 year.

Discounted tickets can be valid for much shorter periods.

Dave that seems to be what I can get off the internet, I also have never heard of any Ticket going over 1 year, I myself use 1 Year open tickets for Japan fron Bkk, they are much more expensive then the 45 day open, but with Cathay Pacific, they are the only 2 options I have, and 45 days isn't enough.

[Prasert]

I don't know of open tickets valid over 1 year either.

You can of course buy a single-way ticket. But the airline might refuse you when you're checking in on a tourist visum (or without a visum). This is because the airline is responsible for you leaving the country again. You can circumvent this by booking a cheap ticket from BKK to a nearby location (Singapore/KL/other) and showing that when checking in.

[think_too_mut]

I don't know of open tickets valid over 1 year either.

My ticket SYD-NRT-SYD (return part of it) expired after 1 year. While discounted tickets can be had for 1500A$ or less, that one was 2600A$ and it was not the most expensive.

The most expensive ones would (I guess) entitle you for a refund if you are not going to use it. That one was 3800A$, economy.

[daveb1]

Looking at prices it seems cheaper to buy a return ticket than a single so i guess we could buy a return ticket and not use the return to the UK bit. just buy a return ticket back to Bankok when we are ready to go back to the UK for our next visa, would that work?

[jdinasia]

No sweat ... if you are doing 15 months that means that you have a non-imm Visa .... book one way ... then book a return ticket from BKK when you are heading back to the UK in 15 months

[jdinasia]

The return ticket purchased FROM BKK ...... SHOULD be cheaper

Edited April 17, 2006 by jdinasia

[ajahnlau]

Looking at prices it seems cheaper to buy a return ticket than a single so i guess we could buy a return ticket and not use the return to the UK bit. just buy a return ticket back to Bankok when we are ready to go back to the UK for our next visa, would that work?

The cheapest way would likely be to buy a one way to BKK and then do a visa run to Penang,KL,Singapore,etc. You don't have to return to UK for a visa.

[jdinasia]

there's that ... was assuming they would want to get home after over a year ... but i haven't in 2.5 so ......

[daveb1]

Always thought i would have to go back to the UK after the 15months, local thai consulate seem very good would hong kong or singapore be so helpfull? whats your experience?

[jdinasia]

The further you get from Thailand the easier most embassies/consulates get to deal with .... in Denver I brought in an invite and my fee and walked with my Non-imm in an hour

[Steve2UK]

If you do decide that you expect to make a return visit to UK within 12 months, check out Gulf - it looks like they'll allow up to 12 months between outbound & return - and they seem to allow a change of (return) flight date for a fee (£50, I think?). As others have said, true open-ended tickets (let alone for a discount price) are a non-starter..........