macau & hong kong - onward ticket requirements

[onebir]

according to delta airlines' visa and other entry requirements page, to get into macau by air you need an onward ticket.

by contrast, if you pull up the requirements for a UK citizen entering hongkong it says: "Visitor must hold:

- return/onward tickets (unless when in transit to either mainland China (People's Rep.) or Macao (SAR China) by land or sea)"

so i was wondering is this rule enforced? and even if it's not, are airlines actually prepared to sell singles to macau?

(which i'm mainly interested in because of availability of visas for mainland china, and cheap airasia connections to SE asia)

[Yang Rui]

I don't know about Macau, but this is the situation with HK:

You need an onward ticket, or a China visa in your passport (as proof you're in transit).

This rule is enforced by airlines. If you turn up at the airport without an onward ticket or visa, you will have to buy an onward ticket or a return ticket at the airport before they let you check in. You have to buy these directly from the airline and they are not discounted and therefore are extremely expensive. The plus side is that you can buy fully refundable tickets and get the refund from the airline office when you arrive in HK.

None of this stops the airline from selling you a single ticket in the first instance. After all, they don't know what your plans are - you might have a China visa in your passport, or have an onward ticket somewhere else.

Sorry if this doesn't seem entirely relevant to your question, but the rules may be similar for Macau, and i thought it would be useful for visitors to HK to know. It happened to me once when i was flying to HK and i was lucky to have a credit card on me to absorb the huge cost of the ticket i had to buy.

[onebir]

this one way ticket thing is a recurring bane of my life. i've emailed oasis air - who at least sell one way tickets for a reasonable price - this:

i'm planning to fly to hongkong one way, obtain a visa for mainland china, and cross the land border into china. i understand that some airlines do not permit travellers on one way tickets to fly into hong kong without a visa for china, because there is a (technical) risk that such travellers could be turned away, and the airline fined. so please could you let me know if your airline will allow me to check in under the circumstances mentioned above?

i'll post their reply when i get it

i thought one solution might be to get an unnecessary chinese tourist visa. but i think the embassy in london won't even issue these until you have a return ticket...

any tips on buying refundable tickets? :s