One way air ticket bought with cash

[abcdefg]

Another travel related post from my trip home last week (China to the US.) Not about learning Chinese; only about getting there and back.

I usually buy a round trip ticket when I come to China, but since I stay about six months, I often wind up changing the return arrangements and incurring hefty penalties for doing that. I usually travel for several weeks after finishing my coursework in July. So this time I decided to buy a one-way ticket coming over and then purchase the return leg separately when I had a better fix on the exact date of my desired return and had decided where I'd be returning from.

When it came time to do it, I was in a smallish city on the upper coast of the Shandong Peninsula. The travel agent I wound up using wanted cash instead of a foreign (US) credit card. I'm sure I could have found somewhere else to buy the ticket, but I didn't; I just paid cash and thought no more about it. After all it's the "Chinese way" to plunk down a goodly stack of Red Mao RMB sometimes.

Turns out that US Department of Homeland Security sees traveling from a foreign country such as China on a one way ticket bought with cash as something of a red flag. Their internal guidebook says it's the way terrorists generally ravel. Congratulations, you now fit a profile. It's good I wasn't coming from Yemen or Sudan.

It still attracted some special attention at Immigration and Customs in San Francisco. I was clean so they let me go following some closer-than-customary scrutiny. But it caused a little extra hassle and delay as well as some anxiety: "Are they going to bust me for those three pirate DVD's?" At least I'm not writing this not from Guantanamo.

Maybe I will do it different next year.

[deathtrap]

I've heard that there are a few things that usually raise some red flags when traveling internationally by air:

1. One way tickets purchased with cash like you mentioned.

2. Traveling without any luggage.

[jbradfor]

3. Wanting to learn how to take-off and fly a plane, but not caring to learn how to land it.

I'm still surprised that one-way ticket with cash raised any flags. This has been discussed as a "red flag" for near 10 years now, I would think DHS would realize that any half-witted terrorist would know this. But then again, this is the DHS....

[abcdefg]

2. Traveling without any luggage.

No problem there: I had abundant luggage.

[roddy]

Seem to remember a Daily Show segment about about the shoe bomber guy and - was it the underwear bomber? - actually doing a lot of flag-raising stuff like buying one-way tickets in cash, but still managing to get on the plane.

[gougou]

But abcdefg, you say the US is your home, so I suppose you're American? I don't see why a one-way flight would be seen as a red flag then - aren't people allowed to stay home?

[abcdefg]

Yes, I'm American. It turned out not to be a big deal.

[Meng Lelan]

Oh, those pirated DVDs must be the ones I asked you for. So nice to have friends who will do anything for me.