Proof of Travel
Writer
Former corporate travel compliance officer at a Big 4 firm. 11 years.
Henrik spent over a decade inside a Big 4 firm's travel and risk function in Geneva, where 'proof of travel' meant something legally specific. He writes about onward tickets and dummy reservations from the compliance angle: what airlines, employers, and consulates actually accept as evidence.
An onward ticket accepted by a consulate can still be cancelled by the airline's own booking system long before departure, and knowing the difference is what fixes it.
A Japan visa applicant in Pretoria used a dummy ticket, also called an onward ticket, to satisfy her consulate file. Here is why the airline checks it again at boarding.
A Bali-Singapore visa run puts the same onward ticket through two separate border checks for two different reasons, and one mismatched date is enough to break the pattern.
A dummy ticket is safe only when the underlying booking is still live, genuinely issued, and consistent with the rest of your travel file.
Canada's eTA and visitor visa (TRV) pathways check onward ticket proof at different stages, and the documents that satisfy each differ.
United denied a passenger boarding at Newark for lacking proof of onward travel. Here is what her document file was missing and which compensation rules did not apply.
Un visa touristique thaïlandais et une dispense de visa exigent la même preuve de continuation, mais pas au même moment ni devant le même examinateur.
Un PNR confirmé hier peut afficher une annulation aujourd'hui. Voici comment vérifier un billet de continuation avant qu'un agent ou un consulat ne le fasse.
When an onward ticket won't verify on an airline's own site, the cause is usually one of five fixable issues, not a fundamentally invalid booking.
A case study on India's e-visa form contrasts the itinerary details it requests with what immigration officers verify on arrival.
Verifying an onward ticket PNR means checking its live status directly on the airline site, not trusting a printed itinerary.
A Manchester check-in desk flags a one-way Emirates booking to Bali, showing exactly what a dummy or onward ticket needs to prove and when.