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.
A dummy ticket and a real ticket start out identical in the reservation system; only payment and an issued e-ticket number separate them, as this document comparison shows.
Georgia's liberal visa-free entry policy doesn't remove the separate onward-ticket check airlines run for their own liability. Here's the document gap, illustrated through a case study.
Lufthansa can refuse boarding over a missing onward ticket even when the destination country would not have asked, because its own conditions of carriage set an independent bar.
Singapore checks proof of onward travel at both immigration and airline check-in. This case study unpacks what documentation satisfies each checkpoint.
Tunisia's visa-free entry is not document-free entry. This case study examines the two checkpoints where onward-ticket proof is actually verified.
An onward ticket PNR that looked fine on paper had quietly expired by the time a consulate checked it. Here is why validity has a specific, checkable meaning.
Un billet de continuation repose sur un vrai PNR enregistré dans un GDS, avec un statut de confirmation vérifiable par n'importe quel agent.
Un billet fictif repose sur un vrai PNR, mais seule une vérification du statut de réservation permet réellement de le distinguer d'un document payé.
Un agent ne juge pas la mise en page d'un billet de continuation, mais l'existence d'un PNR vérifiable et cohérent avec le reste du dossier de voyage.
Malaysia entry case study: the arrival card has no flight field, so the real onward-ticket check happens separately, at airline check-in.
Vietnam's e-visa approval never asks for a ticket, but the airline check-in desk still does. Here's the document gap between the two checkpoints.
A freelance illustrator nearly misses her flight to Manila because her airline, not immigration, is the first to ask for proof of onward travel.