Trying To Purchase My First Throw Away Ticket While In U S A

[earthdome]

I will be going to the Philippines in Dec for my first extended stay of 2-4 months. I have already purchased my one way ticket and now need to purchase the throw away ticket I need to present to the airline and if needed to immigration.

I tried to purchase a one way promo ticket from Cebu Pacific from Clark to Macau for total price of 1005 PHP. When I tried to pay for the purchase with my US credit card I was declined 3 times by Cebu Pacific. I checked with my credit card company and they said there had been no attempts to charge my credit card. Doing some internet searches found that it is very common for Cebu Pacific to deny charging your credit card if it is from a bank outside of the Philippines.

I don't have any bank accounts in the Philippines yet so my only choice is to purchase the throw away ticket online using my US bank issued credit card.

Any suggestions on what airlines or other sources of onward ticketing I can purchase using a US issued credit card online? Of course since this is a throw away ticket I am interested in spending the minimum possible to satisfy this bureaucratic requirement.

[Jake]

I will be going to the Philippines in Dec for my first extended stay of 2-4 months. I have already purchased my one way ticket and now need to purchase the throw away ticket I need to present to the airline and if needed to immigration.

I tried to purchase a one way promo ticket from Cebu Pacific from Clark to Macau for total price of 1005 PHP. When I tried to pay for the purchase with my US credit card I was declined 3 times by Cebu Pacific. I checked with my credit card company and they said there had been no attempts to charge my credit card. Doing some internet searches found that it is very common for Cebu Pacific to deny charging your credit card if it is from a bank outside of the Philippines.

I don't have any bank accounts in the Philippines yet so my only choice is to purchase the throw away ticket online using my US bank issued credit card.

Any suggestions on what airlines or other sources of onward ticketing I can purchase using a US issued credit card online? Of course since this is a throw away ticket I am interested in spending the minimum possible to satisfy this bureaucratic requirement.

Very good question EarthDome! It would also be on my checklist prior to my departure from USA

on a one way ticket -- I guess that one way ticket was a better deal than a round trip? Assuming

that you have finally arrived in California prior to your departure from LAX, perhaps you could visit

any local Filipino-Asian store, restaurant or Filipino travel agency for that question.

I would rather take care of my travel plans and immigration requirements while still in USA. There

is a Philippine Consulate in LA which I've heard of their professional service:

http://www.philippineconsulatela.org/

Thank you for sharing your travel concerns. Respectfully -- Jake

[earthdome]

Very good question EarthDome! It would also be on my checklist prior to my departure from USA on a one way ticket -- I guess that one way ticket was a better deal than a round trip? Assuming that you have finally arrived in California prior to your departure from LAX, perhaps you could visit any local Filipino-Asian store, restaurant or Filipino travel agency for that question. I would rather take care of my travel plans and immigration requirements while still in USA. There is a Philippine Consulate in LA which I've heard of their professional service: http://www.philippineconsulatela.org/

Yes, the one way ticket was a great deal less than a round trip ticket for the dates I wanted to travel in Dec.

I am traveling from the midwest and the trip has four flights with very short layovers between flights. None of the layovers are in California. My pacific flight departs from Seattle and arrives in Tokyo.

I think the throw away ticket will cost much less than getting a multiple entry/exit visa. With only 1 month before I leave there may not be time to process a visa in the US.

[Beachboy]

Throw Aways from US-Can: Has anyone considered getting a multi-segment ticket from USA-CAN to Cebu to Hong Kong and try to leave the CEBU-Hong Kong leg open? You'll have to do a visa run anyway (presumably to HK) and the open ticket should satisfy Fils BI. Even if you can't get an open ticket on the last leg ... you can still set up a date and not use the ticket .. seems like the same cost as a "throw-away" . At the moment the ticket from Honolulu costs $1018 -- you can book the Cebu-HK leg through Philippines Airlines which I assume will take credit cards from Amer/Can banks (Might be a little late for you, Earthdome, but I wonder if you could add the extra Cebu to HK onto your existing ticket ... .. just a thought .. must be an exiting time!!!!) :cheersty:

Edited November 4, 2012 by Beachboy

[Dr. Cockroach]

Earthdome,

I had a similar experience but managed to circumvent it...

The ticket I wanted to buy was from Cebu<->Sydney(Australia) via Philippines Airlines from here, the US.

The Philippines Airlines website rejected two different credit cards I used (Master and Visa).

When I called Visa, they said there was no such transaction done?

I called Philippines Airlines and they said we do see them but call Visa! I said if I pay for them on the phone, how much extra? They said $50 bux.

Since I don't like being cornered unless I have to, I went to Orbitz.com and did a search and found same flight/airline. It was cheaper by some $15 bux (my hassle fees) and it allowed me to charge it.

Later, I did find same flight cheaper still on vayama.com (JGF keeps displaying it for a reason? :thumbsup:).

May be this would work for you?

Either call them directly and pay or find some website that does it or a travel agent who would take the card.

Edited November 4, 2012 by Dr. Cockroach

[i am bob]

vayama.com (JGF keeps displaying it for a reason?

This would be a Google ad and not one from JGF. I myself keep getting Google ads for dating sites yet I not only do not use them but I don't even visit them... It just happens!

:mocking:

[OnMyWay]

Try Tiger Airways from Clark. I did not have any problem using my credit card when I booked from the US. Clark to Kota Kinibalu was p949 all in.

[earthdome]

Try Tiger Airways from Clark. I did not have any problem using my credit card when I booked from the US. Clark to Kota Kinibalu was p949 all in.

That worked for me and I got the same flight with an onward ticket for a total of 949PHP which is less that the 1005PHP I was going to spend on Cebu Pacific for a throw away ticket.

Thanks OnMyWay!

[luke]

Non-PH issued credit cards is problematic for buying online domestic airline tickets. There were a few fraud cases in the past (most by Nigerians/Africans) and for a while all foreign credit cards were rejected for online bookings. With Visa/Master "Verified" introduced payments were possible again but sometimes still rejected.

With Visa/Master "Verified" the transaction is verified by the issuing bank with either a simple password/pass-phrase or a card-reader generated pass-code.

If you have a contact in the PH ask if they are willing to buy the ticket and you pay them back the cost on arrival. They can email you the E-ticket so you can show the airline/BI if asked.

[MikeB]

Cebu Pacific is notorious for problems with paying online with credit cards. You need to type in the information, especially "Issuing Bank", exactly as they want it, eg Capital One, not CapitalOne. Of course, the error message is completely generic and gives no clue that's the reason. It is a very frustrating experience and every failure is another chance of a duplicate billing. I have done it successfully quite a few times but I had problems early on. As post #9 says, you can also make the reservation and they will temporarily hold while someone local goes to a ticket office and pays. Convenient, huh?