YOU ARE HERE: ASIA-PALOOZA >> TRAVEL TIPS >> PAINFUL TRAVELING

Painful Traveling: Australia

The hard part is usually getting into a country.  Once you're there, they're more than willing to kick you out and let you go off to somewhere else.

ETA: AUSSIE VISA
Little did I know that in Australia it's just as painful to leave as it is to try to get in.  I had a spot of trouble with my ETA (Australian electronic visa -- you have to sign up for one beforehand) in that my ETA didn't list a middle name, while my passport has a middle name.  This made it a lengthy process to try to check into my flight as they had to contact someone (I presume in Australia) to enter in my middle name so that they could print my ticket.  No big deal, really, to get into the country.  And this was a perfectly understandable ONE TIME delay, right?

Little did I know that the real adventure would be in trying to LEAVE Australia.  I had booked my ticket from Cairns to Singapore on JetStar, which is the budget airline of Australia, and I should have known better.

E-TICKETS = NO PAPER, RIGHT?  WRONG
Now, I didn't see any point in printing the e-ticket receipts and bringing along with me every single piece of paper for my whole lengthy jaunt through SE Asia.  That's why they give you confirmation numbers, right?  So I just wrote those down.  I did, however, have the smarts to print up this particular portion of my trip that would take me from Cirns through Darwin, Singapore, and Manila to Boracay.

At the counter, I gave the Jetstar confirmation number to the lady and asked her if I could check my bag all the way to Manila so I wouldn't have to go through customs and immigration in Singapore. 

JETSTAR, HOW I LOATHE THEE
It is here that I should mention that online, the cost of a Jestar ticket from Cairns to Darwin and Darwin to Singapore was cheaper when booked as two separate legs, rather than done in one booking.  Either way, you take the same flight and have the same layover in Darwin.  In fact, you get back on the same plane in Darwin, they just make you deplane for a bit to clean out and restock the cabin.

Well, the lady looked at my Jetstar reservation and said she only had me to Darwin, not all the way to Singapore.  When I showed her my confirmation and e-ticket printout for the Darwin to Singapore flight, she got all annoyed and told me that since I had booked them separately, and even though I was flying both legs on the same airline and (once again, I italicize to stress the absurdity) in the same plane, I would have to pull my bags off in Darwin, then check them in again and also go through passport control, etc.  I would do all of this just to get back on the very same plane I was on in the first place. 

The problem was that my layover was only 1hr, and Jetstar requires international departure passengers to be there 3hrs beforehand.  So she matter-of-factly stated that I would miss my flight and would have to purchase another ticket. 

ONWARD TICKETS
At this point she also asked to see my flight information from Singapore to Manila and  because Americans can only stay in the Singapore for a short duration of time if they're not working/living there.  Mind you this limit isn't one or two weeks, but 90 days.  All the same, I showed her my ticket carrying me from Singapore to Manila -- on a different airline -- to her.  She then asked to see my departure ticket from the Philippines, which I did not have at the time (Although I had purchased the ticket, I did not print it up and carry it along with me because I wouldn't be using THAT ticket for a few weeks). 

She then asked where I was flying afterwards, and when I said Vietnam, she asked to see my visa (which I did have in my passport) and my exit flight from Vietnam (again, I didn't have any follow-on tickets after Manila).  After Vietnam, I was heading to Thailand, so she asked to see my exit flight from Thailand.  After Thailand I was going to Laos, so she asked to see my exit flight from Laos.  After Laos I was destined for Cambodia, which apparently accepts Americans for an interminable period of time and so she did not need to see my onward ticket from that country.  By the way, my Cambodian visa only allowed me to stay in the country for a month (far less than the 90 days I was allowed in Singapore) so I'm not sure why she didn't need my onward ticket from there as well.

I got a little frustrated with this whole line of questioning -- why would she need to see all of my follow-on flights that had absolutely nothing to do with Jetstar?  I told her we needed to focus on the issue at hand -- getting me on the later flight from Darwin to Singapore so I could just leave Australia.  She replied that until she saw my other tickets, she wasn't going to put me on any other flight because I would be "taking a seat away from someone who has the proper documentation to leave Australia."  Infuriating.

Of course I did not have any of these tickets I wouldn't be using for many weeks and weeks, so I actually had to leave, go to an internet cafe, and print my Philippines-Vietnam, Vietnam-Thailand, Thailand-Laos, Laos-Cambodia itineraries for her.  Luckily I had already bought these tickets previously...I can't imagine what would have happened if I was a long-term backpacker with no set schedule and no follow-on tickets.

When I brought them back, she "did me a favor" by taking me over to the manager so that he could call up to Darwin, tell them NOT to pull my bags from the plane, and get me checked in so I had my Darwin-Singapore boarding pass with me.  So she was doing me a favor by doing something that they do automatically everywhere else in the world: check you into further legs on your trip and check your bags through to your destination.  So I thought everything was finally sorted out.

FACEDOWN WITH CUSTOMS
We arrived in Darwin, deplaned and sat in the transit lounge with the other passengers going on to Singapore, and then got back on.  The folks joining us on our flight got on the plane as well, and they were preparing to close the doors when this customs agent runs onto the plane and begins making her way down the rows.  She stops in front of my seat and asked me to identify myself.  She points at my boarding pass indicating "Darwin to Singapore" and begins questioning why I didn't go through passport control at Darwin. 

I fished out my Cairns to Darwin boarding pass (luckily I hadn't thrown it away) and told her I had gone through passport control at Cairns, and since I had waited in the transit lounge with the other passengers I would not very well have gone through customs again at Darwin. 

This thoroughly confused her, so she walked me up to the front of the plane where she had a short conference with the Jetstar crew.  After some back-and-forth discussion, they finally decided I wasn't a terrorist and didn't have to get off the plane and go through passport control a second time.  I never thought I would have such a difficult time leaving Australia, and that a modern, first-world country could have such buffoons working at their airports. 

OUT OF THE ORDINARY
Now as previously mentioned, I have traveled abroad extensively and I have visited almost 60 countries over the course of 30 years of world travel.  This was the FIRST (and only) time I have ever been asked to produce onward tickets -- much less onward tickets weeks and weeks in advance and on other airlines completely outside the purview of my current airline's ticket agent. 

In this age of electronic tickets and the push to "go green" and "eliminate the waste" of printing out all of those sheets of paper, I thought I could get by with just an itinerary and my airline confirmation codes.  I even went a little beyond and printed out my current trip's full complement of tickets.  This would surely be enough, right?  WRONG!  The efficiency and modernity of the airline industry in Australia, specifically JetStar airlines, is woefully behind that of other countries.

In fact, in the US when you check at an e-ticket kiosk, they don't want a paper printout of your flight number, or any other piece of semi-official paper that you might be carrying with you.  The electronic kiosk asks for either your confirmation code and/or a credit card to identify yourself.  This is in keeping with the true spirit of the "electronic ticket" which doesn't require any paper accoutrements.

By the way, none of the follow-on airlines, immigration desks, passport control agents, or customs agents on any of the later legs of my trip asked for a chain of flight tickets taking me to my ultimate destination.  Nor did anyone even ask for one departure ticket when I entered the country.  Go figure.

FLY BANGKOK AIR INSTEAD
Finally, I must use this final space to make a pitch for the Bangkok Airways / Lao Air / Siem Reap Air conglomerate and for China Airways.  I was VERY impressed with their professionalism, courtesy, and efficiency both when checking and during the flight -- not to mention classy service personnel in the airport that did absolutely everything they could to solve our luggage situation when we arrived in Luang Prabang (they talked with passport control, tracked down the mistaken passenger, called that passenger's hotel, etc).  They even went as far as to have a driver drop us off at our hotel after the whole ordeal.  Pure class. 

They have excellent service and they don't try to nickel and dime drinks and snacks out of you (as Jetstar tried to charge me, by the way, on an international 9 hour flight to Sydney for a simple soda and peanuts).  I can't say enough about Bangkok, Lao, and Siem Reap airlines and their service personnel.  

It was a welcome relief to fly these airlines after the Jetstar debacle. 

BRAVO!