Airline Tickets for Teachers

[Niko]

Open-ended tickets

I've just landed myself a 12-month contract teaching English abroad, but am unsure if I buy an open-ended ticket or confirmed ticket.

English teachers heading abroad for the first time are often unaware of their options when purchasing airline tickets.

An open-ended ticket seems the perfect alternative to most, however be wary. We recommend against purchasing open-ended tickets for the following reasons:

• You have no reservation.
• You have no guarantee of travel.
• Too expensive.

Buying an open-ended ticket will work out more expensive, only allowing you to take a flight if a seat is available.

Our suggestions are:

Option 1 - confirmed reservation

Isn't it better to purchase an airline ticket with a confirmed reservation for a specific date with the option to change dates later? Having a confirmed ticket with freely changeable dates is the perfect solution!

Changing a date on a confirmed flight may incur a small fee, but will still come out cheaper than an open-ended ticket.

Option 2 - discarding the return sector

Some English teachers purchase the return sector departing for a nearby country in which they will be teaching. Teachers heading to Taiwan often buy the return sector to Hong Kong or Thailand.

When entering a country on a tourist visa, an outgoing ticket is required. Immigration do not care to the destination of your outgoing ticket, but as long as you have one. You can then forfeit this outgoing ticket if you have since received your work visa. Of course, you will then eventually need to buy a one-way ticket back to your home country.

We suggest weighing up the costs of each option and using the one suitable to your needs.

A friend who had been accepted as an instructor of English in another country opted to buy the open-ended one because she thought it was the better option. she learned a bit too late that this airline ticket wasn't what she needed. She couldn't exchange this for those confirmed ones and she had to buy another ticket. She had a discount, still, that was a waste of financial resources.


wong@diamondslog.com

[Tutor]

I prefer to have a return ticket always. This is better because mostly all the airlines allow you to postpone your return ticket once or twice without any charges and for minimal charges after that.