Question about purchasing ticket for fiancee

[Matt & Bing 56]

There was a thread back in April that had the following comment:

VJ link

A word of caution.....When you go buy a one way ticket out of the philippines you have to go through a travel agent, and you will have to pick up the ticket in manila. With help from Asiana I found a travel agency in Los Angeles called Four Seasons Tours and Travel (phone is 213-381-8000) asiana cannot accept payment for the one way ticket, you have to go through agency. There is a philippine government rule that tickets for flights out of the philippines have to be printed in the philippines and picked up in the philippines. it took me all day today to get everything worked out.

I am going to buy my fiancee's ticket through a travel agent but I don't understand the issue if I did not. How would the government know where the ticket was printed or picked up? I assume I will get an e-ticket and she will just print it out and then get her borading pass when she checks in at the airport. But I don't know how they would know or care if the tickest was purchased directly from the airline or through a travel agent.

Has anyone dealt with this issue?

[jsnearline 2]

I booked a one way ticket for my wife on Northwest out of Manila using the nwa.com site and my wife didn't encounter any problems. She just paid the travel tax and airport departure fee at the airport the day she left. I just checked the nwa.com/ph site and they still allow you to purchase one way tickets online. I don't think they'd be doing that if it were illegal.

[Matt & Bing 56]

I booked a one way ticket for my wife on Northwest out of Manila using the nwa.com site and my wife didn't encounter any problems. She just paid the travel tax and airport departure fee at the airport the day she left. I just checked the nwa.com/ph site and they still allow you to purchase one way tickets online. I don't think they'd be doing that if it were illegal.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I can't understand how this would be an issue. When you check in at the airport, how would they know or care how the ticket was acquired.

But the Philippines just seems to have some odd rules sometimes. Thank God I know about the CFO requirement. I don't want any surprises on the rest of our Journey.

[edp333 9]

Yes, I encountered this last year. After AA got in trouble with the FFA last year, they refused to honor my wife's ticket due to the Philippine law. The law is all flights originating from the Philippines must be purchased in the Philippines. Funny thing is I have never heard of it being enforced. AA would not answer why they sold me the ticket and only gave me a partial refund.

I ended up buying a ticket from a different US online travel agency for Phil Airlines.

[Matt & Bing 56]

My travel agent (TravelFast International) claims the only issue is that they cannot charge me for the Philippines travel tax. They say there is no problem and they handle a lot of flights from the Philippines.