BestOnWardTicket or FlyOnward? Do they Work? Scam?

Cebu Pacific check in

Update – Flyonward.com now appears to be a complete scam, they deleted their Facebook and according to many reports including people I know, they never received their ticket. Avoid.

In the past it worked, including when I used to use it. One theory about how the scam works is at first they’ll deliver tickets, then at a later date stop doing so and just keep people’s money.

How it worked, when it used to work, is you’d pay $10 for a flight ticket confirmation that gets accepted for proof of an onward ticket when boarding a flight to the Philippines. Valid 24 hours.

Even if they type in the flight number (which they do) it shows up as a real flight, unlike some websites where you doctor a fake ticket.

When you fly to the Philippines, airlines almost always ask to see an onward flight ticket at your airport of departure (you don’t need it at the immigration once you land in the Philippines). There are signs on the check in desk like in the above pic.

It’s annoying and they’re shooting themselves in the foot putting off tourists who will say oh well I’ll go to Thailand instead because I don’t want to pay $$$ for a ticket yet, I want to keep my travel plans flexible. Or any of the other countries that don’t have this onward flight requirement.

As if having an onward ticket proves you’re not going to work illegally or overstay your visa…. anyone who wanted to do those things isn’t going to be dissuaded by having to buy a ticket.

Especially when it doesn’t have to be a return ticket, a flight to a nearby country is only like $60+.

Cute airport pinays

Unless they are doing it to make more money in airport taxes? Tickets to and from the Philippines are already more expensive than other SE Asia routes, because of the fees the airports charge.

Those fees get built into airline ticket prices so it’d make sense if it’s a deliberate way to make more money… the Philippines is the country to be so super strict about having a ticket out…

BestOnwardTicket – Flyonward Alternative

Some theorize that Bestonwardticket.com is a new site created by the Flyonward guy, this guy, and eventually it will also stop delivering tickets, becoming a scam.

I’ll update this post if that becomes the case.

So far though it appears to be working. It’s faster (takes 60 – 90 mins to get your ticket by email), lasts longer than Flyonward used to (48 hours instead of 24), and costs $12. They recently jacked up their prices 50%, it used to be $8.

I first tried it out when I heard that FlyOnward was becoming a scam. Even booking one at 10pm when their office is open 6am – 11pm (GMT+7) I still received a ticket in time. Ideally allow 2 – 3 hours though.

Email travel reservation

Then I just showed the .pdf flight booking on my phone at the check in desk and they accepted it.

I’ve read about Expedia or Orbitz allowing a 100% refund but when I look into it there seem to be hidden fees, or it requires a business class ticket, or you go to cancel and they make up some excuse why you can’t.

So I’d rather just spend the $12 and not have to spend time trying to get a refund / cancellation.

BestOnwardTicket.com delivers the booking confirmation to your Paypal email and you can select the departure date you want it to say.

Pick a date that’s within 30 days of landing just in case they take issue with it. Sometimes it doesn’t matter when your outward flight date is as you can extend your stay in the Philippines 36 months… but sometime it does.

Another thing that makes no sense.

15 Responses

  1. Jan says:

    Flying back to HCM
    Hope to see more post coming from u abt this place

    • jspill says:

      That’s the temporary onward flight ticket, it says a random destination, this one said HCM, you can’t actually use it

      But yeah I’ll be there soon and put up some more posts

  2. Anonymous says:

    You can extend in the Philippines up to 36 months as a tourist..I’m on my second 36 lol…

  3. BangkokBaller23 says:

    Thanks dude! This temp ticket advice is super helpful. Also, good info to know I have to show their ticket at the “departure” airport, NOT at the Arrival airport in MNL. Guess I HAVE TO take a trip there this summer now….😎

  4. Jobo says:

    Philipino logic….. Let’s screw over foreigners any way can.

    Good luck Philippines when China comes looking to kick your ass… You don’t have any friends left, you leeches.

  5. RealGuy says:

    This is common practice in Asia, not just Philippines. These sites also have a fatal flaw: their available payment methods are shit.

    Youre forced to use paypal. I you dont have an account you must sign up. If youre traveling through a country and dont have a working phone number, you wont be able to sign in to your paypal.

    Here are some workarounds
    1) If youve got a laptop, tether off your phone or use wifi, and it usually wont throw up the phone confirmation code page.
    2) Have a friend with internet and a working phone buy it for you, forward you the email.
    3) Buy a local sim thats able to recieve texts. This might be the worst option as in some countries, its not cheap.

  6. Jamie says:

    Be wary of the flyonward.com service. I rented a ticket, it never arrived, and I was forced to purchase an onward flight at a huge expense. And now they won’t get back in touch with me regarding a refund. Don’t use flyonward.com

    • Reader says:

      I recently used bestonwardticket and I got an official flight confirmation from a vietnam airlines email within 2h or so, so you might try them next time instead.

  7. jatrna says:

    Bestonwardticket.com is really best!! I use it and it worked

  8. Brian says:

    Flyonward.com is a scam. I used it. Payed $9.99. Received a receipt email but no ticket. I contacted the site twice but no response.

    • jspill says:

      Agreed, I edited this post a while ago to say that.

      It used to work, seems the scam was to deliver tickets initially until they got popular then just stop and collect the money, they deleted their Facebook too.

      For now Bestonwardticket.com is working, I used it this month, but one theory is that’s the same company under a new name and that too will become a scam at some point. Hopefully not.

  9. Dee says:

    Hi jspill,

    Found your post after Googling bestonwardticket.com. Good to know it’s not (yet) a scam. Thing is, it asks for a copy of your passport. If you’ve used it, then you’ve given them yours. I’m worried they’ll end up like flyonward. Imagine what they’ll do with all that ID and data they have now 🙁 #paranoid

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