Return flight without leaving the airport

[JohnK]

Thanks JohnK, this is good info and glad you were able to do it. Did you have any questioning at checkin?

Not at check-in but have had questions at inbound/outbound immigration at times.

Status/frequent flyer points is valid excuse. You're doing nothing wrong and there's nothing written anywhere that says you must stay at least 1 night.

 

[Lawrage]

Not at check-in but have had questions at inbound/outbound immigration at times.

Status/frequent flyer points is valid excuse. You're doing nothing wrong and there's nothing written anywhere that says you must stay at least 1 night.

Well yes one can fly in, have a meeting and return home the same day. My concern was the fact you arent leaving the airport.

Seems like Status run is the excuse most use for this weird one.

 

[AIRwin]

Seems like Status run is the excuse most use for this weird one.

Reason/explanation not excuse?

 

[Ade]

I was nearly denied entry - as a AU citizen!

the immigration staff needed to be educated about status runs.

Did this as an Indian citizen (AU PR) ... took me forever to explain the status run bit to the immigration staff at AKL (who was also an Indian btw) ... The staff simply couldn't wrap around the idea of flying just to get points (I first said status credits and that just went over his head), so had to say "points" ... He kept asking "so you are going back to SYD tomorrow morning, but you are going to NZ for only 5 hours" ... later a supervisor person let me in the country ...

No one asked anything after the automatic gate thingy for AU ppt.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Reminds me of the LAX-DFW-ORD-MIA-PTY vv same day turns where you disembark in PTY and literally line up for the boarding process back onto the same plane. 25% chance of secondary screening at MIA on the return but they are mostly aware of status runs so let you go relatively quickly.

Anyone who did this was crazy !!!!

PTY is an amazing place to visit

 

[Ade]

Did you have any questioning at checkin?

IME, check-in staff did not ask me anthing. It was only inbound immigration, no questions on outbound immigration. If you have BP issued already (same day travel) then you may not even encounter check-in staff.

 

[justinbrett]

Did this as an Indian citizen (AU PR) ... took me forever to explain the status run bit to the immigration staff at AKL (who was also an Indian btw) ... The staff simply couldn't wrap around the idea of flying just to get points (I first said status credits and that just went over his head), so had to say "points" ... He kept asking "so you are going back to SYD tomorrow morning, but you are going to NZ for only 5 hours" ... later a supervisor person let me in the country ...

Definitely. Though to be fair, even I would question SYD-SIN-SYD. Why on earth would you fly all that way and not even have 8 hours or so to go into the city?

The problem is travel is all logged and even AU ABF can question AU citizens if they start showing weird travel patterns. I know of an airline employee who got staff travel to NZ every weekend for a month and on the fourth trip they were detained in SYD for questioning (all fine once they realised it was staff travel).

Anyone who did this was crazy !!!!

PTY is an amazing place to visit

Yes - that breaks my heart to know people did that! Have a 24 hour stop at least - I was there in 2019 and it was amazing.

Seems like Status run is the excuse most use for this weird one.

Um - if a status run isn't the genuine reason - why the hell are you doing it?

 

[Lawrage]

Reason/explanation not excuse?

True

 

[Lawrage]

Um - if a status run isn't the genuine reason - why the hell are you doing it?

Just a poor choice of words on my part. I say excuse as if getting questioned to me if would seem like an excuse rather than a genuine need to travel.

 

[Brissy1]

Reason/explanation not excuse?

Yes excuse, because the reason is for the duty free

 

[jase05]

@Lawrage I have done this many times.

SIN is easiest due to transfer desk.

Also TPE, HKG, BKK, KUL, MNL fairly easy.

There have been times where I have gone through immigration and back through just to get stamps in passport.

Some places ask questions but all you have to say is I'm doing it for frequent flyer points and never any issues.

I’ve done a stack of MH status runs when they had those cracking J sales and I’m going to do a couple in July with their $140 J fares
Get a few strange look but never really quizzed.
Similar for BA status runs in Europe

 

[eric2011]

Um - if a status run isn't the genuine reason - why the hell are you doing it?

In my case I had to take my wife's 2nd passport over to her as she lost her 1st one somewhere while on holiday. Flew in on the EK A380, handed her the passport at the arrivals gate then straight upstairs and thru departures and into the EK J lounge waiting for the evening flight back home. Very very expensive 60 minutes of drinkies

 

[snabbu]

Anyone who did this was crazy !!!!

PTY is an amazing place to visit

Absolutely, the canals / miaflores visitors center are awe inspiring and bucket list items for sure, but once is enough. My first visit was to see exactly this however subsequent visits were same plane turn arounds due to the insanely cheap SC's.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Pretty odd question here, say one wanted to take an international return flight from A - B, transit for a couple hours, not leave the airport and return back B - A.

Aside from maybe having to explain it at checkin is this allowed?

Many have done short day trips MEL/BNE/SYD - AKL on EK for status runs.

 

[mannej]

Aren’t there news articles every year suggesting that footy fans utilise routing like this to get to the big dance as it is cheaper than the domestic fares?

 

[oz_mark]

I think it happens more than people realise. People running documents to get signed, etc etc

 

[knagelli]

I've done MEL-AKL-MEL, stayed airside in AKL for 3 hours, no questions asked.

I had done the same many moons ago but post COVID not sure if there are any new measures or checks in place to flag such passengers.

 

[LadyC]

I had done the same many moons ago but post COVID not sure if there are any new measures or checks in place to flag such passengers.

My SC runs to AKL and back were done same day in both August and November 2022. The only issue I had in August was needing to show the now unnecessary NZ COVID entry pass at check-in in Melbourne. That same day return was all in one ticket.

 

[Captain Halliday]

I had that experience CHC. However, the immigration staff needed to be educated about status runs. Still it was a close call.

Did this last weekend.

The smart gates didn’t ask any questions

 

[serfty]

PTY is an amazing place to visit

Yep, still got my "TARJETA Rechargable" for the "SISTEMA INTEGRADO".

Gotta love $1.50 fares to/from the Airport ...