When Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Mexico in December 2020, travelers began reporting that airline staff at Istanbul Airport were conducting random checks on paperwork required to enter the country. We have written about this more than once and do not see anything unusual in such checks. Airlines have the right to verify that passengers comply with the migration requirements of the destination country. If a passenger is denied entry, the airline is obliged, at its own expense, to transport him back to where he arrived.
Probably, the zealous checks by Turkish Airlines employees of the entry rules to Mexico can be explained by two reasons: the increased frequency of refusals to enter this country and the high load of aircraft on the route. Since April, the airline has increased the frequency of flights to Mexico to 4 times a week, and previously reported that planes to Mexico City and Cancún were more than 90% full, which is a fairly high figure for any airline. Due to the greater number of accidents, the airline is forced to check passengers more carefully, since it bears the burden upon the guest's return home. At the same time, a significant proportion of passengers on flights to Mexico were Russians, Ukrainians and citizens of CIS countries.
Turkish Airlines has the ability to check everything: differences in visas or electronic permits, airline reservations, the purpose of the trip to Mexico and even the financial support of this trip. But the most common reason for failure to board a flight to Mexico — fromno return ticket. There are cases, when not only the difference in the reservation of such a ticket is checked, but also whether this reservation is valid. The airline has technical resources to check reservations in reservation systems. For most airlines, even an unpaid reservation is only valid for 24 hours.
At the same time, Turkish Airlines does not care that the passenger can have a return ticket from Mexico to any country in the world and for any type of transport — Mexico's immigration laws allow this. If there is no ticket reservation or Turkish Airlines employees do not like it, they have the right to demand to buy a return ticket only for their airline's flight. The passenger is made to understand that otherwise he will not be boarded on the plane to Mexico. Stories about similar «service» There are plenty of Turkish airlines on Vinsky’s travel forum and in social media groups dedicated to air travel.
The requirement to have a return ticket only for a Turkish Airlines flight is illegal and has never been documented by the airline employees themselves. In such a situation, the passenger is under stress, limited in time and forced to comply with the airline's request, incurring unnecessary costs.
It may seem that by requiring you to buy a ticket on your own airline from the mines, Turkish Airlines is trying to increase ticket sales. We think it's a little different. The passenger's mother contacted us and told us the following story. Upon arrival in Mexico City on a Turkish Airlines flight, her daughter was denied entry into the country. The reason for this was not clearly stated, but one way or another the passenger did not have a return ticket. The airline put her on a flight from Mexico, and then required her to sign a document obliging her to pay the price of the return flight, since the passenger did not have a ticket for this flight. The airline did not have the right to offer the passenger to sign any financial obligation, since 1) it was itself to blame for not checking the difference of the return ticket with the passenger back in Istanbul, 2) it was obliged to take the passenger out at its own expense, regardless of whether the passenger paid for the flight or not, 3) the passenger was not the initiator of the return flight. To sum up, we believe that the requirement to buy a return ticket from Mexico only on a Turkish Airlines flight is due to the airline's desire to potentially cover the costs in the event that a passenger is denied entry to Mexico. Because of that provided that the passenger fails to enter Mexico, the passenger will be placed on a return flight of the airline from which he arrived to Mexico, and not the one to which he has a return ticket (if these are different airlines).
How to act in such situations and how to react? Firstly, be aware that you have the right to ask for a return ticket from Mexico both when boarding a flight in Istanbul and upon arrival. In other words, you should have enough money and time to quickly buy such a ticket if you don’t have one. Excuses like “I’ll buy it when I know how long I’ll be staying in Mexico.” don't work! Secondly, we understand perfectly well that if an airline employee puts forward an illegal demand to buy a ticket only for a flight of his airline, it is possible to convince him only by radical methods: calling a shift supervisor, causing a scandal, recording a conversation, threatening to complain. Or act confidently and ask to solve this question differently. But in Istanbul you — a foreigner and is unlikely to resolve the issue without knowledge of Turkish languages by appealing to the Turkish regulatory authorities. Thirdly, still buy a return ticket for a flight from Mexico from any reputable airline. The same Turkish Airlines has refundable tariffs, according to which money for a flight changed at the initiative of the passenger is returned with a fine of $100. It is essential that the ticket from Mexico be purchased separately from the ticket to Mexico, otherwise, having used the first flight segment, you cannot change all subsequent flight segments.