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Border Crossings

New Vietnam Entry Requirement

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Although the policy has been in place for around one month, tourists headed to Ho Chi Minh City (airport code: SGN) should be aware of this new Vietnam entry requirement.

As of 15 April, Vietnam has mandated the use of an electronic arrivals form for many visitors. Those not needing to fill it out include Vietnamese passport holders, and transit passengers.

For your assistance, here is the direct link to filling out the form.

It is widely expected that later this year, the new Vietnam entry requirement will spread to the rest of the country.

On the topic of Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest, and home to its busiest airport, I’m not much of a fan. Hanoi is more my cuppa.

Given Vietnam’s fantastic food scene of which I’ve barely scratched the surface, HCMC certainly merits more visits.

On that note, the city also known as Saigon is getting a brand-new airport this year, to be utilized first for international flights. Whereas the current one, Tan Son Nhat, surpassed peak capacity years ago, Long Thành (airport code: LTH), is being built to serve around 100 million annual passengers. Unfortunately, given the space required for its construction, it is much further away than the current airport, which is hemmed in by urban sprawl.

Bolivia and Uzbekistan Drop Tourist Visa Requirements for U.S. Citizens

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Unexpected bits of good news for U.S. citizens: Bolivia and Uzbekistan are becoming easier to visit.

Let’s start with Bolivia.

So many types of potatoes
So many types of potatoes

As of December 1st, the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs removed tourist visa requirements for the United States, as well as a handful of other passport holders. Previously, the tourist visa rate was around US$160, and lasted five years.

In 2008, I happened to visit Bolivia with my girlfriend at the time, who had just read an article about Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat. If sunglasses were never your thing, Salar de Uyuni would remind you to make them a habit.

Kickin' back at Salar de Uyuni
Kickin’ back at Salar de Uyuni

We first flew into La Paz, where acclimatizing oneself to the altitude was the key of keys. After all, it’s around 11,975 feet, or just about 3650 meters.

Valle de la Luna, outside of La Paz
Valle de la Luna, outside of La Paz

After a few days in the La Paz metro area, we overnight bussed it to Salar de Uyuni…from where we overnight bussed back the following night. It wasn’t quite developed then, and we had a time crunch to get to Copacabana, right on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

a town oCopacabana and Lake Titicacan a beach
Copacabana and Lake Titicaca

Take care of your lungs and heart, for traveling in the northwestern part of the country is no joke.

I’m seldom in South America, but do have mostly good memories of traveling around Bolivia. I’d been keen to see Yungas Road (known as Camino de la Muerte), and the silver mines of Potosi next.

For the Uzbekistan news, I should give a hat tip to fellow BoardingArea blog Live and Let’s Fly. As of a governmental decree on November 3, United States citizens will get to visit Uzbekistan tourist visa-free starting from January 1, 2026. It should be noted that since 2021, U.S. travelers aged 55 and above already had visa-free travel.

Uzbekistan Airways Airbus A320 bound for Nukus
Uzbekistan Airways Airbus A320, Tashkent TAS to Nukus NCU

On the subject of border crossings, I visited Uzbekistan with a woman from Mexico. We had just flown to Tashkent from Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), where she was almost denied boarding. The Bishkek immigration official tried to extract a bribe by claiming that Mexico didn’t exist. It was worsened by the fact that the immigration desk was about five meters from the gate. Eventually, the official gave up and let her pass, but it was obviously a sour note to end an otherwise pleasant trip to Kyrgyzstan.

Back to Uzbekistan, she and I started in Tashkent, then went to Nukus, Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand.

Silk Road Map in Khiva
Silk Road Map in Khiva
Registan Square, Samarkand
Registan Square, Samarkand

Bolivia and Uzbekistan were fun times indeed, so add ’em both to your lists!

Turkey will Fine Impatient Passengers for Standing Up Too Soon

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In a world first, the government of Turkey will fine impatient passengers for standing up before the fabled airplane “ding” is heard.

Uncoincidentally, on my take-offs and landings YouTube page LandingIsHalftheBattle, my most popular video involves this action, even if it was the country just west of Turkey. While the airplane was in its final approach to Thessaloniki, Greece, you can clearly hear one flight attendant yap “sit down please, we are landing.”

Of course, I have my own thoughts on passenger behavior, with many of those opinions stemming from what happens once the flight lands.

If you’re lucky enough to get a jet bridge — one of those connectors between the airplane door and the terminal — prepare for the nadir of society. That is to say, see if your travel BINGO card has:
– folks rushing off the aircraft only to become sloths on said jet bridge
– wheeled luggage slaloming so that you could never pass
– families taking up the entire width of the jet bridge
– mobile phones being unsheathed to estimate arrival times for rideshare drivers, even though no one ever has any idea how long it might take
– backpacks without rear-view mirrors and larger than overhead spaces getting in your face

It appears that the Turkish government has had enough of this flim flam. As a result of the prior mentioned boorish actions of travelers, Turkey will fine impatient passengers for standing up too soon. The expected fine will be around 2, 603 Turkish lira, or roughly USD$67 at today’s exchange rate.

Big Sign at Istanbul Airport IST
Big Sign at Istanbul Airport IST

If this happens, fantastic stuff. What else might be nice? Media companies that stop giving passengers the benefit of the doubt when a flight “unexpectedly hits a pocket of turbulence.”

Were the bumps so bad that they dislodged the buckle from the rest of the seat belt?

That’s what I thought.

 

Will On-Board Immigration Ever Return?

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Over the more than two decades of solo travel, I’ve never encountered an immigration system quite so whimsical as that in Indonesia. I’m only going to speak in terms of entering a county as a tourist, although years back I did work in Jakarta for a spell. How would on-board immigration have worked then?

As I mentioned yesterday, I used to travel a lot between Hong Kong and Jakarta, roughly covering years 2005 – 2012. As a U.S. passport holder, within that time frame, Indonesia went from full-page visa-on-arrival (VOA), to half a page, to no visa, and then back to half a page.

North Korean embassy in Jakarta
Speaking of entry requirements, here’s the North Korean embassy in Jakarta

At that time, U.S. citizens were also able to add pages to passports, potentially creating some real monstrosities.

What I didn’t realize was that Garuda Indonesia — back then the most expensive nonstop choice — began to offer on-board immigration for select routes.

Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330-343
Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330-343 at Jakarta CGK, bound for Bali-Denpasar DPS

Briefly, you’d buy your visa at check-in, then once the flight hit Indonesian airspace, an immigration officer would make his/her way around the cabin.

This peculiar service ended years ago; coincidentally, it was only around between 2010 and 2014. However, it was available between Tokyo and Jakarta, another route I’ve taken a few times, so I really should have tried it out on-board immigration at least once.

It’s not an unusual concept; on a 2004 ferry between Algeciras, Spain and Tangier, Morocco, there was mandatory in-transit immigration.

Of course, among other countries, Indonesia does e-visas for tourists these days. And then there’s preclearance for many U.S.-bound flights, but I think that’s a horse of a different color.

But in-flight passport control, I’m intrigued. Think that concept will ever return to the skies? Or, have e-visas and e-gates put a halt to it?

What is a Positioning Flight?

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If you have ever come across the term “positioning flight,” it doesn’t always have to do with human locomotion.

To clarify the first definition, it simply refers to when an aircraft gets repositioned from one airport to another, generally for operational reasons. These positioning flights don’t take on passengers or cargo.

Whisk me away to the points and miles positioning flights.

Per GlobeAir, there might be any number of situations in which this occurs. Those could range from aircraft maintenance and crew schedule planning, to refueling, regulatory compliance, and aircraft leasing.

As an example, let’s take the recently inauspicious San Francisco SFO to Rome FCO nonstop with United, UA507. Last week, UA507 had a couple of diversions and cancellations. You better believe there was a positioning flight involved, only to bring passengers back to SFO to board a flight that was cancelled the next day. (sarcastic note to self: do MileagePlus members accrue miles for positioning flights, too?)

But you didn’t come here to read about these behind-the-scenes flights, right? You want the flights with the bennies and lounge access after lounge access, don’t you?

Points and Miles Positioning Flights

In essence, a points and miles positioning flight is when you fly somewhere just to snag a more reasonable premium class price, and consequently, earn a lot more points/miles. However, with more and more revenue-based miles programs, through this method you might be shooting yourself in the foot.

As usual, my history with these routes began with food.

In late 2010, I was living in Shenzhen, China, and cobbling together a trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe. Although Hong Kong — right across the border from Shenzhen — had flights to Johannesburg, a nonstop was bush league. Not to mention, economy flights were expensive, let alone business class.

Being a more avid reader of FlyerTalk back then, I recalled something about Colombo being a good starting point for lower-cost business class fares.

Plus, Colombo made for a nice to split up the journey between southern China and the deep south … of Africa.

But most importantly, it would reunite me with Sri Lankan vade, the seafood lentil fritters that occupied a rare slot in my pantheon of the world’s best street food:

Sri Lankan Vade at Galle Face, Colombo
Sri Lankan Vade at Galle Face, Colombo

All told, I think the cost of the roundtrip Colombo CMB – (Doha xDOH) – Johannesburg JNB/Cape Town CPT – (Doha xDOH) – Colombo CMB in business class was around US$1000.

At the time, I thought it was cool to visit the Qatar Airways Premium Terminal at the former Doha International Airport. The building was demolished long ago, but fortunately I saved a few mediocre photos from that time:

It goes without saying that positioning flights don’t always pay off. Sometimes, the departure airport for the eventual itinerary is cumbersome to access (e.g. I think Algiers is known for having good business class deals, but I haven’t tried that one yet). Or, you might be turned off due to weather/infrequent departures/type of aircraft used on the main itinerary (cue the sardonic oh, no, their Airbus A321 uses Euro-style business class seating).

On the other hand, Egypt.

Flight to Alexandria, Egypt from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Flight to Alexandria, Egypt (aka Borg el Arab) from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

In my experience, Egypt, long known for enticing business class fares, is primrose path territory. Whereas I can’t get enough of the history, or underrated food scene, it has never been close to relaxing. Still, the prospect of earning good mileage, and flying back to the U.S. in a lie-flat was too much to shake off.

Thus, I’ve done a few Cairo/Alexandria (Borg el Arab) – somewhere (usually Doha or Istanbul) – U.S. flights, but not for a number of years. Partially it was due to lack of passport space, and partially it was for not wanting to be pushed around baggage claim like a pinball.

Then again, since my last flight from Egypt, an eVisa has been introduced. Also, perhaps a visit to an Egyptian Red Sea resort will let me find my glasses that sank to the bottom in 2017….

I hope that my mini-backgrounder on positioning flights has helped you expand your travel wish list to places that you may have never expected to visit. Besides, Alexandria has feteer meshaltet (فطير مشلتت), North Africa’s analog to pizza.

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