No star for domestic airport staff– I think they need more training and knowledge in suggesting passengers what to do when in trouble or might as well say it straightforward — do not suggest. Just yesterday I lost 600+ USD which I can’t have refunded and hundred more bucks for the other flights affected. We temporarily reside in Laos and we are on our way to visit our family in Mongolia via Philippines. My husband and son are holders of Mongolia passports; we know they need visa but we thought we can just buy visa on arrival, by land no document needed. Vientiane domestic staff said it is needed but if transit it should be OK. So using 3G right there and then I rebook our low cost airline from Saigon to Manila so we will just do transit from Vientiane to Saigon then Manila. With low cost airline you can get cheap tickets but when you rebook it will triple the price. Initially for me, my hubby and baby it cost 205 USD when I rebook to same day flight I had to add 400+ USD. After I completed payment I was told that low cost cannot check through and you can’t go out without visa even for transit. With low cost airline you cannot get a refund or cancel if flight is less than 24 hours. I’d just lose the money! They were suggesting to get visa from the embassy on 30th April. It seems they are not aware of the holidays in Laos: 30th April and 1st May are holidays in Laos. If she made it clear check thru you can do and not say transit I should have just cancelled my initial booking I could have lost less. Buying new tickets when using low cost airline is more advisable but not on a trip like mine this time because I have too many connecting flights (Vientiane -Saigon-Manila-Zamboanga-Manila-Beijing-Mongolia then back to Laos). We just miss our Saigon vacation. But what can you do– forgive forget and move on. We have bought new tickets already to Manila via Bangkok so this will be in the Wattay international Airport to Saigon it is through domestic because it is via Pakse – dealing with domestic airport staff yesterday was my worst nightmare in Laos. But with Vientiane International Airport, it may not be as big as the other airports but it has an international airport standard.