Is it possible to apply for a visa to book air tickets. Booking times for different airlines. What to do if the reservation does not break through

FAQ Can I book a ticket now and pay later? We answer - it is possible. But it is important to know a few subtleties that will help you find such tickets and get such a service for free.

Usually, there are two reasons for booking air tickets without payment:

  • Not at hand bank card or there are not enough funds, but you want to fix a ticket at a low price.
  • Air tickets are needed to apply for a visa, but there is no absolute certainty that the consulate will approve the application.

In these cases, there are two ways to book tickets without payment.

1. Booking on the airline's website

Many airlines are sympathetic to the need for deferred payment when booking. For example, the largest European carrier Lufthansa provides two days to pay for the reservation. United Americans are ready to hold your reservation for a whole week, and Korean Air for up to ten days! It is important to remember that the company can unilaterally reduce the time to pay for the reservation. They will immediately notify you of this by e-mail or phone, so please provide real data when booking. Be sure to read all the terms of the deferred payment. Some airlines reserve the right to charge small fines if you fail to pay for your booking on time.

2. Booking on the website of ticket agencies

This option is the most common, because. the agency can provide a deferred payment service for tickets for those airlines that do not have such an opportunity themselves. At experienced travelers the agent.ru service is popular, where you can book tickets without payment for a period of 12 to 72 hours. Time directly depends on the date of departure. When booking tickets for the coming days, you should not hope that you will be given more than a day to pay. But when searching a few months before departure, you can easily find booking options for several days.

Advice: if you need a paper copy to apply for a visa, booking verification services will help.

Hello! Today I will tell you how to book a plane ticket without paying. When might it be needed?

- For example, for a visa. In the list of documents for Schengen countries there is an item: air tickets. When we applied for a visa to China in Hanoi, we also booked air tickets without payment.

Enter the place of departure and destination. Just for example, we fly from our native Omsk to Bangkok, there on February 28, back on March 14. Click "Find".

2. Shows a list of all available options. Don't look at the price, you don't have to pay anything anyway. It is important to choose a decent airline, they usually give you the opportunity to defer payment for a certain period. It could be Emirates, Etihad, Korean Air, or you can google for the desired airline.

3. Choose desired flight- Then we get to the ordering page. It is necessary to enter E-mail, first name, last name, date of birth, document number, citizenship and passport expiration date. Leave the phone number below and put the kryzhik in the "Agree" column.

4. It is proposed to take out insurance, it is not needed, uncheck the box and click "Place an order".

5 . Ready! Now we have a six-digit armor code (PNR) at our disposal. In total, we have a little more than 3 days. You don't need to pay anything!

6. We go to the site and drive a six-digit PNR code and last name into the fields. As you can see, the reservation is confirmed, which is written in green.

7 . Click on the "Print" button, such a page is issued, on which the inscription "Confirmed" proudly flaunts. Feel free to print it out and carry it to the consulate, if required.

8 . In addition, a reminder is also sent to the mail. It is indicated that the airline may unilaterally reduce the payment period for the order. Therefore, I recommend making an unpaid air ticket reservation as early as possible, and not on the eve of going to the consulate, for example.

The reservation will then be canceled automatically, or it can be canceled manually. Thus, you do not even shine with your bank card details, while an unpaid reservation on hand is a beauty!

A little more about how this whole system works. The fact is that all bookings go through global distribution systems. The main ones are Amadeus, Galileo, Saber. All air ticket operators are required to know them like the back of their hand. The Agent.ru site works just through Amadeus.

- used to check bookings in Amadeus.
— to check bookings in the Galileo system.
— to check bookings in the Saber system.

What to do if the reservation does not break through?

  • If your booking is not detected through checkmytrip, then try using the other two sites to find your booking.
  • It happens that the system is simply stupid or has failed, in which case you will have to repeat everything again.
  • I read that some people get a 5-digit, not a 6-digit code. In this case, it is recommended to go to the website of the airline whose flights you booked and check your reservation there.
  • We simply canceled the next day, although it was indicated, as in the example, about 3 days. Please try again or select a different airline when booking.

We have such a way, along with an unpaid hotel reservation from booking, completely rolled in (Vietnam) - they gave a visa, though only for two weeks, although the reservations were for a month. This once again suggests that no one will give a 100% guarantee of success. After all, in the final analysis, the consul issues a visa, and this is a living person.

For Schengen it is necessary that the reservation is kept for at least 7 days, so more likely that when checking at the consulate, your tickets will be beaten in booking systems.

Good luck with your trips to the consulates and memorable trips, friends!

To obtain a visa, some countries in the package of documents to be submitted require copies of the reservation of air tickets. But is it worth it to pay in advance if it is not known whether you will be issued a visa? No matter how much you travel, there is always a small percentage of the probability that you will not receive the coveted sticker or stamp in your passport, which gives you the right to move around another country. In this article, I will tell you how to book flights online without paying for a visa.

If, and later, canceling a reservation without financial sanctions is not difficult, then this will not work with tickets. Some tourists go further and look for ways to make a dummy ticket for a visa so as not to lose their money in case of refusal. I do not recommend anyone to move in this direction, because there are quite legal ways to get a temporary ticket reservation, you just need to apply a few tricks.

You will need to book flights:

  • When traveling to some countries, when the return date is not yet known to you exactly.

Or maybe you just don’t have the money right now, but you need to apply for a visa. In all these cases, you can book air tickets without payment.

IN visa regulations in many countries there is no instruction to hand over paid tickets in the package of documents. In particular, a reservation will be enough for a Schengen visa. The only disadvantage of temporary booking is the time limit. It is valid, as a rule, from 1 to 10 days, depending on the method of booking. Therefore, it is better to do it on the day of submission of documents for a visa. Of course, there is a very small chance that the reservation will fly off before the visa is issued, and the consular officer will check it. We will figure out where to book tickets for a visa without payment.

Booking on the airline's website

Some airlines allow you to book tickets without payment with the possibility of redeeming them after a few days or canceling them completely.

Airline Booking period without ticket payment
1 AirBaltic 3 days
2 AirBerlin 4 days
3 Air Europe 7 days 8 hours 26 minutes
4 AirFrance 4 days
5 Alitalia 11 hours 59 minutes
6 Austrian Airlines 24 hours
7 Emirates 5 days
8 EuropeAir 7 days
9 Iberia 1 day 10 hours
10 KLM 3 days 10 hours 12 minutes
11 Korean Air 10 days
12 LOT 3 days 8 hours 20 minutes
13 Lufthansa 1 day 10 hours
14 Qatar 10 days
15 SAS 10 days
16 Swiss airlines 1 day 10 hours 10 minutes
17 TAP Portugal 3 days 8 hours 30 minutes
18 Turkish Airlines 10 days
19 United Airlines 7 days
20 Ural Airlines 3 days
21 UIA 9 days
22 Aeroflot 2 days

As can be seen from the table, airlines have different deferred payment periods. It may depend on the tariff and the specific direction. Also, the date of departure may affect the duration of the reservation. With more early booking deferred payment period may be longer.

Even if you do not intend to subsequently redeem a ticket, indicate your real data in the booking. The company may, for example, shorten the booking period, which will be notified to you by e-mail. Before making a booking, study the proposed cancellation conditions on the airline's website.

Booking through ticketing agencies

Ticket agencies and services also offer multi-day bookings without ticket redemption. Some of them make a free reservation, some take a small commission.

The term of booking with most agencies also depends on the airline and its conditions for purchasing tickets. The most popular ticket agencies are:

http://anydayanyway.com - you can make a reservation if you have previously bought tickets from them

http://aviobilet.com

http://avantix.ru

http://Avio.lv - Latvian site, booking for 3 days

https://www.bilet.ru

http://biletix.ru

http://biletyplus.ru

http://chartex.ru

http://clickavia.ru

— for 200 rubles you can make a reservation for 7 days.

https://www.ozon.travel/index.dir

http://pososhok.ru

Among these agencies, it is more convenient and easier to issue tickets on the website http://agent.ru. Consider step by step how to book a ticket online without payment.


After receiving the booking code (PNR), we go to one of the sites. They work with different booking systems:

  • checkmytrip.com (Booking with Amadeus);
  • viewtrip.com (Bookings in Galileo);
  • virtuallythere.com (Bookings in Saber);
  • myairlines.ru

The most popular is checkmytrip.com. To receive a booking on the site, you will need to register. To check the reservation, we drive in our 6-digit code and the passenger's last name in Latin. We print out the found reservation for the embassy. There is no print button, you will have to copy this into word.

If for some reason the reservation is not found, then you will see the message “send the reservation code to your email”. We send and wait.

You can also check your booking on the airline's website. We also drive in the booking code and the last name of the passenger.

Personal experience: in last time when applying for a Schengen visa, we booked through the Aeroflot call center. Bookings were sent to us by email. We printed them out and handed them over together with a package of documents to Visa Center. Booking tickets flew before obtaining a visa, but it does not matter. The visa was given for a year.

What are return tickets and how to buy them for a visa

Not all travelers want to delay buying a ticket until they receive a visa. If you have found a ticket with a good price and don't want to miss it, but are in doubt about getting a visa, it makes sense to book return ticket or insure refusal with options from companies or insurance.

Refundable tickets can be returned, however, most airlines withhold a small fee in case of a refund (usually from 1000 rubles, depending on the ticket fare). But sometimes the amounts can be more.

In order not to lose anything when returning a ticket, you can take out insurance in case of impossibility to make a trip. You will still need insurance for a visa, adding this option will save you much more money.

Or else, as an option, connect the option "we will return 90% of the ticket price" when buying. For 1764 rubles, you will be refunded regardless of the reason for the refusal, even with non-refundable rates.

Now you know how you can book a ticket without payment and financial losses. If you know other ways, please share in the comments.

About the author: Ekaterina

On the pages of my blog you will find information about the places where I have been, secrets and life hacks of independent travel.

    Any trip would be impossible without pre-purchase travel documents. This issue is especially relevant when it comes to foreign travel: after all, in most cases, you will need a visa entry permit, which requires confirmation of reserved seats on the plane. And if the situation has not yet cleared up with the exact date of departure, you can always resort to such a method as booking air tickets without paying for a visa.

    How to get a ticket reservation for applying for a visa

    Today, there are several options for crossing the borders of foreign powers. Some of them are ready to accept foreign guests if they have only one, others offer to go through a simple procedure for setting a visa stamp right at the airport, but most of still requires going through a more complicated process of applying for a visa at the consulate.

    In any case, representatives of the state you are interested in will certainly ask for tickets (most often round trip) to make sure that you do not plan to stay for a long time.

    Options for action

    There are several ways to get a reservation of travel documents for submitting a package of papers to the diplomatic mission of the target country:

    1. Real purchase of tickets with full payment of the cost and - if necessary - the subsequent return.
    2. Booking through the websites of air carriers or other intermediaries.
    3. Confirmation of movement by another mode of transport.
    4. Buying travel insurance.

    Not the most the best option turns out to be a fake of travel documents, and therefore we will not include it in the list of possible ones.

    Purchase and return of tickets

    The most reliable and most costly way These are return air tickets for a visa. This path assumes that the passenger pays the full fare, but in case of cancellation of the trip for any reason, has the opportunity to return them and sometimes even receive a refund of the full amount of funds spent.

    According to article 108 of the Air Code of Russia, the passenger has the right to receive a 100% refund, excluding the actual costs incurred by the carrier.

    If less than a day remains before departure, then the penalty will be at least 25%. According to the law adopted in 2014, airlines operating on Russian territory, have the ability to sell no more than 30% of tickets that are non-refundable.

    This regulation also applies to foreign carriers, and therefore always with special attention you need to study the scale of penalties for return. As a general rule, the cheapest or promotional tickets. But in business class there is such an opportunity.

    One of the companies where you can always buy return air tickets for a visa is Aeroflot. Here is a whole line of "premium", which involves such an operation.

    Please note that it is better to pay for such tickets in cash. Money will go to the card account longer. Alternatively, you can purchase insurance that compensates for the money spent if the flight still does not take place.

    In addition, the well-known resource Onetwotrip.com offers a refund of up to 90% of the cost, even if purchased travel documents are non-refundable. For their service they will charge 9% of the price. The funds, however, will go to the passenger's account opened on the site itself, and he will be able to use them only to pay for subsequent purchases of tickets.

    But companies such as KLM and UIA are ready to compensate for the cost of tickets if the passenger was denied a visa stamp.

    In addition, before traveling abroad, you need to find out information about the presence of debts on loans, fines, alimony, housing and communal services, and other things, as well as assess the likelihood of a ban on flying abroad, for this we recommend using the proven service nefly.rf.

    How to book an air ticket without paying its cost

    For one day, you can book tickets online without paying for a visa at the carrier's office or by bank transfer. Such a seemingly short period of time will allow you to take a printout of the operation and submit it to the consular department.

    Do not forget that if with a reservation hotel rooms no problems arise without depositing funds, then with plane tickets everything looks a little more complicated, since not all carriers are ready to part with the funds received.

    In general, there are several ways to purchase tickets:

    • online purchase;
    • at the carrier's office;
    • in an Aeroport.

    The procedure for booking air tickets without paying for a visa via the Internet, if you know exactly which carrier you are going to use, will not take much time and effort. Alternatively, you can use special sites that summarize data from several airlines at once.

    All that is needed is to set the route and compare which of them offers the best conditions, in particular, in which company the reservation will last longer.

    Booking air tickets for obtaining a visa without payment involves entering the following data:

    • Name of the traveler;
    • passport data;
    • departure date.

    After filling in all sections, you should click the "place an order" button and write down the reservation number, which is a set of numbers and Latin letters. To confirm your reservation, you can use one of the following services:

    It should only be remembered that each portal works with different systems (Amadeus, WorldSpan, Saber), and therefore it is not always possible to check the reservation on any one. For convenience, you can choose two sites at once.

    To carry out the operation, you will need to enter personal data and the reservation number. The result must be printed. Such a document will fully satisfy the employees of the consular department or border service if you plan to cross the border visa-free state. And although the reservation of air tickets without payment for a visa will be canceled within a few days, you will still have time to apply for a visa or cross the border.

    How many days is the reservation valid

    It is important to know, when reserving a seat on an airplane, for how long such an order will remain valid. Keep in mind that the closer to the departure date, the more chances that the airline will simply remove the reservation from your booking and sell the ticket to someone who definitely intends to take that flight.

    Most often, the reservation remains valid for one day. But for many consulates this is not enough. For example, the representation of Spain does not require that tickets be paid, but it is important that the reservation does not lose its relevance during the entire period of time while the request for a visa permit is being considered, which is no less than 10 days.

    On the agent.ru website, you can find carriers who are ready to hold your reservation for several days without making a payment. This list includes:

    • Qatar - 10 days;
    • Turkish Airlines - 10 days;
    • Aeroflot - 2 days;
    • UIA - 10 days;
    • AirBaltic - 3 days;
    • SAS - 2 days;
    • AirFrance - 4 days;
    • AirBerlin - 4 days;
    • Ural Airlines - 3 days;
    • TAP Portugal - 3 days;
    • KLM - 3 days;
    • LOT - 3 days;
    • EuropeAir - 7 days;
    • LuftHansa - 10 days.

    Anyway free booking air tickets for a visa obliges to follow the counter, which will be included in each case on the booking site.

    Where to book

    The choice of portal for pre-booking tickets will depend on which corridor you need to reserve a seat on board the aircraft, as well as on personal preferences:

    • OneTwoTrip - here for only 200 rubles your reservation will be extended for as much as 7 days;
    • Agent.ru - after registering on the site, you can use the services of airlines that hold an order for up to 10 days;
    • Anywayanyday - when choosing a cash payment method, you can prolong your reservation up to 7 days. An important condition is registration on the site and the presence of previous purchases, which means that privileges are provided only to proven buyers;
    • Turkish Airlines is another site where you can book flights without paying for a visa. Deferred payment can be received up to 10 days. At the same time, the system does not ask you to enter bank card details;

    Consulates require a round-trip ticket to obtain a Schengen visa. For independent tourist this is inconvenient: the date and country of return is not always known, a visa may be denied. And if a hotel reservation can be easily made through Booking and canceled, things are more complicated with air tickets. Let's figure out how to book air tickets without paying for a visa, or reduce costs to a minimum.

    The EU visa code clearly states that in order to assess the intention to leave the Schengen countries, it is sufficient to provide return ticket, round trip ticket or booking of such tickets.

    Booking does not imply the payment of tickets. But the validity of the reservation on the plane is too short to get a visa. Is it enough to book a day to get a visa? Let us ask this question to the ECs of Spain and Italy.

    Reply from the EC of Spain:

    The Consulate General of Spain reviews the documents and makes a decision within 10 calendar days from the date of receipt of the documents by the Consulate of Spain in Moscow. Each visa application is considered on an individual basis. As a result, decision times may vary. In case of providing a full package of documents that meet the requirements of the Consulate, the decision will be made within 5 working days.

    The ticket reservation must be valid for the entire period of consideration of your documents. The fact of paying for tickets for applying for a visa is optional.

    Please note that on a Spanish visa, the first trip must be to Spain.

    To apply for a visa to Spain, large quantity days of travel must be in Spain. If during your trip you are going to visit other Schengen countries, except for Spain, you must provide all documents for your stay in these countries and movement between countries and cities.

    The answer of the Italian Center:

    When submitting documents, both paid plane tickets (originals + photocopy) and confirmation of their booking are accepted.

    Theoretically, a visa officer can check the availability of a reservation by number: call the airline or use online services. But will he do it? With a large flow of applications, it is unlikely. This is confirmed by numerous reviews of tourists. No one had a case of being denied a Schengen visa due to a broken armor.

    Some even manage to get a visa with last year's redacted booking, or print it yourself. We do not recommend using this method, as it is a deliberate forgery of documents.

    What methods work?

    • Real ticket purchase with full payment, and further refund.
    • Booking through the websites of airlines or intermediaries without payment.
    • Confirmation of another mode of transport.
    • Cancellation insurance.

    Let's consider these points in more detail.

    Buying and returning a ticket

    The most reliable way, but high costs. The ticket can be returned after obtaining a visa. And sometimes even return the full cost for it.

    In accordance with Article 108 Air Code RF, the passenger receives 100% of the paid carriage fee, excluding the carrier's actual expenses incurred. If the refund is made less than a day before the flight, a penalty of up to 25% will be charged. Following the adoption of the law on non-refundable tickets in 2014, airlines can sell up to 30% of tickets for a flight without the possibility of a refund.

    These rules do not apply to foreign companies. Therefore, you need to carefully study the penalties for returns before buying. Usually cheap tickets cannot be returned, but there is such an opportunity in business class. If your visa is denied, you will lose money for both tickets and consular fees.

    Aeroflot has fully refundable premium fares:

    • Premium Business;
    • Premium Comfort;
    • Premium-Economy - except for YPXRTRF/YPXOWRF tariffs for Simferopol;
    • OPTIMUM tariffs - return with a fine from 50 to 200 euros / dollars;
    • Budget and Economy tariffs are non-refundable (including taxes and fees).

    Detailed return conditions on the official website of Aeroflot.
    If you decide to buy a return ticket, pay in cash - the money goes to the card longer.

    To protect yourself - you can buy travel insurance, which will protect against visa refusal. You need to look for one in the airline so that it works without a package tour.

    To eat additional service ticket refund for 9% of its cost. Even if, according to the rules of the airline, tickets are non-refundable, you can still return up to 90% of the cost. Part of the money is returned to the OneTwoTrip savings account for further purchases.

    For a commission of 9%, you can return up to 90% of the ticket price. The non-refundable part of the amount is returned to the account in the service.


    Some airlines make a refund in case of refusal of a visa (KLM, UIA).

    Booking without payment

    Without any problems, you can book a ticket for 1 day, choosing the payment method at the office or by bank transfer when purchasing. This is enough to get a real printout of the reservation and give it to the consulate. You can find a reservation even for 10 days. If you put it right before applying for a visa, this should be enough for a possible check of documents by the consul.

    You need to understand that a long booking is not guaranteed. Sometimes it is removed if there is little time left before departure, or there are people who want to buy this place. Some services and airlines have a service paid booking is a more reliable option.

    Where to book


    On many sites, the printout indicates that the reservation is not paid. If the consulate does not require payment for the ticket, it is not necessary to erase this inscription. In other cases, you can get a more “solid” printout from third-party services:

    You need to break through the booking in all services, they work with different bases. In one of them, the reservation should be found. If nowhere, try to book a ticket again, or change the flight / airline.

    Another option is to get a long-term reservation without paying for a visa through tourist agency for an additional fee or through friends.

    Confirmation of another mode of transport

    It is not necessary to travel to Europe by plane. Other ways to confirm transport:

    What the airlines say

    We asked popular airlines about the possibility of booking a ticket for obtaining a visa without payment, the maximum booking period and fees for ticket refunds.

    S7 Airlines:

    On such long term(10 days) ticket reservation cannot be created without payment.

    You can either:

    1) Issue an air ticket tariff plan"Standard", according to which it is possible to issue a refund without deductions.

    You can familiarize yourself with the rules of application for each of the tariffs (conditions for a return / rebooking) by clicking on the link:
    http://www.s7.ru/home/info/fares.dot

    2) You can also purchase a ticket with additional Travel insurance, which provides for the risk of "Visa Denial".

    This insurance policy is suitable for individual travel. An insurance policy can be added when purchasing tickets on the website www.s7.ru.

    More detailed information:

    In case of refusal of a visa, the cost will be fully refunded if the following conditions are met:

    Additional information can be found on our website: http://klmf.ly/1j78W3T .

    If you decide to buy a ticket before you get your visa, you need to make sure that the fare rules allow you to make changes. This information is available on our ticket search page - after round-trip flights have been selected.

    We can also create a booking for you, but it will only be active for 3 days. In principle, usually, this is enough to submit documents to the embassy.

    UTAIR:

    You can book your tickets with any agency at the normal economy class (Y) fare, which has the most long time to which you need to issue a ticket. After confirming your visa, you can buy tickets on the Airline's website at the lowest available fare. The website of the Airline does not charge agency fees.

    The first booking will need to be canceled by calling the agency.

    If the ticket is returned due to a refusal to issue a visa, the return is not considered forced. If you buy non-refundable ticket, then the entire amount of the ticket is non-refundable.

    Aeroflot:

    On this issue, contact the Call Center operators and tell them that you need a reservation for the embassy.

    Booking is free.

    Upon request, the Aeroflot Call Center can extend the visa reservation period up to 7 days. Excluding promotional fares, or if there is less than a week left before departure. You can also get a printed reservation at the Aeroflot office / ticket office.

    That's all. We have shown many legal ways to get a visa with an unpaid reservation. No need to take risks and forge documents, edit something. Share in the comments which method you chose and where you managed to get a visa.