Unpaid flight reservation for visa. How to book flights online without paying for a visa

Dear readers, this article was written in January 2015, all information was relevant at the time of its publication. Unfortunately, some services have changed the interface (checkmytrip.com), thereby complicating the process of printing tickets.

In this article we will talk about booking and printing unpaid air tickets. It's no secret that travelers are required to have return air tickets when applying for visas; sometimes they are asked about a return ticket right at the airport, etc.

Who needs an air ticket reservation and why?

To obtain a visa. One of the reasons to register fictitious armor(air tickets, hotels, transfers, etc.) are strict visa requirements of some countries that probably live in the Stone Age and insistently require you to have all the necessary pieces of paper (air tickets, hotel reservations, transfers, etc.).

There are a number of travelers who prefer to catch cheap air tickets (last minute trips) with visas in hand, and when the coveted ticket appears at a reasonable price, they immediately buy it. Such travelers first receive a visa (of course, without paying for tickets), and then look for tickets.

For presentation at airports. You may also be required to have return air tickets when entering those countries that allow tourists to enter their country without a visa, Thailand as an example. When traveling to Thailand, the traveler may be asked for a return ticket before the flight and, if it is not available, they may not be allowed to board the flight.

In addition to air tickets, they may check your insurance, hotel reservations, etc. Each country has its own requirements for tourists; you can find out in advance about the requirements of the country you are traveling to using the Timatik service, more about it here.

If your visa is refused. Free air ticket booking is also convenient in cases where you are unsure whether you will be issued a visa or not and the correctness of filling out the documents does not play any role here. Especially if there were previously visa violations - overstays, unpaid fines and other violations that you have already forgotten about. In such a situation, not many tourists want to sit with a paid air ticket in their hands if there is no confidence in obtaining a visa, and booking without payment allows you to somehow calm your nerves.

It is especially important to have an air ticket reservation when submitting documents to the consulates of countries that often refuse to issue visas (USA, England, etc.).

How to book a plane ticket without paying

Let's look in detail at how to book a ticket without payment; in most cases, it is booked for consulates and to minimize unnecessary questions at airports.

There are a few important points When booking air tickets without payment, you should know:

• There is no guarantee that the air ticket reservation will last long. Sometimes airlines charge unpaid booked flights, but this happens in cases where there is little time left before departure and there are those who want to purchase a booked but unpaid ticket;
• in most cases they will give you a visa, but if you find an air ticket at a good price and don’t buy it, then closer to the date of your trip such prices may no longer be available, so if you see good price for an air ticket, it’s worth buying it.

So, let's start booking the air ticket without payment. There are several simple steps, having completed which you will have a real air ticket reservation in your hands.

Search for a flight ticket for booking without payment

To search for an air ticket in the direction you need, go here, the search form and filters will help you find an air ticket for the required dates, if you are doing this for the first time, then read the article about searching for air tickets, it will help you save a lot when buying air tickets “Features of searching for air tickets.”

We select any offer and begin filling out the data on the agency/airline website to which the air ticket search engine will transfer us. As mentioned earlier, some airlines allow you to book air tickets online and pay at their offices, thereby giving us time to go to Visa Center with active ticket reservations, other airlines hold reservations for a long time, which is also to our advantage. Booking conditions provided by airlines sometimes change, so be careful.

The main task of all these manipulations is to obtain the so-called PNR code (Reservation Code). IN Lately, many online services for selling air tickets try not to show this data, but we will be more cunning.

Having filled out the standard data for purchasing air tickets, we will have a reservation number - this is a short set of characters consisting of Latin letters and numbers; the reservation number should be remembered or written down.

Sometimes you receive an email with a reservation number, sometimes the airline ticket reservation number is indicated right on the website page, this is not so important, we will only need it once.

How to print airline ticket reservations without paying

The next step is to print out your airline ticket reservation without payment. We go to one of the sites for checking air tickets and calmly print out our air ticket reservation.

There are several sites for printing out air ticket reservations (viewtrip.com, virtuallythere.com, myairlines.ru, etc.). For example, I use the site checkmytrip.com, it has a simple interface and it always works properly.

In the form that opens, enter the reservation number, the last name for which the ticket was booked and click on the button. Next, you will be able to print or save the itinerary receipt.

Video on how to print an unpaid airline ticket reservation

My friend (Anton Pushkarev), did short video clip, in which he talks in great detail about printing out unpaid reservations. The video is three minutes long, be sure to watch and like it if it helped you.

That's all, now you have a real (legal) air ticket reservation, which can become your air ticket if you pay for it on time.

Air ticket reservation

Booking air tickets occurs every time in the process of purchasing a plane ticket via the Internet, in most cases people do not even think about it.

In order to understand why air ticket bookings happen without our knowledge, we need to understand how most aggregator sites for booking air tickets work.

In fact, everything is very simple. When you are looking for an airline ticket, aggregator sites provide a selection from many ticket and airline sites. After selecting an air ticket (by price, time, etc.), the aggregator site redirects you to the airline’s website, but not everyone does this, some sites offer to purchase an air ticket directly on their website, this is what the agent ru website does.

It is at this moment that an air ticket is booked, which can turn into a purchase or remain a reservation. Thus, any air ticket purchased online occurs at the online booking, the only difference is the time that this reservation is held.

Where to book flights

There are several convenient ways to book and purchase air tickets, about which I

• metasearch engines (air sales, skyscanner, etc.) - search for air tickets on many sites and provide you with the search results in a readable form (be sure to use the calendar low prices and subscription to price reduction);
• ticket sites (Agent RU, Euroavia RU, etc.) - you can make a reservation directly on their website without going to the airline’s website;
• air ticket exchanges (turdom ru and others) - as a rule, you can buy air tickets here at a very good price, but you need to catch them;
• airline websites - sometimes such sites can have very inconvenient navigation or lack of Russian language, so you need to know English.

Deadlines for booking tickets from different airlines

The timing of booking air tickets depends on the conditions of the airline, and not on the site on which you book the ticket. The lifetime of your air ticket reservation may be influenced by various factors (time before departure, availability of tickets for a given flight, etc.).

The approximate time for which airlines hold reservations can be seen in this list:

• Qatar holds reservations for up to 10 days;
• Aeroflot holds reservations for no more than 2 days;
• Turkish Airlines holds the reservation for up to 10 days;
• KLM holds reservations for no more than 1 day;
• UIA holds reservations for up to 10 days;
• AlItalia holds reservations for no more than 1 day;
• AirBaltic hold your reservation for up to 3 days;
• SAS holds reservations for up to 2 days;
• AirBerlin holds reservations for up to 4 days;
• AirFrance holds reservations for up to 4 days;
• Lufthansa holds reservations for up to 2 days;
• EuropeAir holds reservations for up to 7 days.

A number of airlines allow you not to pay booked tickets, if you book on their websites, and you can pay at their office. In any case, carefully read the “fine print” text regarding the cancellation conditions. For example, Lufthansa will charge you a cancellation fee for a guaranteed reservation.

How to check an air ticket

It’s very easy to check an air ticket using your reservation number and last name; now I’ll tell you about this in more detail. As I said earlier, all air tickets purchased via the Internet are, in one way or another, booked through one of the global reservation systems and thus each air ticket (whether it is paid for or not) has a unique reservation number.

Check your flight ticket through global booking sites

I know several global reservation systems used by airlines and all those who sell air tickets: Sirena, Galileo, Saber, Amadeus. Any tourist can access these systems, but not directly, but through the corresponding information sites.

• Siren - www.myairlines.ru
• Saber-

Here you should take into account the following nuance, depending on the airline, the reservation system with which this airline works will also depend (Sirena, Galileo, Saber, Amadeus), so you should know which site to check your air ticket on. Sometimes, information about the reservation system is indicated on air tickets, but for greater confidence, you can enter the reservation number and last name on all presented sites.

Check the purchased air ticket by number and surname

Large ticket agencies (for example, onetwotrip) provide their clients with a number of options (print an electronic ticket, issue a refund, choose the type of food on board, etc.), including checking the purchased air ticket by number and surname (by order or payment number and email address or mobile phone number).

In order to check an air ticket purchased on onetwotrip by number and surname, you should indicate the ticket number (namely the ticket number, not the reservation number) and the surname that was specified during registration on this page www.onetwotrip.com/ru/ticket .

In what cases to book a plane ticket without payment?

Booking a plane ticket without payment, as I wrote above, is required in the following situations:

• booking air tickets for a visa - this is done in cases where the country issuing the visa is very meticulous and there is no guarantee of issuing a visa;
• deferred purchase of an air ticket - if you have found a good price for an air ticket, but have not yet decided whether to go or not, then booking helps and you can think about your trip in a relaxed atmosphere;
• lack of money to buy a plane ticket - you found a plane ticket at the best price, but this moment There are not enough funds to purchase it (anything can happen in life, wages are delayed, payment by bank card does not go through, etc.), in this case you make a reservation and pay a little later;
• there is a high probability of a visa refusal - you know exactly for what reasons your visa may be denied and you do not want to have a paid air ticket in your hands.

Booking air tickets for a visa

To obtain a visa, in one sense or another, there are several ways to prove to consular officers that you have air tickets. Here are the most legal ones.

Refundable flights

The most reliable way to obtain air ticket reservations for a visa is to buy return air tickets. You will have real air tickets (paid) in your hands, suitable for obtaining a visa. With such air tickets, you should not have any unnecessary questions from consular officials.

After receiving a visa, return air tickets can be returned with the loss of part of the money. It’s not entirely clear why you need a visa then (you’ll probably travel by land and not by plane), but many people make reservations this way - it’s reliable and less nerve-wracking.

Booking air tickets without payment

A more risky and less predictable type of obtaining a visa is to take an unpaid air ticket reservation to the consulate; this could be anything from the airline automatically canceling the reservation to a consular officer calling the airline.

Friends, you should remember that the consulates are not stupid (at least no more stupid than you and me) and understand everything perfectly well, and if they want to find a reason not to issue a visa, they will definitely find it. I highly recommend not making an airline ticket reservation in Photoshop - this clean water deception, better make an unpaid reservation, which in itself is an official document.

If you have successfully read this article to the end, then you know all the features when booking air tickets and now you understand exactly how it all works.

To book an air ticket without paying, I use the website agent.ru. Most airlines require immediate payment, but there are also those who are willing to hold an unpaid reservation for up to 10 days.

• Qatar - up to 10 days
• Aeroflot - up to 2 days
• Turkish Airlines – up to 10 days
• KLM - up to 24 hours
• UIA - up to 10 days
• AlItalia - up to 24 hours
• AirBaltic – up to 3 days
• SAS - up to 2 days
• AirBerlin - up to 4 days
• AirFrance - up to 4 days
• Lufthansa - up to 10 days
• EuropeAir - up to 7 days

This list indicates that the reservation is valid UNTIL a certain number of days. Therefore, after you have booked your ticket, pay attention to the counter, more about it a little further...

UPD from October 19, 2018

Previously, I always made a reservation without payment on the agent.ru website. I like this method, so I shared it with you. But lately you’ve been writing to me that Agent.ru no longer shows the booking code for unpaid tickets. What are the alternatives?

• The website euroavia.ru offers for 300 rubles. book a ticket for a visa without paying. They state that they will hold your reservation for 7 days, but what I read on the forums is not very good good feedback about them. They say they are scammers, they take the money and immediately cancel the ticket. I’m just telling you about the methods that exist, but I’m not ready to vouch for them. Whether you book tickets this way or not is your decision!

• Some airlines allow you to keep your reservation without paying for up to 10 days. For example, Qatar, Turkish Airlines and others. After you have entered the passenger data and proceeded to payment, you can check the “Pay later” box.

Such a ticket can be printed for the embassy or border crossing, but I don’t know exactly how long the reservation will be valid. If it is the active reservation that is important, and not the presence of an unpaid ticket form, then I recommend writing directly to the airline and asking how long they are willing to wait.

• Some tour. agencies can make reservations without payment. Call several agencies in your city and find out what they did.

How to book a ticket without paying

We go to the website agent.ru and select the country/city and date we need. For example, we fly to Amsterdam on November 8 and return on November 17.

We select the desired airline, in my case it is AirFrance. Don't pay attention to the price, as you won't be buying tickets.

Fill in the required data. In order to book a ticket without payment, you must first register on the website.

After you have entered your data and clicked the “Proceed to payment” button, a reservation code will appear on the screen, and at the very bottom of the page a counter that notifies you about the expiration date of the reservation.

How to print an air ticket without paying

You can find and print your reservation on one of the following sites:

• checkmytrip
• viewtrip
• virtuallythere
• myairlines

Over the past few months, I have received a record number of emails asking for help printing a booking from checkmytrip. For many, the interface turned out to be incomprehensible, so I added photos from step by step instructions.

I can't find my reservation, what should I do?

• You have a 5-digit reservation number, and the above sites find reservations only using a 6-digit code. In this case, we need to go directly to the carrier’s website and check our reservation there.
• The reservation has expired. Pay attention to the counter!
• The program sometimes crashes, very rarely, but it happens. If your reservation is nowhere to be found, most likely the order did not go through and the procedure must be repeated.
• In the comments, several people said that they made a reservation with an airline that holds tickets without payment for up to 10 days, but agent.ru canceled them the next day. In this case, you need to write to agent.ru support and clarify the reasons for the cancellation.

Booking air tickets for a visa

If you are booking tickets to obtain Schengen, you will need a reservation that lasts for at least 7 days, or even 10 ideally. Tickets must be valid for as long as possible while your documents are being processed. This article contains only my experience and the experience of other travelers, which was successful (read the comments to the article!). But you should understand that I cannot give you a 100% guarantee, each case is unique. When booking a ticket without paying for a visa, the responsibility lies solely with you.

This is interesting

This question often arises for those who apply for a visa and need to provide a round-trip ticket as proof of their planned trip. But not everyone is ready to risk buying a ticket, because there are no guarantees that you will definitely be given a visa.
If they didn’t give you a visa, you lost your ticket (and even if it was refundable, you still lost part of the amount in the form of a fine).

So, is it possible to book air tickets without payment, but with the possibility of issuing a document that can be submitted to the consulate?
Eat! But it is important to know a few subtleties that will help you find such tickets and receive such a service for free.

In fact, making airline ticket reservations without paying is quite easy. This can be done on the website of some airlines that allow deferred payment for reservations or on special services.
In general, airlines are sympathetic to the need for deferred payment when booking. So, United is ready to hold your reservation for a whole week, and Korean Air for ten days! By the way, Aeroflot also gives you the opportunity to pay for your tickets later, allowing you to keep your reservation for a whole week. When booking on airline websites, pay attention to the cancellation rules; the fact is that some airlines reserve the right to charge small fines if you refuse to pay for your reservation on time.

There is one more convenient way searching for the right ticket and booking it without paying - booking agencies
This option is the most common, because the agency can provide a deferred payment service for tickets for those airlines that do not themselves have such an opportunity. The agent.ru service is popular among experienced travelers, where you can book tickets without payment for a period of 12 to 72 hours.
But on the agency’s website it is often not possible to print an electronic ticket (it does not yet exist until you have paid for the booking) or even a paper version of the booking.
Booking verification services can help you here:

After making a reservation, enter your 6-digit PNR code (should be sent to your email after booking) and your last name in Latin on one of the services. Afterwards, you will see your reservation with the status “confirmed” and you can print the reservation, which will fully satisfy the consulate employee when applying for a visa.
Below the whole process is detailed in the screenshots.

We go to the agency’s website and select the desired flight. For example, to submit documents for a visa to the Italian Embassy for a Schengen visa, we choose air tickets Moscow-Rome-Moscow.

We go through the standard ticket registration process, where you need to indicate your full name in Latin, date of birth, passport number with expiration date and select gender.
We get to the point of payment, but don’t rush to enter your card details. We already have everything you need.
All we need is a PNR code. Here it is, indicated by a red arrow. Let's copy it...

And now we move on to one of the booking verification services.
I prefer www.checkmytrip.com.
Here in the fields we enter the copied PNR and the last name for whom the reservation was made in Latin

The booking will open. All that remains is to print out the paper version.
Click on PDF, and you will also receive our reservation file.

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

— For example, to obtain 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 are flying from our native Omsk to Bangkok, there on February 28, back on March 14. Click "Find".

2. A list of all available options is shown. Don’t look at the price, you won’t have to pay anything anyway. It is important to choose a reputable airline; they usually give you the opportunity to defer payment for a certain period of time. It could be Emirates, Etihad, Korean Air, or you can google the airline you need.

3. We select the desired flight and then go to the ordering page. You must enter your email, first name, last name, date of birth, document number, citizenship and passport expiration date. Leave your phone number below and put a little cap in the “I agree” column.

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

5 . Ready! We now have a six-digit reservation code (PNR) at our disposal. In total, we have a little more than 3 days. There is no need to pay anything!

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

7 . Click on the “Print” button, and a page will appear on which the inscription “Confirmed” proudly displays. Feel free to print it out and take it to the consulate if required.

8 . In addition, a reminder is also sent by email. It is indicated that the airline may unilaterally shorten 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 you can cancel it manually. Thus, you don’t even show your data bank card, and still have an unpaid reservation in hand—beautiful!

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 airline cashiers must know them like the back of their hand. The Agent.ru website works through Amadeus.

— used to check reservations in the Amadeus system.
— to check reservations in the Galileo system.
— to check reservations in the Saber system.

What to do if the reservation does not go through?

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

This method, together with an unpaid hotel reservation from booking, worked quite well for us in (Vietnam) - they gave us a visa, though only for two weeks, although the reservations were for a month. This once again suggests that no one can give a 100% guarantee of success. After all, ultimately the visa is issued by the consul, and this is a living person.

For Schengen, you need to keep your reservation for at least 7 days, so it is more likely that when checked at the consulate, your tickets will be lost in the reservation systems.

Good luck with your visits to consulates and memorable travels, friends!