How to book a flight on a plane without paying. Life hack

Consulates require booking an air ticket in both directions in order to obtain Schengen. For an independent tourist, this is inconvenient: the date and country of return are not always known, a visa may be refused. And if hotel reservations can be easily made through Booking and canceled, the situation with air tickets is more complicated. We will 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 enough to provide a return ticket, a round trip ticket or a booking of such tickets.

Booking does not imply payment for tickets. But the validity period of the reservation for the plane is too short to get a visa in time. Will there be enough reservation for a day to get a visa? Let us ask this question to the Computing Center of Spain and Italy.

The answer of the EC of Spain:

The Consulate General of Spain examines the documents and makes a decision within 10 calendar days from the date of receipt of the documents at the Consulate of Spain in Moscow. Each visa application is considered on an individual basis. In this connection, the term for making a decision may vary. In case of providing a complete package of documents that meet the requirements of the Consulate, the decision-making period will be 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 submitting documents 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, more days on the trip must be in Spain. If on a trip you are going to visit other Schengen countries, except Spain, you must provide all documents for staying in these countries and moving between countries and cities.

The answer of the Italian Computing Center:

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

In theory, a visa officer can push through the availability of a reservation by calling the airline or using 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 in Schengen due to lost armor.

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

What methods work?

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

Let's consider these points in more detail.

Buying and refunding tickets

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

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

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

Aeroflot has fully refundable premium line fares:

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

Detailed conditions of return are on the official Aeroflot website.
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 cancellation insurance, which will protect you from visa denial. You need to look for one in the airline so that it works without a package tour.

There is an additional service for returning a ticket for 9% of its cost. Even if, according to the airline's rules, the 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 visa refusal (KLM, UIA).

Booking without payment

You can easily book a ticket for 1 day by choosing the payment method at the office or by bank transfer. This is enough to get a real printout of the armor and give it to the consulate. You can find reservations even for 10 days. If you put it right before applying for a visa, this should be enough for the time of a possible check of documents by the consul.

You need to understand that long-term bookings are 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 paid booking service; this is a more reliable option.

Where to book

• • For 200 rubles, you can extend your reservation for 7 days.

Reservation for 7 days for 199 rubles.

• • Through Agent.ru - deferred payment for booking for 7-10 days is available for some flights. You need to register on the site.

The video shows how to work with Agent.ru (from 4 minutes) and get a ticket printout:

• • - booking is available if you are registered and have already bought tickets through the service. You can get a booking for several days by choosing a cash payment method.

Booking through AWAD.

• • Through Turkish Airlines - deferred payment for 10 days, you do not need to enter your bank card details.

At the stage of paying for your ticket on Turkish Airlines, select deferred payment and reserve.

• Airfrance.ru - "Time to Think" service for 5 or 15 euros. Reservation and tariff are frozen up to 7 days. The service is free of charge for infants and first class passengers.

On many sites, the printout indicates that the booking has not been paid. If the consulate does not require you to pay 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 punch through the reservation in all services, they work with different bases. In one of them, the reservation must be found. If it is nowhere, try to book your ticket again, or change your flight / airline.

Another option is to get a long booking without paying for a visa through a travel 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:

• • When traveling by car: itinerary sheet in free form (with a description of the trip plan for each date with hotels and cities), vehicle registration certificate, driver's license. You can attach your ferry ticket reservation.

Booking a ferry ticket from St. Petersburg to Finland.

• Railway transport: Russian Railways refunds the full cost of a ticket for trains in the near abroad. Detailed conditions of return on the Russian Railways website.
• Combined option: buying a train ticket to Vilnius, then a Ryanair low-cost airline ticket to the desired location (30-50 euros). The train ticket is returned, the plane either expires or is reissued for a convenient date and direction.

What the airlines are saying

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

S7 Airlines:

For such a long period (10 days), booking a ticket without payment cannot be created.

You can either:

1) Issue an air ticket according to the "Standard" tariff plan, 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 of 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 refusal".

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 is refunded in full, if the following conditions are met:

You can find additional information on our website: http://klmf.ly/1j78W3T.

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

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

UTair:

You can book tickets with any agency at the normal Economy Class (Y) fare, which has the longest time until you need to issue your ticket. After confirming your visa, you can buy tickets on the Airline's website at the lowest available fare. Agency fees are not charged on the Airline's website.

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

In the case of a ticket refund due to a refusal to issue a visa, the refund is not considered forced. If you buy a non-refundable ticket, the entire ticket amount is non-refundable.

Aeroflot:

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

Reservations are free.

Upon request, the Aeroflot Call Center can extend the visa booking period up to 7 days. Except for promotional fares, or if less than a week is left before departure. Also, a stamped reservation can be obtained at the Aeroflot office / ticket office.

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

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

There are usually two reasons for booking flights without paying:

• There was no bank card at hand or there were not enough funds, but I wanted to fix a ticket at a low price.
• Air tickets are needed to apply for a visa, but there is no one hundred percent 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 a reservation. Americans United are ready to hold your reservation for a whole week, and Korean Air - 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 study all the terms of deferred payment. Some airlines reserve the right to charge small fines if you refuse to pay for your reservation 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 and for those airlines that themselves do not have such an opportunity. For experienced travelers, the agent.ru service is popular, where you can book tickets without payment for a period of 12 to 72 hours. The time directly depends on the departure date. When booking tickets for the coming days, do not hope that you will be given more than a day to pay. But if you search months before departure, you can easily find booking options for several nights.

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

Many travelers visa processing at the embassy of a particular country, you may have already had to face such a problem as the availability of air ticket reservations in the package of documents provided. It so happens that sometimes, even with a full package of documents, the applicant is denied a visa. And then, in this case, what to do with non-refundable air tickets if it was not possible to obtain a visa? Only one thing - to throw it out and say goodbye to the money wasted on them.

In this article we will tell you where and how to issue booking air tickets for a visa without payment so that in case of refusal to obtain an entry document into the country, not to engage in refunds for unused plane tickets.

By the way, this method is useful for those who have planned a flight without return air tickets. You will need them at the check-in counter at the airport or when flying to a third country.

Where can I book flights without paying?

The most popular online agent where you can book flights without paying is - Agent.ru... Unfortunately, for short-term options, it is difficult to say how long your free booking will be on this site, but if you consider an option with a departure for more than 3 months, then according to the rules of some airlines, you may be given a payment period of up to 10 days.

The procedure for booking air tickets:

1. Find this agency through our search in the desired direction (or enter the address Agent.ru into the line of your browser and select the date and route).

2. Select a suitable flight.

3. Fill in the required information and accept the user agreement.

4. Check the filled-in data and click on "Checkout", after which you will receive the reservation code, as well as find out the maximum term for its payment.

Terms of booking air tickets with various airlines

If you are planning apply for a visa to Europe, then below you can familiarize yourself with the maximum terms of some airlines during which they hold for you booking air tickets without payment:

Where to check and print flight reservations?

You can check your flight booking on the website checkmytrip.com... To print on a printer and take them to the embassy for a visa, you need to click on the "Print" button.

Don't want to waste time visiting a consulate or embassy to apply for a visa? Then you can use the online service for the provision of services in obtaining a visa to a particular country -! Service specialists will do everything for you!

VISAtoHOME - Visa online with home delivery

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'll talk about booking and printing unpaid tickets. It's no secret that travelers are required to 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 and why

To obtain a visa. One of the reasons to issue fictitious reservations (air tickets, hotels, transfers, etc.) is the strict visa requirements of some countries that probably live in the Stone Age and insistently require all the necessary paperwork (air tickets, hotel reservations, transfers, etc.) .).

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

For presentation at airports. Return air tickets may also be required from you when entering those countries that allow tourists to arrive in their country without a visa, Thailand as an example. When traveling to Thailand, the traveler may be required to have a return ticket even before the flight and, if it is not available, may not be put on the flight.

In addition to air tickets, you can check the availability of 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 going to using the Timatik service, in detail about it here.

If a visa is refused. Free booking of air tickets is also convenient in those cases when you are not sure whether they will issue you 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 - overstay, unpaid fines and other violations 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 flight reservations when submitting documents to consulates of countries that often refuse to issue visas (USA, England, etc.).

How to book a plane ticket without paying

We will analyze in detail how to book a ticket without payment, in most cases it is booked for consulates and minimizing unnecessary questions at airports.

There are several important points you should be aware of when booking flights without paying:

• there is no guarantee that the flight reservation will be held for a long time. Sometimes airlines withdraw unpaid booked tickets, but this happens in cases where there is little time left before departure and there are those who wish to purchase a booked but unpaid ticket;
• in most cases, you will be given a visa, but if you found a ticket at a good price and did not buy it, then closer to the date of your trip there may not be such prices, so if you see a good price for a ticket, then you should buy it.

So, let's proceed to the very booking of an air ticket without payment. There are a few simple steps here, by completing which you will have a real air ticket booking.

Flight search for booking without payment

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

We select any offer and proceed to filling in the data on the agency / airline's website to which the flight search engine will transfer us. As mentioned earlier, some airlines allow you to issue tickets via the Internet, and pay at their offices, thereby giving us time to go to the visa center with active ticket reservations, other airlines keep the reservation for a long time, which is in our favor. Booking conditions provided by airlines sometimes change, so be careful.

The main task of all these manipulations is to get the so-called PNR code (booking code). Recently, many online services for the sale of air tickets, try not to show this data, but we will be trickier.

Having filled in the standard data for buying 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 a letter with a reservation number comes to the e-mail, sometimes the ticket reservation number is indicated right on the site page, this is not so important, we only need it once.

How to print flight reservations without payment

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

There are several websites for printing an airline ticket (viewtrip.com, virtuallythere.com, myairlines.ru, etc.). For example, I use the site checkmytrip.com, it has a simple interface and it always works fine.

In the form that opens, we enter the reservation number, the surname for which the ticket was booked and click on the button. Further, it will be possible to print or save the itinerary receipt.

Video on how to print an unpaid flight reservation

My friend (Anton Pushkarev), did short video clip, in which he tells in great detail about the printout of unpaid reservation. The video is three minutes long, be sure to watch it and like it if it helped you.

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

Flight booking

Air tickets are booked every time they buy a plane ticket via the Internet, in most cases people do not even think about it.

In order to understand why air tickets are booked without our knowledge, you need to understand how most of the websites of air ticket booking aggregators work.

In fact, everything is very simple. When you are looking for a flight ticket, the aggregator sites provide a selection from many ticket and airline sites. After choosing 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 the booking of an air ticket takes place, which can go into a purchase or remain a booking. Thus, any ticket purchased online occurs at the stage of online booking, the only difference is in the time that this booking is held.

Where to book flights

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

• metasearch engines (air sales, skyscanner, etc.) - search for tickets on many sites and provide you with a search result in a readable form (be sure to use the low price calendar and a subscription to a price cut);
• 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 tickets here at a very good price, but you need to catch them;
• airline sites - sometimes on such sites there may be very inconvenient navigation or the absence of the Russian language, so you need to know English.

Terms of booking tickets of different airlines

The timing of booking air tickets depends on the conditions of the airline, and not on the site on which you book your ticket. Various factors (time before departure, availability of free tickets for this flight, etc.) may affect the lifetime of your flight ticket reservation.

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

• Qatar keeps the reservation up to 10 days;
• Aeroflot holds a reservation for no more than 2 days;
• Turkish Airlines holds reservations for up to 10 days;
• KLM holds a reservation for no more than 1 day;
• UIA holds reservations for up to 10 days;
• AlItalia holds a reservation for no more than 1 day;
• AirBaltic keep your reservation 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 for your booked tickets if you book on their websites, but you can pay at their office. In any case, carefully read the "small print" text on the cancellation policy. For example, Lufthansa will charge you a cancellation fee for a guaranteed reservation.

How to check the ticket

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

Check flight ticket through global booking sites

I know several global booking systems used by airlines and all those who sell air tickets: Sirena, Galileo, Saber, Amadeus. Any tourist can contact 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 booking system with which this airline works (Sirena, Galileo, Saber, Amadeus) will also depend, so you should know on which website to check your ticket. Sometimes, information about the booking system is indicated on air tickets, but for greater confidence, you can enter the booking number and surname on all the sites presented.

Check the purchased ticket by number and surname

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

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

When to book a plane ticket without payment

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

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

Booking air tickets for a visa

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

Return flights

The most reliable way to get your visa flight reservations is to buy return air tickets. You will have real air tickets (paid), suitable for obtaining a visa. With such air tickets, there should be no unnecessary questions from the consular staff to you.

After obtaining a visa, return air tickets can be returned with the loss of part of the money. It is not entirely clear why you need a visa then (you will probably travel by land, not by plane), but many make a reservation in this way - it is reliable and less nerves.

Flight booking without payment

A more risky and less predictable way of obtaining a visa is to take unpaid air ticket bookings to the consulate, there can be anything from the automatic cancellation of the reservation by the airline to the call of the consular officer to the airline.

Friends, it should be remembered that no fools work in consulates (at least, not more stupid than you and me) and they understand everything perfectly and if they want to find a reason not to issue a visa, they will definitely find it. I highly do not recommend making an air ticket reservation in Photoshop - this is pure deception, it is better to 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 can imagine exactly how it all works.

To the country where you need a visa. Instructions on how to book an air ticket without paying for a visa to solve this problem.

Situations often happen when travelers need a booked ticket, but there is no way to pay for it (there is no certainty that they will give a visa, no return ticket is needed, etc.). In this case, the instructions on how to book an air ticket without payment, which were written by travelers from the samsebecolumb project, will come in handy.

Many airlines and agents only allow you to book a ticket for a day. It is very small and this option does not suit us. We need at least 5 days (so that in case of verification by a company or consulate, our ticket is in the system as confirmed).

But how to make it appear in the booking systems as confirmed and paid! After all, many companies and consulates require paid

In this case, two sites will come to our aid:

After any booking or perfect ticket purchase, hotel booking, car booking, we can check our booking, ticket number, departure time and various details in the global distribution systems ( GDS) - international computerized reservation systems where data is stored.

Booking sites (booking anything) work with different systems: Amadeus, Galileo, Saber, Worldspan... And depending on this, reservations from the websites of agents can be checked on different GDS by the booking number.

• Amadeus reservations can be checked at Checkmytrip.com
• Galileo reservations can be checked at Viewtrip.com
• Bookings with Saber can be checked at

Usually, booking sites indicate which system this particular company works with. The most commonly used are Amadeus and Galileo. But if you did not find the name of the system, enter the reservation number on each of them and check.

So, step-by-step instructions on how to book an air ticket without paying for a visa:

1. • We go to the site Agent.ru
   • Enter the city of departure and the city of arrival (in this case, Bangkok - Kiev). If we need a one-way ticket, uncheck the “and back” box. We choose the date of the flight. Do not forget to indicate the number of passengers if you need more than 1 ticket (but it is better to make a separate reservation for each)

1. • Choosing a flight for booking. Unfortunately, not all companies can provide the maximum long booking, the longest period is up to 10 days. This works great for us. You can select different companies by trial and find out. which of them offers to keep the reservation for how long. Better try to find flights UIA, Emirates(provide reservations for up to 10 days). We do not pay attention to the price and flight time, because we are not going to fly with this ticket.

1. • We enter the email to which our reservation will be sent, the names of the passengers, the passport number. passport expiration date, phone number and consent.

1. • Next, we will be offered insurance. And we insistently place an order.