There are 197 countries in the world and only 106 of them have an agreement with Russia on a visa-free regime. In other countries, you must obtain permission to enter, which is called a visa. To obtain this document, you need to contact the diplomatic mission of the selected country or visa center with an application and the established package of documents. All states do not like illegal migrants and, when issuing a visa, want to make sure that the foreigner leaves the country in a timely manner. To confirm the presence of such an intention, ticket reservations for a visa are used.
How to book a flight ticket
Air transport is the fastest way to travel around the world and therefore the most popular. Depending on your desires, you can prefer comfort or a low price for a flight. Therefore, travelers most often use plane ticket booking to obtain.
Consular officials interpret the availability of round-trip airline tickets as confirmation of the foreigner’s intention to visit their country exactly within the specified time frame and as confirmation of the desire to return home. Therefore, it is necessary to book air tickets for your visa in order to apply for entry permission at the embassy or consulate.
Tickets are quite expensive. However, their presence does not mean that a travel visa will certainly be issued. In addition, many people want to have a visa, for example, to, not for travel on specific dates, but as a guarantee of the opportunity to travel when the time and desire arise for this. In this case, there is no point in spending money on paying for a ticket. Let's talk about how to get around this obstacle.
The solution to the problem in this case is to book plane tickets without paying. Confirmation for diplomatic missions is the reservation, and not its payment, and you need to take advantage of this.
The rules for each specific company are different, but many of the carriers allow you to pay for the booked ticket after a few days. Sometimes this grace period is quite long.
| AlItalia, KLM | up to 24 hours |
| "Aeroflot" | if you pay for tickets at the offices of partner companies, you can defer payment for 48 hours for an additional fee of 1000 rubles. |
| Lufthansa, | up to 2 days |
| AirBaltic | up to 3 days |
| AirBerlin, AirFrance | up to 4 days |
| United, Europe Air | up to 7 days |
| Turkish Airlines, Korean Air, Qatar | up to 10 days |
It is these delays that you need to take advantage of when issuing an electronic air ticket for a visa.
When choosing a specific airline, read the cancellation policy: sometimes there are penalties for this transaction. Please note that the cost of the ticket will be blocked on your card when making a reservation, and you will have to pay a fine for refusing it in any case. The amount depends on the specific company; for example, canceling a reservation will cost you 2,350 rubles.
In addition, there are ticket booking agencies. Some of them allow you to book a ticket without paying even when the carrier company itself does not offer such a service.
The OneTwoTrip.com service allows you to return tickets for 9% of their cost, even if this is not possible according to the rules of the carrier company. There are also non-flight insurances. Look for options.
Purchasing a ticket for a low-cost airline
Booking plane tickets using the method described above is not the only option to confirm your intentions to fly into and leave the country. In particular, you can purchase a ticket for a low-cost airline.
Aviation companies seeking to minimize the cost of flights by reducing passenger comfort - low-cost airlines - are now quite common. Sometimes the cost of a ticket for their services is so low that you can sacrifice it to obtain the visa you are interested in.
In this case, you should purchase a ticket for a flight of such a company via the Internet, and they all sell their tickets this way. You will attach this travel document to the package of documents submitted to the consular service of the country you are interested in.
Confirmation of intentions to travel by other means of transport
Diplomatic mission officers who issue visas are actually of little interest in what type of transport you are going to travel with. They are interested in evidence that the trip will take place, and at the end of it the foreigner will leave the country.
Accordingly, you can get a reservation or buy a ticket for any other type of transport: train, bus, ship. The type of transport is not important, what is important is the availability of documentary evidence that you attach to the submitted package of documents.
The situation is more complicated when traveling by road. You will have to present documents to own the car or rent it, and you may need to create a kind of route sheet indicating the points and time parameters of the trip.
Obtaining a visa without booking tickets
Not all countries require documentary evidence of travel and departure intent.
In order not to waste your time and energy, obtain a complete list of required documents from the consular service of your chosen country.
If tickets or reservations are not listed there, do not process them. However, you need to be prepared for the fact that sometimes consulate employees, after receiving a visa application, put forward additional requirements. It is possible that they will just require tickets.
Conclusion
As we have seen, there are quite a lot of methods for confirming your intentions. Usually you can use any of them. You just have to take into account that some states have special requirements for arriving in their country, for example, you must fly or sail by sea. The Schengen countries are loyal to any type of transport; other states may have their own approach. Please clarify this issue with the consulate before collecting documents.
How to book flights without paying for a visa online: Video
Any trip will not be possible without first purchasing travel documents. This question is especially relevant when it comes to traveling abroad: in most cases, you will need a visa to enter, which requires confirmation of reserved seats on the plane. And if the situation has not yet become clear 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, others offer to go through a simple procedure of getting a visa stamp right at the airport, but most still require going through a more complex process of requesting a visa at the consulate.
In any case, representatives of the state you are interested in will certainly ask (most often in both directions) to make sure that you do not plan to stay for a long time.
Options
There are several ways to obtain a reservation of travel documents for submitting a package of papers to the diplomatic mission of the target country:
- Real purchase of tickets with full payment of the cost and, if necessary, subsequent refund.
- Reservations using airline websites or other intermediaries.
- Confirmation .
- Purchasing travel insurance.
Forgery of travel documents would not be the best option, and therefore we will not include it in the list of possible options.
Purchasing and returning tickets
The most reliable and most expensive way is return air tickets for a visa. This route assumes that the passenger pays the full fare, but if the trip is canceled for any reason, he has the opportunity to return them and sometimes even receive compensation for the full amount of money spent.
According to Article 108 of the Russian Air Code, the passenger has the right to receive a 100% refund, excluding actual expenses incurred by the carrier.
If there is less than a day left before departure, then the penalty will be at least 25%. According to the law adopted in 2014, airlines operating on Russian territory are allowed to sell no more than 30% of tickets that are non-refundable.
This regulation also applies to foreign carriers, and therefore it is always necessary to study the scale of fines for returns with special attention. As a rule, the cheapest or promotional tickets are non-refundable. 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 “premium” line that involves such an operation.
Please note that it is better to pay for such tickets in cash. It will take longer for the money to reach your card account. As an option, you can purchase insurance that will compensate for the money spent if the flight does not take place.
How to book an air ticket without paying its cost
You can book air tickets online for one day 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 performed and submit it to the consular department.
Do not forget that if 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. As an alternative, you can use special sites that combine data from several airlines at once.
All you need to do is set the route and compare which of them offers the optimal conditions, in particular, which company will make the reservation last longer.
Booking air tickets to obtain a visa without payment requires entering the following data:
- Traveler's name;
- departure date.
After filling out 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.
You just need to remember 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 select two sites at once.
To carry out the operation, you will need to enter your personal data and reservation number. The result must be printed. Such a document will completely satisfy the employees of the consular department or border service if you plan to cross. And although the reservation of plane 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.
Please take the sociological survey!
How many days is the reservation valid?
It is important to know, when reserving a seat on an airplane, for how long such a reservation will remain valid. Keep in mind that the closer you get to your departure date, the greater the chance that the airline will simply cancel your booking and sell the ticket to someone who definitely intends to fly on that flight.
Most often, the reservation remains valid for one day. But for many consulates this is not enough. For example, the Spanish mission does not require that tickets be paid for, but it is important that the reservation does not lose its relevance during the entire period of time while the request for visa permission is being considered, and this is no less than 10 days.
On the website agent.ru you can find carriers who are willing to hold your reservation for several days without making payment. This list included:
- 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.
In any case, free booking of air tickets for a visa requires you to monitor the counter, which will be turned on in each case on the booking site.
Many travelers visa processing At the embassy of a particular country, you may have already had to deal with such a problem as the presence of air ticket reservations in the package of documents provided. It happens that sometimes, even with a full package of documents, the applicant is denied a visa. And then what to do in this case with non-refundable air tickets if you were unable to get a visa? There is only one thing - throw it away and say goodbye to the money wasted on them.
In this article we will tell you where and how to apply booking air tickets for a visa without paying so that in case of refusal to obtain an entry document to the country, we do not have to deal with refunds for unused plane tickets.
By the way, this method is useful for those who are planning a flight without return tickets. You will need them at the check-in counter at the airport or when flying to a third country.
Where can I book air tickets without paying?
The most popular online agent with whom you can book air tickets without paying is - Agent.ru. Unfortunately, for short-term options it is difficult to say how long your free reservation on this site will last, but if you consider an option with a departure of more than 3 months, then, according to the rules of some airlines, you may be given a payment period for air tickets of up to 10 days.
Procedure for booking air tickets:
1. Find this agency through our search in the desired direction (or enter the address Agent.ru into your browser and select the date and route).
2. Select a flight that suits your price.
3. Fill in the required information and accept the user agreement.
4. Check the completed data and click on “Place an order”, after which you will receive a reservation code and also find out the maximum period for payment.
Deadlines for booking air tickets with various airlines
If you are planning apply for a visa to Europe, then below you can see the maximum periods of some airlines during which they hold for you air ticket booking without payment:
Where can I check and print my flight reservation?
You can check your air ticket reservations on the website checkmytrip.com. To print them on a printer and take them to the embassy to obtain 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 to provide services in obtaining a visa to a particular country -! Our 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 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 for making fictitious reservations (air tickets, hotels, transfers, etc.) is the strict visa requirements of some countries, which 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 going 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 you should know when booking free flights:
- There is no guarantee that the air ticket reservation will last long. Sometimes airlines cancel unpaid booked tickets, but this happens in cases where there is little time left before departure and there are people who want to purchase a booked but unpaid ticket;
- in most cases, they will give you a visa, but if you found an air ticket at a good price and did not buy it, then closer to the date of your trip such prices may no longer be available, so if you see a good price for an air ticket, then it is worth buying it.
So, let's start booking the air ticket without payment. There are a few simple steps, after which you will have a real airline 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 issue air tickets via the Internet and pay at their offices, thereby giving us time to go to the visa center with an active ticket reservation; other airlines hold the reservation 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). Recently, many online services for selling air tickets have been trying 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 airline 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 stage, the only difference is the time that this reservation lasts.
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 low price calendar and subscribe to price reductions);
- 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 reservations 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 to avoid paying for 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 on this page the ticket number (namely the ticket number, not the reservation number) and the surname that was specified during registration.
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 at the moment there are not enough funds to buy it (anything can happen in life, wages were 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 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 strongly 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 understand exactly how it all works.
We don’t always have the opportunity to buy a plane ticket right away. The reasons for this may be different, but most often it happens that a person simply does not have enough funds at hand, or they have to prepare documents for a visa, but it is not yet known whether the consulate will approve the application.
Sometimes it’s simply not profitable to buy a ticket in advance - what if your travel plans change and you have to stay late? In such circumstances, people wonder how to book a plane ticket online without paying? Today, airlines offer the ability to book without paying online, but there are some subtleties that need to be taken into account.
Methods for booking air tickets online without paying
There are two ways to book a flight ticket online – on the airline’s website or through an agency.
There are airlines that treat their passengers with understanding and provide the option of deferred payment. Each company itself determines what the conditions and terms of booking will be. For example, you can pay for an electronic reservation with Korean Air and Qatar within 10 days, United will hold your reservation for a week, and Lufthansa and SAS give only 2 days to pay for the booked ticket.
Sometimes carriers may shorten the payment time for no reason, and they are required to notify you by mail or call. Also carefully read the carrier’s terms and conditions – some companies may charge fines for refusing to pay for a ticket.
Not all official websites of airlines have Russian language, so using this method is not always convenient. In addition, there are companies that do not provide the opportunity to book an air ticket without payment at all.
A common way is to contact an agency. Agencies provide the opportunity to book even if the airline itself does not provide such a service. On such sites you can book air tickets online without paying for a period of up to ten days. For upcoming flights, they usually give less time, but if you book tickets in advance, it is possible to extend your reservation up to several days.
There are also air ticket exchanges (tourdom.ru, cheapplane.ru), where you can book cheap tickets without prepayment. All the best special offers, last minute tickets, and inexpensive seats on charter flights come here. However, there are many people who want to purchase such tickets, so you will have to “catch” good offers.
How to book a ticket online on the agency website
The easiest and most convenient way is electronic booking on the agency website agent.ru. Here you choose the airline and flight yourself, and if the need arises to cancel your reservation, you can easily do so without paying any fines.
To secure your air tickets online, you must do the following:
- Register online on the agent's website.
- Select the airline with which you will travel.
- Select a suitable flight.
- Fill in information about yourself and your companions.
- Be sure to include your phone number - the service will be able to contact you using it if the booking period is shortened and it is necessary to pay for the ticket earlier.
- After all the steps have been completed and the reservation has been confirmed, a counter will appear on your screen indicating the closing time of the reservation.
- After this, it is recommended to look at your reservation on the reservation verification service.
Plane ticket booking verification services
In the event that you need a paper copy to confirm that the seats are assigned to you, reservation verification services will help:
- myairlines.ru
- viewtrip.com
- checkmytrip.com
- virtuallythere.com
It happens that people do not find their reservation on any of these services. There may be several reasons. For example, the above sites are not able to identify five-digit reservation codes. In this case, you can check your reservation on the official website of the airline.
It also happens that you may not have noticed that the reservation period has already expired and you did not have time to pay for the tickets. Carefully review the booking conditions of certain airlines - some of them hold reservations for less than 24 hours. Sometimes services can make mistakes - a glitch in the program leads to the fact that the order may not go through, in which case you will have to repeat the procedure.
If you don’t find your option among those proposed, contact the agency’s support service. There you will clarify all your questions about booking tickets and will be able to solve the problem.
