Booking tickets for a visa to Italy. How to book a plane ticket without paying for a visa

It is no secret that one of the mandatory conditions for obtaining a Schengen visa is the presence of travel documents (air tickets, train tickets) in two directions. Let's face it, this is not always convenient and beneficial for a potential traveler. Often the specific date of departure is unknown, and sometimes the final country from which you plan to return is unknown, and these factors can cause a visa refusal. This brings up the question: is it possible to book tickets without paying? Of course, there is such a possibility, and we will talk about it.

Advantages of booking tickets with Aeroflot

Fans of this airline are probably familiar with its services and services, but not everyone knows how to book an Aeroflot plane ticket. The booking service itself is not an innovation, which cannot be said about the online version of such a procedure, without making an immediate payment. Now this can be done via the Internet and, accordingly, through the official website of this airline.

In order to use this service, please note the following information:

It is possible to book and pay for air tickets via the Internet no later than 6 hours before the exact departure time.
The passenger filling out the online application form bears full responsibility for the correctness of the entered data.
The online application in the “Last name, first name, patronymic” section is filled out exclusively in Latin letters. If the data is taken from the international passport, then the information is transferred to the application in the same form.
The time limit for the reservation until redemption is 24 hours. When applying for a visa, this is enough to print out the document and submit it to the consulate.
If the reservation is made on the basis of subsequent submission of documents to the consulate, it is free.

Booking steps

First, you need to find the website of this airline and open the booking page. Next, everything is done step by step:

enter the date for which the flight is planned and select the time;
fill out the form offered on the website to enter the necessary data (passport details, contacts);
get acquainted with the conditions for canceling a reservation from the point of view of legislative acts;
choose a convenient payment method (directly at the airport ticket office, payment agents, bank cards, Internet banking, electronic currencies).

Payment, as mentioned earlier, can be made no less than 6 hours before the departure time of the flight you are interested in.

When payment is made, an itinerary receipt will be sent to your email address, which certifies the process of concluding an agreement between Aeroflot and a specific passenger.

The completion of a successful booking is completed by sending you a confirmation page with information about the reservation codes and the electronic ticket itself. Both the receipt and the ticket are sent to the passenger in a pdf file containing complete information about all the details of the trip.

Registration before boarding will be carried out by you on the basis of the presented electronic ticket and a document that proves your identity (passport of a Russian citizen, international passport).

In fact, the entire process is accessible and easy to complete. Online booking provides passengers with a variety of options to help them cope with current problems or unforeseen circumstances. All that is required of you is a careful study of the site and step-by-step compliance with the conditions carefully described by its creators, and then, as they say, it’s a matter of technique. Nowadays, 68% of the country’s population successfully uses this service.

Currently, a service such as booking tickets, including plane tickets, is very popular. Ticket reservations can be made in two ways: by telephone or via the Internet on the website of the carrier or ticket sales agency.

How to book a ticket on the carrier's website?

In 2019, there are 37 air carriers operating on the territory of the Russian Federation, which operate regular, charter and subsidized air travel. Let's consider booking an air ticket using the example of Aeroflot:

Step 1. We go to the official Aeroflot website www.aeroflot.ru, where we select the “Online Services” tab.
Step 2. Once the window with icons opens, select “Book a ticket for 48 hours.”

Aeroflot allows you to book a ticket with deferred payment for 48 hours. If payment for tickets is not made within the specified time, the company reserves the right to cancel the reservation.
Step 3. In the window that opens, we write down the route: where we are flying from, where we are flying to, and select a date. If you need a return ticket, and we know when, we also write down the return date.
The system suggests choosing a complex flight (the “there” flight is not the same as the “back” flight). Based on a detailed route, the system will offer the best flight options.

In our case, the flight will take place from Moscow to Naples (Italy) and back.

Please note Saturday 5th October and Sunday 6th. These days the ticket price is much higher. Therefore, if the departure date is not important, then choose the day with the lowest price.
Step 4. To specify flight conditions, click the “Select flight” button.

After this, a page with flight conditions will open.
Step 5. Here we select the appropriate conditions and click the “Buy” button. She changes the status to "On order".
Step 6. Click the “Specify Passengers” button.
Step 7 We fill in the necessary information about passengers.
Step 8 We agree to the terms and conditions and click the “Continue” button.
Step 9 On this page you can select a seat on board, depending on the passenger’s fare in the Aeroflot Bonus loyalty program.
Step 10 If necessary, take additional luggage space for an additional fee. Please check the box indicating your agreement with the terms and conditions for the provision of the service.

Choosing flight and medical insurance.
Step 11 We choose transfer services to the airport or to the city:
- Aeroexpress tickets;
- car rental;
- transfer booking.
Step 13 Click the “Check Order” button.

At the bottom left, the reservation time is counted. When you are ready to pay for your order, click the “Pay” button.
Step 14 The form offers several payment options: gift certificate, cash, through a terminal, electronic money, through Internet banking of banks such as Alfa Bank, VTB 24, Promsvyazbank, Bank St. Petersburg, Russian Standard bank".

Ticket agency websites

The intermediary between the buyer of air tickets and the carrier are ticket sales agencies. Sometimes you can see that tickets from agents are cheaper than from carriers. This is explained by the fact that agents purchase tickets in bulk and additionally develop a system of discounts and bonuses, and also receive remuneration from the airline for selling tickets.

The good thing about intermediaries is that when planning a trip, you can book with the agency:

tickets from the carrier that offered the best price, since the prices of all airlines are compared;
hotel, tour, transfer, etc.

Top agencies

TOP 5 airline ticket sales agencies:

Skyscanner. Skyscanner.ru is a popular service with ten years of experience that searches for cheap tickets over the next year. The traveler has the opportunity to select the optimal flight in advance, select and book seats and save money.
The site processes up to 25 million requests monthly. The site interface allows you to obtain information in 25 languages.
About a million air tickets are booked through the service every year. To pay, you can use the site’s capabilities and buy a ticket without switching to other services using an international bank card. You can pay in cash at the Euroset or Svyaznoy service centers.
The service itself does not provide ticket booking. But it has access to ticket information for more than 700 airlines. When entering data, the user receives the most profitable flights. Having determined the required one, the system redirects to the airline’s page, where the booking takes place.
Here you can book a ticket for any type of transport. There are representative offices of this service in many countries, which allows you to search for information in different languages. More than 600 carriers are involved in providing their services. Tickets booked on the service cannot be sold without the knowledge of the buyer.
The service for booking air tickets allows you to track the flight direction and select the desired one. Payment for tickets is made by credit card. You can also book a ticket by calling the support center.

The service works with more than 200 airlines around the world, which allows you to quite accurately calculate all possible departure options for a specific date on all available airlines.

Step-by-step instruction

Using the Tickets.ru service as an example, let’s look at the steps required to book an air ticket:

Step 1. Go to the website Tickets.ru and select the “Air tickets” tab from the services offered.
Step 2. We fill in the information about where the departure is from and where, on what dates. In our case, the flight will take place on October 8, 2019 from Moscow to Naples, one passenger will fly. Then click the “Find” button.
Step 3. The system offers possible options. In our case, 235 options from different carriers were offered.

Among the proposed flights, select a flight from the Alitaia company, a fare acceptable to us, and press the “Select” button.

Select the payment method and click “Pay” again.

At the top right is the time allotted for paying for the order. It must be done before 12 hours have passed. Some orders may have a shorter lead time. If the order is not paid, the reservation is canceled automatically.

The created order can be viewed in the “My ticket” – “My orders” – “Air tickets” section. The order letter and itinerary receipt with the electronic ticket number are sent by e-mail. The itinerary receipt is also available in the “My ticket” section. After printing the electronic ticket, the order status in the “My ticket” section changes to “Paid and issued.”

Carefully study the selected ticket booking service. If the site is in doubt, it is better not to work with it.

Features of booking plane tickets without payment

When planning a trip to other countries, in some cases a visa is required. When providing documents, some consulates require round-trip tickets or confirmation of reservation. Since there is a possibility of visa refusal, buying tickets is not the wisest approach.

Therefore, many services hold the reservation for a certain fee until a positive response is received from the consulate. But there are a number of carriers that provide this service for free. Here are five carriers that allow you to keep your reservation without paying:

“Qatarairways” – 10 days;
"Turkish Airlines" - 10 days;
“Flyuia” – 10 days;
"LuftHansa" - 10 days.
"EuropeAir" - 7 days.

If these airlines are not on your route, you will have to pay for the service.

There is a possibility that the carrier will unilaterally reduce the reservation period. This will be reported by email.

Video instructions for booking plane tickets are presented below:

How can I check my reservation?

All services make air ticket reservations in global distribution reservation systems (GDS) - “Amadeus”, “Galileo”, “Sabre”, “Gabriel” and “Sirena”. To check your reservation, go to one of the websites of the GDS air ticket status check service where the ticket was booked:

checkmytrip.com;
viewtrip.com;
virtuallythere.com;
myairlines.ru.

Then enter the 6-digit booking number (PNR number) and the passenger's last name (as in the airline ticket). A PNR number is a combination of capital Latin letters and Latin numbers. For example, 99QWER. It is written in the route sheet.

If everything is in order, then you will be given information about your order. If not, this happens for a number of reasons:

The reservation number entered is incorrect. In this case, go to the carrier's website and check it there.
The reservation has expired.
Program crash. It happens rarely, but it does happen.
The order did not go through. Repeat the booking process.
The airline holds the reservation, but the agent's service canceled it. For more information, contact the agency.

You can check our example reservation at Aeroflot as follows:

Booking airline tickets is a fairly simple matter, anyone can do it. It is necessary to clearly understand what is needed and perform the actions that the services request. If you set a goal, you can save a lot when booking tickets by first studying the offered prices on various services.

Risk of failure

According to the European Union visa code, to assess the intention to leave the Schengen countries, it is sufficient to provide a return ticket, a round trip ticket or a reservation for such tickets. Booking does not imply payment for a ticket. The validity period of your airline ticket reservation is not enough to get your visa in time.

For example, the Consulate General of Spain in Moscow makes a decision on granting a visa within 10 days. When the applicant provides a complete package of documents that satisfies the requirements of the Consulate, the decision-making period may be five working days.

The air ticket reservation must be valid for the entire period of consideration of the package of documents. Proof of airfare payment is not required when applying for a visa.

When submitting documents to the Italian visa center, you must present both paid air tickets (originals and photocopies) and confirmation of their reservation.

To find out whether a reservation is available, a visa center employee can use the online system or call a specific airline. But if there are a large number of applications, such requests are generally not carried out. According to numerous reviews from tourists, there have been no cases of visa refusal to Schengen countries due to lost reservations.

Ticket purchase and return

This method is the most reliable, but requires high costs. The ticket can be returned after receiving a visa. Sometimes it is possible to return the full cost of the ticket.

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

However, these rules do not apply to foreign companies. It is recommended that you review refund penalties before purchasing tickets. In most cases, cheap air tickets cannot be returned, but business class tickets can. So, if you buy expensive, you have the opportunity to get your money back if your visa is refused.

If you decide to buy a return ticket, it is better to pay in cash, since the money will be transferred to the card over a longer period. To guarantee, it is advisable to purchase non-travel insurance, which will be valid in the event of a visa refusal. You can get insurance from the airline so that it works without a package tour.

On some sites, for a commission (9%) you can get back up to 90% of the ticket price. The non-refundable portion of the money remains in the service’s savings account for further purchases.

Some airlines provide a full refund if a visa is refused.

Booking air tickets without payment

When booking tickets without payment and further providing documents to the embassy, all responsibility lies with the applicant. There is no 100% guarantee that the reservation will be kept.

One-day flights can be booked online without paying for a visa at the official office of the air carrier or by bank transfer.

It is important to know that a reservation for 7 or 10 days is suitable for the consulate (it does not make sense to take it per day). This is the necessary time during which the package of submitted documents will be considered.

You can make a reservation in two ways:

On the airline's website. Some airlines allow you to book flights without paying. Such companies can provide from 2 to 10 days. For each airline, the deferred payment period depends on the fare and the specific destination. In general, an air ticket booked long before departure has a longer validity period than tickets booked closer to departure.
In an online agency. At an air ticket sales agency, you can book air tickets without payment for different periods. The tourist books a ticket, and then checks that it appears as paid in special services. If necessary, the reservation can be printed and presented to the consulate.

A reminder may be sent by email indicating the airline’s intentions to unilaterally shorten the payment period for the order. To avoid such a situation, experienced tourists make an unpaid air ticket reservation as early as possible.

Choosing a portal for booking air tickets is very important:

OneTwoTrip— provides the opportunity to extend your reservation for 7 days for 200 rubles;
Agent.ru– you need to register on the website, after which you can use the services of airlines that hold the order for up to 10 days;
Anywayanyday– The site requires registration, only recommended buyers can use privileges here. When choosing a cash payment method, you can extend your reservation up to 7 days;
AirFrance— The portal provides the service Time to Think. The cost of the service is about 15 euros. Reservations are held for up to 7 days. Infants and first class passengers receive the service free of charge.

How to check an air ticket in the booking system

Bookings are processed through global distribution systems. The main ones are Amadeus, Galileo, Sarbre. All ticket offices should know them.

Checkmytrip.сom – used to check reservations in the Amadeus system.
Viewtrip.com – used to check reservations in the Galileo system.
Virtuaiythere.com – used to check reservations in the Sarbre system.

What to do if the reservation does not go through?

In the event that a ticket reservation is not determined through Checkmytrip.com, you need to try to find a reservation through other sites. Sometimes a reservation is not processed due to a system failure. In this case, you should repeat the operation again.

Some tourists say they receive a 5-digit code instead of a 6-digit code. In this case, you need to go to the website of the airline where the tickets were booked and check the reservation there.

Confirmation of another mode of transport

You can submit documents to the consulate about the use of other means of transport (except for an airplane):

When traveling by car to the embassy, you are provided with a free-form itinerary sheet (describing the travel plan for each date with hotels and cities), a vehicle registration certificate, Green Card insurance, and a driver’s license. You can attach your ferry ticket reservation.
Railway transport. Russian Railways refunds the full cost of a ticket for trains in the neighboring countries.
Combined option. A tourist can purchase a train ticket to a specific country, then continue traveling by plane to the final country. The train ticket is returned, the plane ticket is either expired, or reissued for a convenient date and direction.

What airlines say

Popular air carriers answer questions about the possibility of booking a ticket to obtain a visa without payment, the maximum booking period and the fee for returning a ticket as follows.

S7 Airlines

Does not provide reservations without payment lasting 10 days.

Offers:

issue an air ticket using the Standard fare plan, which will allow you to issue a refund without deductions.
purchase a ticket with additional Travel insurance, which covers the event of visa refusal.

This insurance policy is suitable for individual travel.

KLM

In case of visa refusal, the company fully refunds the cost of the ticket, subject to certain conditions:

if the ticket was purchased at a KLM office or on the KLM.com website, or through the service on FB.
if the country of destination of the ticket and the country to whose consulate the visa application was submitted are the same.
in the case when the passenger provides a document confirming the visa refusal.
if the tickets have not yet been used.

If a tourist purchases a ticket before obtaining a visa, he must ensure that the fare rules allow for changes. This information is available on the ticket search page - after round trip flights have been selected.

The company can create a reservation for a tourist, but it will be active for 3 days.

After receiving the visa, the applicant can buy any suitable tickets, since the reservation will already be cancelled.

Interesting video:

UTAIR

The company makes it possible to book tickets at any agency at an economy class fare, which has the longest lead time for issuing tickets. After your visa has been confirmed, you can buy tickets on the company’s website at the lowest available rate. Agency fees are not deducted.

If a ticket is returned due to a visa refusal, the refund is not considered forced. When purchasing a non-refundable ticket, the entire amount paid for the ticket is not refunded.

Aeroflot

On this issue, contact the Call Center operators and inform them that a reservation for the embassy is required.

Upon request, the Aeroflot Call Center can increase the visa reservation period from 2 to 7 days. Excludes promotional rates or if there are less than 7 days left before departure. You can also get a stamped reservation at the company’s office or ticket office.

Aeroflot airline's reservation system is based on a software product developed by the air carrier. You can book and pay for an air ticket online no later than 6 hours before the flight departure. .

The foreign passport data is entered as written in the foreign passport.

Booking tickets without paying for a visa is a convenient and proven method. It is important to choose the right airline, which will provide the opportunity to smoothly organize further visa processing upon receipt of a positive response to the request.

Planning a trip is a responsible task. You need to think through everything to the smallest detail so as not to run into various troubles. Booking tickets is one of the stages of this planning. Many people are interested in whether it is possible to book air tickets and pay for them later. After all, such documents are often needed to obtain a visa, but there is no guarantee that it will be issued. It may be necessary to mark the journey.

Booking on the airline website

This is quite easy to do. You need to go to the official website of the air carrier, select the required item from the menu, and book a plane ticket without payment. It can be done later. Many airlines make concessions to their customers. They offer to make a reservation and pay for it either on the website or directly at the airport.

An example of making a reservation for Turkish Airlines

Important! Each air carrier has specific reservation validity periods.

So, the less time left before departure, the shorter the validity period of the reservation. Tourists need to remember that the airline has the right to unilaterally terminate the reservation. In this case, the passenger will be notified via email or contact phone number. That is why when booking you must provide real information about yourself. It will not be superfluous to first study the terms of deferred payment that are established by the carrier. Some airlines charge fines and penalties if a customer refuses to pay for booked tickets.

Reservation validity periods for different air operators

Airline name	Reservation validity period
AirBerlin	Up to 4 days
AirBaltic	Up to 3 days
Aeroflot	Up to 2 days
AirFrance	Up to 4 days
EuropeAir	Up to 7 days
AlItalia	Up to 24 hours
Korean Air	Up to 10 days
KLM	Up to 24 hours
Qatar	Up to 10 days
Lufthansa	Up to 2 days
Turkish Airlines	Up to 10 days
SAS	Up to 2 days
United Airlines	Up to 7 days

Booking on the website of ticket agencies

This method is also considered common among tourists. It allows you to book a plane ticket without paying in companies that do not provide such a service. The cost of booking depends on the agency's pricing policy.

Search for an air ticket on agent.ru

Important! It is worth considering that the client will be given a little time to pay for the reservation. As a rule, less than a day. Therefore, this option is not suitable for booking air tickets for visa purposes.

Some agencies offer to pay for your reservation within 72 hours. This period directly depends on the departure date. For example, if the trip is planned in a few months.

How to book a ticket? To do this you need to perform a few simple steps:

After this, the client will have a six-digit code that can be used when paying for the reservation or to print a document.

How to print an air ticket without paying

For this you will need a PNR code. It consists of six digits. It is entered in a special field of the selected Internet service. After the information about the air ticket is displayed on the screen, you must click on the “Print” button. On the websites of some companies it may be called differently. The air ticket is printed. Opposite it will be the status “Confirmed”.

Printing a ticket without payment

In some cases, it is possible to send a document by email. It can be printed in a convenient place. An electronic ticket is not suitable for processing any documents.

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

It is worth considering that to book air tickets, you register through certain global distribution systems. A few of them: Saber, Amadeus, Galileo. They are used to check booking documents. If a reservation is not identified on one service, it can be checked on another.

Note. In some services, to determine a reservation, you need to enter a five-digit air ticket code, rather than a six-digit one.

In addition to these services, the client can go to the website of the airline with which the ticket was booked. On its pages you can find information about the status of your reservation by air ticket number. If you can’t access the air carrier’s Internet resource, you can call the hotline and ask questions. It happens that a reservation is canceled by the company before the deadline. Therefore, before booking a document, it is better to find out all the rules of the airline.

Booking air tickets for a visa

To obtain the coveted visa, the consulate must provide confirmation of booking air tickets in both directions. This is not always convenient. And in the absence of such confirmation, a visa may be refused.

Important! Consular officials may require that your airfare reservation be maintained throughout the document review process.

In this case, the tourist will have to buy a ticket and then return it back. If you do this in a short time, you can get by with minimal losses. In addition, you can book tickets for a visa without paying for a day. To do this, you need to select one of the payment methods:

via bank transfer;
choose payment in the office.

This time should be enough to print the documents and submit them to the consulate. In some cases, the validity of the reservation can reach 10 days. This time will definitely be enough for the consulate staff to check all the documents. It is worth considering that a long reservation is not guaranteed by any of the air carriers. They have the right to cancel it unilaterally if there are people willing to purchase a ticket for the flight. Some airlines offer a paid booking service. This option will be the most reliable in the case of processing documents for traveling abroad. Such a reservation cannot be noted without the client’s consent.

Watch the video on how to book flights without paying for a visa

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.

There are often situations when travelers need a booked air ticket, but there is no way to pay for it (they are not sure that they will issue a visa, they do not need a return ticket, etc.). In this case, instructions on how to book an air ticket without payment, 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. This is very little and This option does not suit us. We need at least 5 days (so that in case of verification by the company or consulate, our ticket will be in the system as confirmed).

But how can you make it appear in booking systems as confirmed and paid for? After all, many companies and consulates require paid

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

After any booking or completed purchase of tickets, hotel reservation, car reservation, we can check our reservation, ticket number, departure time and various details in global distribution systems ( GDS) – international computer reservation systems where data is stored.

Booking sites (booking anything) work with different systems: Amadeus, Galileo, Saber, Worldspan. And depending on this, reservations from agent sites can be checked on different GDSs using the reservation number.

Amadeus reservations can be checked at Checkmytrip.com
Galileo reservations can be checked at Viewtrip.com
Saber reservations 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 haven’t found 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:

- Let's go to the site Agent.ru
- Enter the departure city and arrival city (in this case, Bangkok - Kyiv). If we need a one-way ticket, uncheck the “and back” checkbox. Select the flight date. 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)

- Select a flight to book. Unfortunately, not all companies can provide maximum long-term reservations; the longest period is up to 10 days. This works great for us. You can sample different companies and find out. Which of them offers to keep the reservation for how long? Better try to find flights UIA, Emirates(reservations up to 10 days are provided). We don’t pay attention to the price and flight time, because we are not going to fly with this ticket.

- We enter the email to which our reservation will be sent, the names of passengers, and passport number. passport validity period, phone number and consent.

- Next we will be offered insurance. And we persistently place the order.

Did you like the article? Share it

Print this article