How to book flights without paying for a visa in 2021

Ticket reservation without payment in 2021, cancellation of reservation

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 with only an international passport, others offer to go through a simple procedure of getting a visa stamp right at the airport after arrival, 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 for tickets (most often round trip) 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 of travel by other means of transport.
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.

What is a reservation

In principle, the very fact of booking does not imply payment. But the fact is that the booking period is so short that it is simply impossible to obtain a visa at the embassy during this time. As a rule, visa applications are processed within 10 calendar days at consulates, and the ticket reservation must be valid for the entire period of consideration of documents.

Theoretically, visa centers can check the relevance of air ticket bookings using the reservation number. But will they do it? Unlikely. Reviews from tourists indicate that in practice there have been no refusals to issue a Schengen visa due to a lost reservation. Some particularly enterprising tourists received visas even with edited last year's booking documents or self-prepared copies. I will not recommend this method, since this is all such falsification of documents, which may result in liability provided for by law.

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.

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

But companies such as KLM and UIA are ready to reimburse ticket costs if the passenger was denied a visa stamp.

In addition, before traveling abroad, you need to find out information about the presence of debt on loans, fines, alimony, housing and communal services, etc., and also assess the likelihood of a ban on flying abroad; for this, we recommend using a proven service.

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

Not all travelers want to wait to buy a ticket until they get their visa. If you find a ticket with a good price and don’t want to miss it, but have doubts about getting a visa, it makes sense to book a return ticket or insure your refusal with options from companies or insurance.

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

In order not to lose anything when returning your ticket, you can take out insurance in case you are unable to make the trip. You will still need insurance for your visa; adding this option will save you significantly more money.

Or, as an option, activate the option “we will return 90% of the cost of the air ticket” when purchasing on the Onetwotrip website. For 1764 rubles you will get your money back regardless of the reason for the refusal, even with non-refundable rates.

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

Have a nice trip!

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About the author: Ekaterina

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

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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 with reserving hotel rooms 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;
passport data;
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. To confirm your reservation, you can use one of the following services:

ru;
com;
com;
com.

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 employees of the consular department or border service if you plan to cross the border of a visa-free state. 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.

Online booking procedure

There are two options for booking air tickets - on the carrier’s website (or through ticket aggregators, such as Aviasales) or with the help of an agency.

In any case, booking air tickets without paying for a visa is done online .

How can I check my reservation?

Since the ticket is ordered online, you need to check the reservation. As a rule, the same sites on which the order was placed are used for verification. But there are certain nuances.

Usually, an air ticket can be checked using a 5-digit . Then it is easy to track it on Saber, Galileo and other resources.

But if this code has 6 digits , such services may refuse to provide information due to incorrectly entered data. In this case, it is better to check the reservation of tickets without paying for a visa on the carrier’s website.

How to print?

Once your air ticket reservation has been confirmed, you can immediately print it out.

This is necessary so that you can present the ticket along with other papers at the visa center or consulate.

To print, you will need a code provided to the user by the corresponding resource.

If it is not possible to print your airline ticket reservation for a visa immediately, you can send the document to your email.

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.

Booking without payment

Receiving a ticket without transferring funds is a fairly popular procedure.

The client can choose any airline or agency depending on the working conditions.

Airlines and timings

Free booking of air tickets for a visa is most often used precisely because it is more convenient to confirm the availability of tickets at the consulate.

The main condition for obtaining a visa in this case is the validity period of the reservation at the time of registration. That is, it must be valid for at least a week .

Therefore, before you get a free air ticket, you need to clarify the conditions provided by the airline or agency:

Air France. You can book a ticket with a delay of only 4 days. But this service is paid - 210 rubles.
Euroavia.ru. For 300 rubles you can get a ticket for a week.
Agent.ru. Free reservation for a week.
Turkish Airlines. Payment can be postponed for a period of no more than 10 days.
Aeroflot. Free deferred payment for only 2 days.

As a rule, free flight booking for a visa is rare. Even large airlines require customers to pay a minimum fee for the service. But this rule does not apply to small children or first class passengers.

Booking procedure without payment via the Internet

Reservations are always made only after the appropriate service has been selected.

Booking tickets everywhere follows approximately the same pattern:

Once the appropriate destination and flight have been selected, you should fill out the form provided. The user must provide standard information - full name, date of birth, passport details and contacts (phone number).
After all the information has been entered, you must agree to receive the air ticket reservation.
The client will also be provided with an insurance proposal. It can be rejected.
The order is confirmed using the “Place” button. After this, the user receives a code that allows them to check the reservation or print a ticket for the consulate.

Useful tips and detailed instructions for booking air tickets without payment are given in the following video:

Where to book

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

OneTwoTrip – here for just 200 rubles your reservation will be extended for a whole 7 days;
Agent.ru – after registering on the site, you can use the services of airlines that hold your order for up to 10 days;
Anywayanyday – when choosing a cash payment method, you can extend your reservation up to 7 days. An important condition is registration on the site and previous purchases, which means that privileges are provided only to proven customers;
Turkish Airlines is another site where you can book flights without paying for a visa. Deferred payment can be received up to 10 days. In this case, the system does not ask you to enter your bank card details;
AirFrance provides a “thinking time” service. This service costs from 5 to 15 euros. Airplane seat reservations are frozen for up to 7 days. Infants and first class passengers receive this option free of charge.

If your order is still not found when confirming your reservation, try the operation again.