Booking tickets for visa. How to book a plane ticket? Book air tickets online without paying. Why do you need to book air tickets without payment?

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

Usually, there are two reasons for booking air tickets without payment:

  • Wasn't at hand bank card or you don’t have enough funds, but you want to secure a ticket at a low price.
  • Air tickets are needed to apply for a visa, but there is no absolute certainty that the consulate will approve the application.

In these cases, there are two ways to book tickets without paying.

1. Booking on the airline 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 your reservation. United Americans are ready to hold your reservation for a whole week, and Korean Air for up to ten days! It is important to remember that the company can unilaterally reduce the time required to pay for the reservation. They will immediately notify you of this by email or phone, so provide real information when booking. Be sure to study all the terms of deferred payment. Some airlines reserve the right to charge small fines if you fail 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 for those airlines that do not themselves have such an opportunity. The agent.ru service is popular among experienced travelers, where you can book tickets without payment for a period of 12 to 72 hours. The time directly depends on the departure date. When booking tickets for the coming days, you should not hope that you will be given more than a day to pay. But when searching several months before departure, you can easily find booking options for several days.

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

Buying a plane ticket in the digital age is not difficult. But sometimes you have to face a situation where it is impossible to do this right away. And then you have to solve the question: “How to book a plane ticket?” Sometimes it happens that a traveler does not have enough funds to pay for a ticket immediately. In this case, it would be useful for him to know how to book a ticket without paying.

In what cases may a reservation be necessary?

Online booking of air tickets may be necessary in the following cases:

  • There is a risk of not getting a visa. Some states refuse it. Therefore, buying tickets in advance when this issue has not yet been resolved is very risky.
  • The tourist does not have enough funds. It happens that the money has not yet been credited to the account, but the convenient fare for air travel and the price of the ticket are already known. In this case, they resort to booking. The purchase will be processed later.
  • To obtain a visa, you sometimes need to present a return air ticket. It happens that a tourist does not intend to return in the foreseeable future or does not want to fly back the same way. For example, you cannot fly to Thailand without a return ticket - the passenger simply will not be put on the flight. If required for a visa, you can print out and present a paper copy of the reservation.

To obtain a visa

Many people are interested in the question: “How to book a plane ticket for a visa?” Often, the list of documents that are required to obtain a visa (for example, a Schengen visa) requires attaching a document on booking a hotel and air tickets. If the dates of the trip have not been determined, then paying for the flight solely for the sake of a visa is expensive and pointless. When crossing the border with some countries, a return ticket is required. As a rule, this should be a plane ticket! On a long journey, buying a travel document just for the sake of presenting it at every border is irrational. The solution is to book a ticket with the option of deferred payment.

Where and how to book a plane ticket without paying?

  • On the airline website. Airlines will always provide a reservation without payment at a rate that suits the tourist, a few days before departure. For example, the German air carrier Lufthansa can provide a deferred payment for a couple of days, the American company United - for a week. Emirates, Korean Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines - for 10 days. But Lufthansa may charge a fee for canceling a guaranteed reservation, which is stated in the terms and conditions on the airline’s website. It would be important to note that if a tourist is really interested in purchasing a ticket, payment should be made as early as possible, since the air carrier has the right to cancel the reservation at any time.
  • At ticket agencies. The most popular agencies where you can make online bookings of air tickets without paying are Euroavia Agent.ru. It should be kept in mind that it is impossible to say for sure how long the reservation will last. This largely depends on the time remaining before the flight of interest to the traveler departs. When trying to book a ticket 3 days in advance, it is naive to expect that the reservation will hold for more than a day. If a flight is booked 3 months in advance, then the airlines will most likely treat you with maximum loyalty and hold the reservation for quite a long time.

How do I confirm my reservation?

If necessary, you can print a paper copy of it. In this case, you should use special services designed to check booked flights. To identify a reservation on these sites, enter the 6-digit PNR reservation code and the passenger's last name in Latin. This way, the status of the unpaid reservation will be confirmed, and embassy staff will not ask unnecessary questions.

How to get a booked plane ticket?

After booking a flight and making payment, an itinerary receipt will be sent to the specified mail (e-mail) (it is also called an e-ticket, i.e. e-ticket). In order to receive a paper air ticket, the receipt must be printed and presented at the check-in counter at the airport.

On Federal Law No. 314-FZ

In December 2007, the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin signed Federal Law No. 314-FZ, which declared that documents used in the provision of services air transportation passengers (be it a ticket, baggage receipt, etc.) can be issued electronically. Since then, all Russian airlines have implemented the E-Ticket system.

How does it work?

  • The airline client (passenger) selects and pays for an available flight.
  • The airline reserves seats and sends the client an itinerary receipt, i.e., an e-ticket.
  • The client prints it out, and on the day of departure it must be presented at the flight check-in counter.
  • The airline operator verifies the client’s passport details and information in the e-ticket, after which a paper ticket is issued.
  • After receiving it, the passenger can check in his luggage and proceed to the green zone, where he is inspected and the documents are again checked with the data on the paper ticket.
  • After customs, the passenger must proceed to the waiting area, where boarding will begin after the flight is announced. Upon boarding, you will again need to present a paper ticket.
  • After verification, the passenger is returned and can proceed to the ship.

What documents are needed for registration?

Anyone who wants to book plane tickets online needs to know that upon check-in they must present:

  • for domestic flights: internal citizen passport Russian Federation with an itinerary receipt (e-ticket);
  • for external flights: foreign passport (valid) with an itinerary receipt (e-ticket).

How to return an air ticket?

You managed to book plane tickets online, but now you have to return them? Then you should know that usually the details of the agent booking the flight are sent to the client’s e-mail with the itinerary receipt. You should find your agent and contact him as soon as possible.

About the procedure for booking air tickets

Tourists wondering how to book a plane ticket online should remember the following:

  • Air ticket is international shipping document. Therefore, information on its booking and sale (flight description, passenger personal data, air ticket codes, fare rules, etc.) is provided in English.
  • The personal data of a potential passenger must necessarily coincide with that written in his document. According to the rules of the International Carriers Association, no more than three errors are allowed in writing the passenger's last and first name. In this case, the first letter of the surname must be correct.

Those who are interested in how to book a plane ticket for a connecting flight should pay attention to the following points:

  • the amount of minimum connecting time: sometimes at large airports where there is a large passenger turnover, it is insufficient for a transfer;
  • at the transfer point you must go through passport control;
  • you should clarify the need to collect baggage at the transfer point when traveling with different airlines;
  • It is necessary to clarify information from the operator or airline about the change of airport at the transfer point, the distance of airports, the method of travel between them and the time of day that determines traffic on the roads; In addition, it is important to take into account the need to obtain a transit visa;
  • upon completion of booking an air ticket, as already mentioned, the passenger receives a notification to his email, which indicates the reservation number, all flight details and the deadline for payment of the air ticket;
  • after the operator receives confirmation of payment, an electronic ticket is sent to the same address;
  • Airplane tickets booked for the same or adjacent dates, as well as those in which the first and last names of passengers or routes are the same, are subject to automatic cancellation by the airline, regardless of whether payment has been made, therefore, if there are identical reservations made in different agencies or on Internet sites, it is necessary to cancel duplicates or be sure to inform the operator about this.

About amendments and cancellations

Those wondering how to book a plane ticket should know that:

  • Until the passenger has made payment and the ticket has been sold, it is possible to make changes to the airline ticket reservation or cancel it without any additional payments;
  • the sale of air tickets involves the assignment of numbers to them on the stock of a particular airline; Air ticket codes are entered after payment is received into the operator’s account;
  • In a booked or already sold air ticket, the names and surnames of passengers cannot be changed under any circumstances - this can only be done by canceling and creating a new ticket if there are seats on the flight;
  • If you make a mistake while booking a ticket, or need to make changes or cancel, you should inform the operator about this.

How to pay for an air ticket?

Payment for air tickets is made in the following ways:

  • during business hours at the operator’s office;
  • in any bank by bank transfer (for individuals), from a company account (for legal entities), and in order to avoid misunderstandings related to movement Money between banks, the payment made should be reported to the operator by phone/fax or email;
  • You can pay using a credit card at the operator’s office (VISA, American Express, MASTERCARD are accepted for payment), and compensation for bank costs is added to the cost of the air ticket.

About the cost of the air ticket

Typically, the airline guarantees the cost of a ticket until 23:59 local time. With the onset of the next day, it may change (increase or decrease), since before the ticket is sold, the carrier has the right to make changes to the conditions. Airfare may vary depending on currency fluctuations. If payment is planned not on the day of booking, in order to avoid misunderstandings, before transferring money, you should check with the operator the actual cost of the air ticket.

Book an Aeroflot ticket

Aeroflot is the leading Russian airline, member of the International Association air transport. The company has been operating in the market for a long time and is one of the largest in the country. Based in Sheremetyevo, it serves a large number of domestic and international flights. Is different high level services provided to air passengers.

In order to order air tickets, it is not necessary to contact the airport ticket office. This can be done online or by phone. For those who are interested in how to book a plane ticket, Aeroflot offers detailed instructions.

Let's get acquainted with the schedule

First of all, you need to go to the Aeroflot website and study the flight schedule. To make searching easier we have implemented convenient system filters. You should enter the departure and arrival times, departure and return dates in the appropriate field. After that, you just need to click: “Find”. In a moment, the client will be provided with a list of all flights to a specific destination and a specific day.

Select flight and fare

Next, with one click, clicking “Buy a ticket”, you should go to the purchase page. Here you can familiarize yourself with the procedure for ordering air tickets. If the rules are clear to the potential passenger, he can check the appropriate box, after which all that remains is to fill out the fields (departure, arrival, date, time of departure, number of tickets ordered, class of service). After this, with one click you can call up a list of flights and select a fare.

Please check your completed fields before moving to the next page! Mistakes made when placing an order can be costly. When returning an air ticket, you will have to pay a penalty and issue new travel documents. If an error is made, the order must be canceled immediately by telephone.

Personal document

An air ticket is a personal document. Therefore, when placing an order, the client needs to enter his passport information. A flight within Russia requires entering the information of a regular passport; traveling abroad requires entering the information of a foreign passport. Last name and first name are written in Latin letters in the appropriate field.

About payment

You can pay for an Aeroflot air ticket in different ways: with a bank card on the website, through the QIWI system or at the company's representative office. should be indicated on the website. will be sent by email after payment.

About the nuances

  • You can order Aeroflot tickets by phone, at an online ticket office or through a special online service.
  • The airline holds the reservation for 24 hours. If the client does not pay for the order within this time, the ticket will be sold to another.
  • When ordering economy class air tickets, please note that you will not be able to return them or exchange them for others without significant financial losses. Aeroflot provides significant restrictions for this category of documents.
  • This air carrier operates regular low-cost flights and charters. The first ones, despite their comparative cheapness, have inconvenient departure and arrival times. There is an additional charge for baggage and meals on the plane. Charters are also not always profitable. Their routes run only through countries that are popular among Russians. Moreover, the best seats usually booked by tour operators.
  • Aeroflot sometimes offers discounts that are not widely advertised. You can learn about them by following company news. You can find out about the availability of cheap tickets by phone.
  • If you book Aeroflot tickets one way, on holidays, weekends, it will cost more.
  • Those who do not know how to book a plane ticket by phone should be reminded that they should try to provide their passport details, departure date and other information as clearly as possible. Otherwise, errors cannot be avoided when placing an order.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The question of how to book tickets for a visa without redemption becomes especially relevant when receiving a document for multiple entry or in the case of floating travel dates.

Usually, there are two reasons for booking air tickets without payment:

  • You don’t have a bank card at hand or you don’t have enough funds, but you want to secure a ticket at a low price.
  • Air tickets are needed to apply for a visa, but there is no absolute certainty that the consulate will approve the application.

In these cases, there are two ways to book tickets without paying.

1. Booking on the airline 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 your reservation. United Americans are ready to hold your reservation for a whole week, and Korean Air for up to ten days! It is important to remember that the company can unilaterally reduce the time required to pay for the reservation. They will immediately notify you of this by email or phone, so provide real information when booking. Be sure to study all the terms of deferred payment. Some airlines reserve the right to charge small fines if you fail to pay for your reservation on time.

2. Booking on the website of ticket agencies

This option is the most common, since the agency can provide a deferred payment service for tickets for those airlines that do not themselves have such an opportunity. The agent.ru service is popular among experienced travelers, where you can book tickets without payment for a period of 12 to 72 hours. The time directly depends on the departure date. When booking tickets for the coming days, you should not hope that you will be given more than a day to pay. But when searching several months before departure, you can easily find booking options for several days.

If you need a paper copy to apply for a visa, booking verification services will help:

  • checkmytrip.com
  • viewtrip.com
  • virtuallythere.com
  • myairlines.ru

After making a reservation, enter your 6-digit PNR code on one of the services (should be sent to your email after booking) and the passenger’s last name in Latin. Afterwards you will see your reservation with the status “confirmed” and you will be able to print the document.

How to book a ticket without paying? Step-by-step instruction.

  1. We go to the website Agent.ru
  2. We choose “from” – “to”. We uncheck the “and back” box if we only need a one-way ticket. Select the departure date. Enter the number of passengers and click “Find flights”.
  3. A window will open in which you will need to select a flight. You can book tickets without payment, so that the reservation lasts up to 10 days, with two airlines - Emirates and Qatar. The easiest way is to print the booking confirmation for Qatar flights, so scroll down the list until you see the Qatar ticket. We do not look at prices and flight duration, since we still have to pay and redeem this ticket we will not.
  4. If you need a ticket to one of the European countries, then below is a list of airlines and the period during which companies hold an unpaid reservation:
  • Aeroflot – 7 days
  • AirBaltic – 3 days
  • AirBerlin – 4 days
  • Air Europa – 7 days
  • AirFrance – 4 days
  • Alitalia – 11 o'clock
  • Austrian Airlines – 24 hours
  • EuropeAir – 7 days
  • Iberia – 1 day
  • KLM – 3 days
  • LOT – 3 days
  • Lufthansa – 1 day
  • SAS – 10 days
  • Swiss airlines – 1 day
  • TAP Portugal – 3 days
  • Turkish Airlines- 3 days
  • Ural Airlines – 3 days
  • UIA (Ukraine International Airlines) – 10 days
  1. Please note that this listing states that the reservation is valid UNTIL a certain number of days. In each specific case, booking tickets without payment may last a little less. Therefore, after you have booked your tickets, pay attention to the counter.
  2. In the window that opens, fill in all the fields. Select “New user”, enter your email, come up with a password, enter your First Name, Last Name (in Latin letters as in the passport), gender, citizenship, series and passport number, passport expiration date, phone number, put a tick in the “I agree” field, Click on “Next: placing an order”.
  3. A new window appears in which the order number and reservation code are written. Copy the received code.
  4. We go to the website www.checkmytrip.com (you can try to make a reservation on the websites viewtrip.com and www.virtuallythere.com). Here you can check the status of your reservation and print out your reservation confirmation for the embassy. In the “Reservation number” column we enter the reservation number copied a step earlier on the Agent.ru website, in the “Last name” column we enter our last name in Latin as in the international passport, and then click on the arrow.
  5. Our reservation details appear in the window. To save the receipt to your computer, you need to click on the “PDF” button; to print the confirmation, you need to click on the “Print” button
  6. Print your confirmation receipt for presentation.

What to do if you can't find your reservation?

There are rare cases when none of the above sites have your reservation. There are several reasons for this:

  • You have a 5-digit reservation number, but the sites listed above find reservations only using a 6-digit code. In this case, we need to go directly to the website of the airline that operates the flight you need and check your reservation on their website. To do this, you need to enter the reservation code and your last name, as in your passport.
  • Your reservation has expired. Check the status of your reservation in your personal account.
  • The program sometimes crashes. If your reservation is nowhere to be found, then most likely your order did not go through and you need to repeat the procedure.
  • If the company canceled the reservation the next day, try writing to agent.ru support and clarifying the reasons for canceling the tickets.

What kind of reservation is suitable for the embassy?

If you are booking tickets to obtain Schengen, then you will need tickets whose reservation lasts for at least 7 days, or even 10 ideally. Tickets must be valid for as long as possible while your documents are being processed.

So, there are 4 ways to solve this puzzle and get flight bookings without paying for a visa.

1. Unpaid Aeroflot reservations

You can submit unpaid daily Aeroflot reservations - you will probably get a visa. To do this, during booking, at the last stage of payment, select the “Cash” option; the reservation will remain valid for a day.

2. Possibility of holding a ticket reservation

Alternatively, you can pay for the service of holding ticket reservations on the airline’s website for 2-3 days (or more, it’s different for everyone), it costs from 500 to 1000 rubles.

However, not all airlines provide such services.

3. Booking tickets through KUPIBILET

Previously, it was possible to book tickets with a hold of 3 to 7 days on the Agent.ru website. However, there is currently no such function on the site.

Therefore, the easiest way is to use one of the airline ticket search engines, which guarantee a refund for 7-10% of the ticket price.

One of these search engines is KUPIBILET(other search engines also have this option, for example OneTwoTrip). Getting this service is easy:

04. It is also worth noting that this service is provided only for large air carriers such as Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines, etc. For example, Pobeda will not be able to return air tickets.

In general, it is convenient, but there is also a significant drawback - using this service is quite expensive. Therefore, when using this service, it is better to select tickets for the flights that you intend to fly in the future.

4. Buy a return air ticket for a visa

For people who find the above options the height of adventurism, we can recommend an almost win-win option: buy a return ticket and cancel it after receiving a visa, although there may be financial losses (read the refund terms carefully). You should only buy such tickets through airline websites, because... When returning funds through aggregators, problems may arise.

Let me give you an example right away: at S7 airline, the penalty for returning an international ticket purchased at the Economy-Flexible fare is 30 euros (at the time of writing this post, this is 1,800 rubles). Fees are not refundable at all! So decide for yourself.

5. Buy a regular air ticket to apply for a visa

If you are sure that you will definitely get a visa, pay for normal tickets and apply for a visa with them.

This especially makes sense if you have found very cheap air tickets to Europe, for example from Pobeda. In this case, it makes sense to pay for the tickets immediately, otherwise they will simply disappear while you are applying for a Schengen visa.