fully refundable ticket
 

Hello all,

I need to apply for a schengen visa for a relative. One of the pre-requisites for the visa is a confirmed air ticket (DEL-FRA).

In case the visa is not issued then this ticket would be wasted.

So, I want to book a fully flexible refundable ticket just for the visa purposes.

Do you know with which airline can I book this ticket so that cancellation is free of charge ?

I checked Air india charges INR 5000 per cancellation.

How about any other airline (indian or non indian) ?

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies!

get a ta to make a booking for you & use that....

you could also ask the airline to make a booking for you....they will then give you a time limit to pay for it....

I got a Schengen this month itself.. What I have done is as follows.

1. Instead of Booking a Confirmed Ticket .. I got an Itinerary from the TA.. It looks exactly like a ticket and in my experience of 3-4 years it works all the time.
2. Hotel - Go to Booking.com, DO one hotel for your full stay give credit card guarantee (they will not charge it) take a print and then cancel it after getting visa.
3. Insurace - Get an Insurance for the duration for whatever date and they can always go up or down on dates. Make sure you are atleast 3-4 days within time.
4. In case you need the TA's details, let me know, Will PM you.

I have personally also used this TA trick in the past. But recently a couple of my friends had their (German) schengen visas not accepted at the first instance because the tickets from TAs were not accepted (guess unconfirmed tickets). Apparently the visa officials check if the bookings are confirmed or only on hold.

@Allaboutflying : please pm me the TA details. Thanks

More often than not the VISAs are granted. Just lay a strong case. They had called me for an interview. Nowadays they have also stopped giving good duration VISAs, I have friends who have got 15-20 days VISA. I got this time 25 days ! Had to prepone my plan.

If you play kiddie games like dummy hotel and flight bookings for your visa, you are highly likely to regret it, especially if you're a first time traveler to a schengen country.

You can get what LH calls economy basic plus (which - check the fare rules - allows visa rejection as a reason for refund) - or just fly Air India, which has remarkably liberal cancellation policies.

Anyway you have to buy travel insurance for a schengen visa so pick an insurance policy that covers trip cancellation expenses