fully refundable tickets for visa application
 

Hello,

Apologize if this is not the correct section. I actually work for the airline. I need to get a visa for Tanzania. I do not want to purchase my standby ticket and then change the date later. I need a flight itinerary for my visa application. Is it possible to purchase a fully refundable ticket to use for my visa and then ask for it to be refunded?? I know fully refundable tickets exist but never purchased one or know how that works. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

May or may not have done this with an award ticket for just this reason ;)

It's probably not technically kosher both on the airline side and the consulate side but it would be pretty hard to track.

If you have a US passport, according to TIMATIC, you can get a visa on arrival in Tanzania (must be paid in cash with US$50 / US$100 notes). Visa on arrival may require proof of an onward ticket, but that might be easier to arrange -- by the time you've bought your ticket, maybe you'll have a return ticket too.

Proceeding under the assumption that you do not hold a US passport or that the visa on arrival won't work, you can definitely use a refundable ticket for this. All tickets purchased from UA are fully refundable for the first 24 hours after ticketing, which may be useful for visa-on-arrival but less so if you need to send in paperwork.

As already suggested, award tickets are refundable with the payment of the appropriate fee based on your status level and how far in advance you cancel ($0-$125).

If you don't have enough miles for an award ticket, you can certainly purchase a refundable ticket, but make sure you read the fare rules extremely carefully.

While UA sells refundable* tickets on, say, IAD to DAR, their fare is over $7000 roundtrip. TK and ET are both selling refundable fares in the $2600-$2700 range (or possibly less; I just checked for full Y). You may want to call one of those airlines or consult a travel agent to make sure that you booked the product that you want, and double-check the receipt to ensure that it says it's refundable.

Hope this helps. :)

* If, for whatever reason, you really want to loan UA this kind of money :D -- they call them "unrestricted" fares in the advanced search tool. They also offer "flexible" fares, which may allow a full refund or may charge an extensive change / cancellation fee; you'd have to read the rules to be sure.

Many restricted/non-refundable airline tickets are actually refundable in the specific event a visa is not granted (I do not know whether this is true of UA). You should read the fare rules closely and ideally book through a UA agent who can put a note in the PNR that pax is waiting for visa approval.

That's true, but I read the OP as an attempt to travel standby using an employee pass. So, presumably, a refund would be desired whether the visa was approved or not. :)

It's called a dummy ticket. Any travel agent can provide.

Yes, as soon as:

1. You don't do that so often (Airlines hate people playing with fire).

2. You don't buy that from your airline employer (things can get complicated when you are an employee).

Buy a ZED, make a listing, print out the listing with the tkt number. No need to do anything more than this. It will cost you less that a refundable confirmed space ticket and will not hurt the airline by taking confirmed space out if inventory. It's how every non-rev does it.

Thanks All!

I was planning to do in advance to put it on my other passport. I have dual citizenship to another EU country, but born in USA. Its cheaper and I do not have to surrender my USA passport for 5 days which is required for my position. What are thoughts on that?

Thanks,

Officially, it is not true on UA, although as you've said some other airlines to explicitly have this in the rules. (And as has been stated, probably not relevant to standby travel)

I don't fully understand why you would buy a refundable ticket and hold that much on your credit card.

Just buy the cheapest ticket you find for the dates you need, print out the e-ticket once UA has ticketed it (with a 016 number) and then cancel the flight within the 24 hour period. Your credit card will have a hold on it for the ticket amount but that will disappear within a day or two usually.

All the embassy needs is proof of a ticket. They do not verify any ticket. I have done this many times for many different visas. The embassy just wants to see that you are serious about going.

It looks like the EU visa is $50 while the US visa is $100. Note that the US visa applicant is forced into a multi-entry visa for $100, good for 12 months. I did this last year. If you have plans to go back to Tanzania then just use your US passport and get the one-year visa on arrival.

-RM

It all depends on the fare rules, which are going to vary based on factors, potentially including point of sale or origin city.

Perhaps UA doesn't allow it on ex-US tickets, but I know I've seen it on an L fare I bought ex-BOM to either US or Canada (change fee on this fare was also in the $100 range somewhere, and not the standard $300 like ex-US). So YMMV.

Which really only matters if you have insufficient credit.

That sure sounds like fraud to me. Lying to the government is not a good way to get what you need.