Have you ever perplexed whenever you want to apply for a Visa? One of the requirements is round-trip flight tickets. Unfortunately, with the tickets in hand, not guarantee that your visa will be accepted. Worst case scenario, your visa denied and the tickets are forfeited. Boohoo…
Alangkah indahnya kalau bisa ngebooking tiket doang, ga perlu bayar dulu. Bayarnya belakangan setelah visanya jadi. Nah, kegalauan ini gw rasain banget kemaren pas mau buat visa ke Eropah. Duit pas-pasan banget, kalau ditolak kan ancur
What will bring joy to this sad confused fella is if there is any way you could book a ticket (a solid one) without paying it first in advance. After your visa is in your hand then you can pay it. Faced this situation when I applied a Schengen visa. It was a budget travelling, not much fund in my wallet. So I have to make sure to get the visa first before pay for air flight ticket. But How?
FYI, gw ga punya kartu kredit juga, sehingga kudu extra effort nih nyarinya. Maklum, biasanya pembayaran-pembayaran on-line (atau garansi booking) kudu make CC (khususnya di luar negeri).
FYI, I didn’t have any credit card, so it means extra effort to find the options. Usually they will required a CC for payment or at least booking guarantee, especially abroad. Therefore, I need to find a wizard and ask this common problem. To the Google then!
*Artikel ini bukan artikel berbayar, beneran hasil gugel gw dan gw cuma mau share aja ke kalian.
These are my research results;
- Overall, semua maskapai bisa melakukan cancel dan refund. Proses refund-nya bervariasi antara 7-14 hari kerja.
- Overall, all airline companies provide cancel and refunds. Usually takes 7-14 working days, depends on the airline.
- Biasanya jumlah refund-nya ga sampe 100% dari total pembelian. Tergantung kebijakan masing-masing maskapai.
- The refund mostly can’t cover 100% of the payments. Again, this depends on each airline policies.
- Kalau pembelian via online ticketing macam tra****** atau ti***** proses refund dan jumlah yang direfund juga kurang lebih sama. Semua tergantung maskapai masing-masing. Kalau flight internasional, biasanya dikenakan extra charge.
- Refunds from purchasing via online ticketing, like tra****** or ti***** more or less depends on each airlines policies. If the tickets were International flights, you’ll get extra charge for administration fees.
*update, sekarang salah satu online ticketing menyediakan fitur refund 100%, tentunya dengan syarat tertentu. Gw jelasin tar yaa, di bawah.
- Pesen tiket via travel agen langganan, kadang bisa dicancel. Sayangnya gw ga punya tavel agen langganan. Cuma ngandelin app doang.
- Usually in Indonesia, you can use your trusted travel agents. Sometimes they can cancel your flight without (or small amount) of extra fee. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have such one.
- Dummy booking. THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!
Setelah menelusuri cara ini, gw menemukan dua tiga alternatif. Gw jelasin satu-satu yaa (dan terpaksa nyebut merk)…
After surfing the net to dig more info about this, I found 2 (3, actually, but for using Indonesian apps). Here they are:
1. Thai Airways
Entah mengapa, tapi maskapai ini satu-satunya yang bisa dijadikan alternatif untuk dummy booking. Sebenarnya bukan fitur yang disengaja oleh maskapainya, tapi oleh netijen budiman sedunia, mereka bisa menemukan loop hole di sistem booking online mereka!
This is the only airline that can provide dummy booking. Actually this isn’t their designed feature, but the good netizen from around the world found the loop in their online booking system!
Menurut gw, ini yang paling best! Karena ga perlu keluar duit sepeser pun! Cukup melakukan pembelian visa website mereka seperti biasa, isi form ini itu, lalu lanjut ke pembayaran. Pas bagian pembayaran, ini yang penting! Pilih pembayaran dengan “contact Thai Office“.
For me, this is the best option! You don’t have to pay anything! Just go to their website, book the flight as usual, fill the forms, yada yada yada, then continue to payment page. Choose the “contact Thai Office“ option. Then they will require you to pay at their office. Then click confirm.
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Enter the homepage, then select your destinations & dates
Setelah itu, klik konfirm, lalu kode booking yang telah terkonfirmasi bakal nongol, lengkap dengan kode bookingannya. Di halaman ini ada opsi untuk dikirim ke e-mail, atau print. Untuk backup, pilih send by e-mail, namun untuk yang dibawa untuk apply visa, klik print (ke PDF misalnya). Yang kerennya lagi, ga tertera di dalamnya bahwa harus melakukan pembayaran sebelum tanggal sekian, atau keterangan bahwa tiket bakal hangus dalam waktu 24 jam. Cuma ada “your payment method Contact Thai Office for an amount of IDR 123.456”. Jangan khawatir, tinggal di photoshop aja tuh kalimat itu. Simple! Setelahnya, your ticket would looks valid AF!
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Then the magic happens. A confimation page will be loaded with your booking code! There will be options on this page; send an e-mail as backup, but you should print it as PDF first. There are no any words about “hey, you should pay this in 24 hours otherwise this ticket will be forfeited!” Only “your payment method Contact Thai Office for an amount of IDR 123.456”. So, after you got the PDF, use photoshop to erase this words. Simple. your ticket would looks valid AF!
Excelcior!
All hail Thai Air!
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| This is the confirmation page, with the confirmed booking number. You can choose the “send by e-mail” option, but It is important to PRINT it as PDF first. |
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| There are these words “your payment method Contact Thai Office for an amount of XXX” that you need to remove by using Photoshop or any other softwares. Just erase it or cover it with white box. Then it all set! Your dummy booking is ready. |
2. Best Onward Ticket
Tiket bakal valid selama 48 jam. Jadi pastikan waktu booking dan pengajuan visanya, tiket masih berlaku.
Other option I got, is this website, specifically designed to make dummy booking. Very simple and to the point. The ticket will be valid for 48 hours, so mark your calender when is the date you’ll applying the visa! (less) Unfortunately, it won’t come in free. You have to pay for $12, with CC or Paypal. As you know, I didn’t have any CC, so this option isn’t the best one for me. Plus, $12 is quite the sum for Indonesians! Yeah, I’m a cheap ass!
FYI, kadang Thai air ga bisa melakukan dummy booking seperti di atas. Entah kenapa, mungkin tau kali ya gw sering PHP-in mereka, jadinya kadang gw ga bisa melakukan opsi bayar cash. Nah, Best Onward Ticket ini alternatif ke dua gw.
BUT, sometimes I can’t use Thai Air for making dummy booking. May be they know that I always use them just for making dummy booking, so they didn’t provide pay in cash. So this Best Onward Ticket is my second alternative.
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| Interface Best Onward Ticket, quite simple & to the point |
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| How it works, also clear. Follow this infographic step by step, then proceed to payment by CC or Paypal |
3. Tiket Anti Galau
Terbaru nih (baru lihat baligo nya berapa bulan yang lalu di Jakarta), tiket anti galau dari Tiket.com. Terpaksa nyebut merk (lagi) nih, hehee…
This is new option, an app from Indonesia. Several months ago, I saw a billboard about this “Tiket Anti Galau” of literally translated as “Anti-Upset-Ticket” from Ticket.com
Setelah lihat baligo nya, gw lalu riset on-line. Kayaknya tim marketingnya mereka melihat peluang kegalauan muda-mudi traveller kere yang suka galau antara beli tiket dulu atau visa dulu. Atau yang suka booking dulu, berangkatnya entah jadi ato ga.
Jadi, di online ticketing ini, kita cukup beli tiket seperti biasa. Tapi harus mengaktifkan tombol tiket anti galau di pembelian tiket tersebut. Setelah itu, lakukan pembayaran seperti biasa. Nanti tiket akan dikirim via e-mail dan app. Bedanya, kalau ga jadi berangkat (atau gagal dapat visa) bisa direfund 100% dengan syarat waktu melakukan refundnya selambat-lambatnya 4 jam sebelum keberangkatan. Kurang dari 4 jam, refundnya ga bisa sampai 100%.
For this option, you just have to buy the ticket as usual, from their web or app. But do not forget to click the feature “Tiket Anti Galau” button. Afterwards, pay the ticket. You’ll get the ticket via e-mail. Later, IF you don’t get your visa, you can ask for refund 100%! Just remember to ask for refund 4 hours before flight, otherwise it won’t be 100% anymore!
Lumayan kan? Not bad si, kata gw. Kenapa gw masukin di alternatif ketiga, soalnya gw kudu keluar duit dulu full seharga tiket pesawatnya. Bedanya dengan opsi #1 yang mana gw ga perlu keluar duit sama sekali, maupun opsi #2 yang cuma keluar $12 saja (sekitar IDR170k).
Not bad, right? But this might be my 3rd option, as I (still) have to pay full in advance. First option is completely free, second option is only $12. This option, is just in case, at least for me.
UPDATE: Tiket.com cuma bisa dipake buat domestic flight ternyata!
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Ya, intinya balik lagi ke kalian, mau pilih kekasih yang mana, tergantung kenyamanan masing-masing sih.
Anyway, happy hunting!
