Dummy Flight Ticket

A dummy flight ticket is a seat held with an airline and issued with that airline's own PNR. You have a booking that can be looked up; you have not bought a fare.

The distinction that decides everything

The same phrase is used for two unrelated products. One is a genuine hold — a real reservation, honest about being a reservation, verifiable and expiring. The other is a PDF made to look like a booking, with a reference behind which there is nothing. The second is cheaper and fails the moment anybody checks.

How to tell which you are buying, in one step

Ask for the PNR and enter it on the airline's own Manage Booking page with the surname. If your itinerary comes back, it is a reservation. If it does not, no amount of formatting will make it one.

Why hold instead of buy

• A visa can be refused, and a fare bought beforehand is money already spent
• Appointment dates move, and holds are cheap to replace
• Applications ask for evidence of intended travel, and a reservation is evidence

What arrives

A PDF in the standard itinerary format — airline, flight number, route, dates, passengers as named in the passport, and the PNR. It is sent once the hold exists, never before.

The limit worth knowing before you pay

A minority of consulates require a confirmed, paid ticket rather than a reservation. Where that is the requirement, a held booking does not satisfy it — and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a refusal. Read your mission's current checklist first.