Ticket reservations and confirmations

Payment methods and charges

Baggage and seats

Flight search

Passenger and flight details

Check-in Information

We advise you to contact us immediately if you have made an error or mistake in the spelling of your name. This is important for us to know as the name on your ticket must match the name in your passport, otherwise, you may be denied boarding the aircraft and not permitted to travel. Please send us a photocopy of your passport and we will contact the airline to correct this. Please note fees by the airline may be charged if a new ticket has to be made for the spelling correction. We will be able to assist you with correcting the name spelling. For further details about spelling mistakes and typos, please visit our flight ticket name changes page.

I made a spelling mistake in my name on my ticket, what do I do?

We do not charge extra for taxes. Our pricing policy offers total transparency, this means the price you see is the price you pay. There are no hidden charges for pre-payable airport/government taxes, service charges and other fees.

We include a price breakdown for all bookings, so you can see exactly what the cost of your flight is made up of.

Is there an extra charge for taxes on flights?

Yes, you can pay for flights with bank transfers in most countries across Europe, as well as in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. See all the ways to pay for flights with bank transfers with us.

Can I pay for my flights with bank transfer?

Some airlines do not require your passport information. We will only ask for this information if the airline you have selected requires this.

Why have you not asked for my passport details?

Please ensure you're using the airline booking reference that is listed on your booking confirmation and e-ticket.

The airline cannot locate my booking

Yes, just use your airline reference and surname and they will be able to help you.

Can I contact the airline myself?

Whether you can change or cancel your flight will depend on the rules of the ticket you have purchased. These rules will have been shown to you during the flight booking process on our website. 

Amendments:
If you are able to amend your flight, you may be subject to an amendment fee and any fare / tax difference for the new flights.  

Amend a booking

An E-ticket is an electronic ticket, which you need in order to travel. It will have the full details of your booking, so please keep this to hand.

What is an e-ticket?

If you haven't received your e-ticket, don't worry. Your booking may be pending with the ticketing team. We try to issue all tickets within 24 hours of receiving payments and will always keep you updated via email and SMS if this isn't possible. Please ensure you check your mobile and emails for the most up to date information on the status of your e-ticket.

I haven't received my e-ticket

Your airline locater is found at the top of your e-ticket and booking confirmation that was sent to you from Alternative Airlines after you made a booking with us. The airline locator is what is needed to view your booking on the airline's website. You will also need this to check-in for your flight. 

How do I find my airline locator?

Refund Protect is the 3rd party insurance through which we offer our Cancellation Protection product.

Cancellation Protection covers you for a refund if you need to cancel your flight for a list of different unforeseen circumstances. Please review Refund Protects FAQs on the following link for more information https://www.refundable.me/faqs/.

What is Refund Protect?

A passport is an official travel document that proves your identity and citizenship. It permits you to travel in and out of countries. If you're flying on an international flight, you will need your passport to travel.

What is a passport?

If you are expecting to have a baby before you fly and you want to buy a flight or have already bought your flight, you should contact the airline directly or contact us once the baby is born and we can notify the airline for you.

In some cases, you will not need to buy a separate ticket for your baby, as some airlines do not require babies to have individual seats and therefore fly free. However, other airlines will charge a percentage of the fare (usually around 10%) if you are flying with a baby.

Either way, it is essential that the airline knows if you are flying with a baby once it is born, so the appropriate measures are in place.

I'm expecting a baby before I fly

Yes, you can do a multi-city search with Alternative Airlines. A multi-city search is perfect if you are travelling to several destinations in the same trip and want to book your flights all under reservation. 

Can I do a multi-city search?

The Best Fare Finder tool helps you to find the cheapest days to buy flights around the days you want to fly. It allows you to easily and quickly view the cheapest flights over a  period of time by viewing prices on a calendar. Visit our Best Fare Finder page to find out more.

What is the 'Best Fare Finder'?

You can check-in online with most airlines before you go to the airport. Just visit the airline's website and enter your airline booking reference and follow the steps requested. Your airline booking reference can be found by logging in to Manage my Booking. If the airline doesn't offer online check-in, you must check-in at the airport.

How do I check-in?

Although it will differ depending on which airline you fly on, child tickets are usually cheaper than adult tickets and infants/babies (under 2 years of age) often fly for free. Find out everything you need to know on our flying with children page.
If you have any special requests, please contact us through https://www.alternativeairlines.com/contact

For full information on flying with a child, infant or baby, see our information on flying with children.

I want to fly with my child/infant/baby

If you cannot find a particular airline or route you want to fly, please contact us through our contact page and our Customer Service Team will be happy to help.

I can’t find the route or airline I want

Your card will not have been debited if the transaction was not completed. You will receive an email with a payment link to help you make the reservation again. We advise using a different method of payment from the method you used when the reservation originally failed. If this still does not work, please contact us and we will look into the situation and do all possible to complete your reservation.

Failed reservations

Sometimes airlines have to change their schedules. Schedule changes can be announced from the time of booking up until the day you travel. If your flight has a schedule change, our Customer Service Team will let you know the new details of your flight times. If these need changing, please contact our customer service team and they can advise you of your options.

Schedule changes

You can do this directly with the airline, as long as you have your airline locator. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service Team and we can help you. Please note that the new flights will be subject to any fare and tax difference. The airline or our customer service team will be able to provide you with this information.

How do I utilise my airline credit

The Alternative Airlines reference is 5 numbers long and will be located on your booking confirmation and e-ticket. You will need this when corresponding with our Customer Service Team.

How do I find my Alternative Airlines reference number?

To update or change the date of birth on your reservation, please go to the contact us page and advise us of your correct date of birth. We ask that you type it in Date, Month and Year format (e.g. 15 Sept 1982)

How do I get my date of birth updated

Alternative Airlines will ask for your seat preference with every booking you make via our website and confirm the seat if it is free to book. On certain airlines, you can reserve your exact seat at an additional cost. To find out how to book your exact seat, visit our how to book seats page. Please note that surcharges may apply. If you need any help booking your seat, do not hesitate to contact us through our contact page.

Seat selection

The amount of baggage that you can check will differ from airline to airline. Some airlines offer free baggage allowances, whereas others do not.

Free baggage allowances vary with each airline and differ between fare/class. For example, if you travel in Business Class, you will get a larger free baggage allowance than if you fly in Economy Class.

Airlines that don't offer free baggage allowances will often allow you to purchase baggage at an additional cost.

The actual allowance applicable to your journey will be shown at the time of booking and on your travel itinerary.

How much baggage can I check-in?

For certain airlines you can add baggage through the booking process or alternatively, you can contact us via telephone or email. For help adding baggage at booking, visit our how to book baggage page. In some cases, baggage can only be added directly with the airline either online pre-flight or at check-in. Alternative Airlines will always advise you on the best way for you to add your baggage, you can contact us through our contact page for support.

Adding baggage to your flight

Yes, we accept the following mobile payments: Alipay, Tigo Pesa, MPesa, airtel, PayPal and Apple Pay. Check out all the ways to pay for flights with Alternative Airlines

Can I pay for flights using mobile?

All transactions with Alternative Airlines are SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protected. Your information is securely transmitted during the processing of all payments. You can therefore book with total confidence in the knowledge that your personal details are completely safe.

Is it safe to use my credit and debit card details?

Child fares differ from airline to airline. Some airlines sell child fares at a cheaper price than adult tickets, whereas others sell child fares at the same price as adult fares.

In many cases, children under 12 may qualify for a discount and the amount will depend on the cost of the accompanying adult’s ticket. Infants under 2 years pay a percentage of the adult fare. To find child/infant prices just complete the booking form and enter the number of adults, children or infants and you will automatically get a total and a breakdown of the very lowest fares available for your party. You can request a Skycot for an infant and, subject to availability, this will be confirmed at check-in.

Are there any child discounts?

Debit cards and credit cards issued in the UK are accepted without additional charge. Visa and MasterCard cards from the EU are accepted without additional charge. All other cards are subject to a supplementary charge of between 1–3%, depending on the card used. The final payment total is always displayed as soon as you select your choice of payment card.

Do you charge to use credit or debit cards?

We accept Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards, JCB debit and credit card, Discover card, Diners card, Maestro, American Express and Union Pay View all the ways you can pay for flights with Alternative Airlines

Which credit and debit cards do you accept?

Yes, we accept PayPal and PayPal credit to purchase flights. Search for any flight on any airline with Alternative Airlines and pay with PayPal or PayPal Credit.

Can I pay for my flights using PayPal?

You can pay with over 40 different payment methods when booking flights with Alternative Airlines. Choose from a range of e-wallets, buy now pay later and financing options, debit and credit cards and even cryptocurrency!

We partner with some of the world's biggest payment methods, such as PayPal, Afterpay, Klarna, Affirm, Visa, MasterCard and more.

See all of Alternative Airlines' payment methods.

Payment methods to pay for flights

A boarding pass is provided to you once you have checked-in. This pass allows you to board your flight and must be presented to the airline staff at the boarding gate.

What is a boarding pass?

A travel document refers to any document(s) that you need for your flight. This could be your e-ticket, passport, ID card or another document that is needed for travel.

What is a travel document?

No, we do not send any tickets or confirmations in the post. All booking confirmations and travel documents are sent online to the email that you made the reservation with.

Will I get my tickets sent to me in the post?

A booking confirmation is sent to the e-mail used to make the flight reservation and shows as the official itinerary/receipt in your inbox. This shows proof of the reservation made with a breakdown of names and prices. It is not your e-ticket.

What is a booking confirmation?

You can request a refund directly with Alternative Airlines through Manage my Booking. Please note refunds are dependent on the airlines terms and conditions and are subject to fees and charges. If you have any queries about refunds or would like to request a refund, please contact us through our contact page.

Ticket refunds

An email confirmation will be automatically sent to the email provided when you made a reservation online. We advise checking your spam/junk mailbox just in case it has been delivered there.

I can’t find my booking/reservation confirmation

After booking, you'll be taken to our booking confirmation page that will tell you that your reservation has been confirmed. This page will include a booking reference number. Please carefully note this reference number as, if you need to contact us, our Customer Service Team will use this reference to locate your booking.

You will also receive an email with your ticket confirmation that reconfirms passenger details, full itinerary and costing. If you need to contact us, please be ready to quote your booking reference.

How do I know when my reservation is confirmed?

To find out the latest travel restrictions, log in to Manage Booking or use our travel restrictions guide.

What are the latest travel restrictions?

Any seats and bags that you have booked will be displayed within your Manage Booking portal. You can also find this information on your e-ticket.

If you need any further clarification, this information will be available on the airline’s website.

How do I see what seats and bags I have on my booking

You can add seats at the same time as booking your flights. If you’ve already booked your flights, you can add seats via the Manage Booking portal, unless check-in has already opened for your outbound flight.

How can I book seats?

Holiday booked, business trip booked, excited but then the moment comes when you check all documents and realise the name is incorrectly spelt.

Once you’ve noticed a spelling mistake on your name or one of the passengers traveling, you will need to contact us via telephone or email as soon as possible.
We as a travel agent will service the name correction for you as per the airline fare rules.

Once you’ve contacted us, we will ask you for a copy of your Passport details/ a form of identification for us to match the name without any further spelling errors. If the name correction is a complete surname change due to marriage, then we may require a marriage certificate.

Once we’ve received these documents, we will contact the airline for approval but a small fee may be charged from the Airline which we will confirm before any changes have been made, as we will require payment first.

After payment is completed, our agents will begin the process to finalise the name correction. After this is approved and finished, a new E-ticket/travel document will be released and sent via email.

Please, bear in mind that not all Airlines permit name correction, and this will be advised at the point of contact whether the change can be permitted.

I have a spelling mistake on a passenger name

Whether you can change or cancel your flight will depend on the rules of the ticket you have purchased. These rules will have been shown to you during the booking process on our website. 

Cancellations:

All changes or amendments will be subject to amendment fees and any fare differences, as specified by the airline rules. If you wish to cancel or amend a reservation you will be liable to any cancellation fees as levied by the airline. Fees vary depending on the airline and the type of ticket/fare that you have purchased. Please note that most low fares are non-refundable. If you need to amend a booking it may be possible but will again depend on the conditions of your particular ticket/fare type.

For cancellations, please use Manage my Booking to get your cancellation quote.

For amendments, please use the contact page and complete all the information and one of our customer service team members will be in touch with a quote.

We are based in the UK and our opening hours are 0900 - 2000 GMT, 7 days a week. If you request your cancellation whilst we are closed and it misses the 24 hours deadline, we will not honour the cancellation.

Need to cancel a booking?

Travel advice: If your trip is not within 72 hours, we urge you to hold off calling the Alternative Airlines customer service so we can help those with more imminent travel. For FAQs, advice and other steps concerning Coronavirus (COVID-19) please visit our COVID travel advice page.

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