Buying ticket for fiancee

[Rich and Lenochka 0]

Not quite sure how to handle this; my fiancee will soon be leaving Novosibirsk and flying to California, maybe as soon as the end of this week. Her K-1 visa has been approved, but not yet received. She is ready to leave Russia as soon as the visa arrives.

I have looked into the one-way flights from Novosibirsk to Los Angeles (via Moscow) on Aeroflot. As of today, the Aeroflot website has seats available on Friday, September 10 for "value economy" price of $878. When my fiancee went to the Aeroflot office in Novosibirsk, she was told the fare for the same route is $1700 (give or take a few bucks). Quite a difference!

I should mention that my fiancee is bringing her cat, but the Aeroflot website states they allow animals to be transported in portable kennels as long as the kennel will stow beneath the seat (it will). They treat this as "carry on" luggage.

Is it possible for me to buy her ticket for her online, you know, an e-ticket? Without her facing any kind of hassle at the airports over there?

I just cannot imagine why there is such a disparity in the ticket pricing for the same flight, unless it is an obvious attempt by the airline to take advantage of a "one time, one-way" customer.

Any thoughts on this, anyone? Thank you....

[Amyyduck 20]

I've done this for my fiance before. I'm the USC, but he lives in England so I don't know if it that makes a difference. We looked at transferring him the money and having him buy the ticket but the transfer fees were too high so I ended up just buying it myself. We had no problems at all. Could you possibly contact the airline to confirm that she won't need the credit card used for booking? Explain that you're buying the ticket for your fiance and just want to make sure that she has no hassle. Hope it all works out!

[Waitinggent 2]

I've bought E-tickets for my wife to travel from Russia. I just forward the email to her which contains the e-ticket, and she prints it (although she probably only needs the reservation number off the e-ticket, she prints a copy). Just make sure the tickets are in her name as it is in her passport.

[Neonred 3,564]

Bought tickets online last week for my step-daughter to come visit us from Russia. Actually two tickets, one on Donavia (Aeroflot-Don airlines) and one on Delta. I e-mailed her the e-ticket. We have done this before and never had a problem. Just be sure you have her passport number and passport expiration date as I believe you will need that when you book her ticket. At least it was required for the Aeroflot-Don online purchase.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

It should be fine, sometimes in a high fraud country like Nigeria they ask you to go to an airline office to validate your identity.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

I've bought E-tickets for my wife to travel from Russia. I just forward the email to her which contains the e-ticket, and she prints it (although she probably only needs the reservation number off the e-ticket, she prints a copy). Just make sure the tickets are in her name as it is in her passport.

Exactly. I very rarely bought my own tickets when my husband and I were dating. In 4 years of air travel I was never once asked for the purchasing credit card. I would think that it is fairly normal for people to have their tickets purchased for them as a gift.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Hugglebuggles

[Nikita2Charles 32]

Check with the airline, Call them up, in certain cases if you are not the traveling party because you buy the ticket online, they would ask you to come to the office to bring your ID and the credit card you used to pay for the ticket, I've done it at the airport and at the airline office whichever is closer to you.

It all depends on the airline so best way is to call them up to verify.

Exactly. I very rarely bought my own tickets when my husband and I were dating. In 4 years of air travel I was never once asked for the purchasing credit card. I would think that it is fairly normal for people to have their tickets purchased for them as a gift.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

I bought an e-ticket for my MIL's 2008 trip to BWI--and then called one of my 2 BIL's (her sons) to download/print it so it could be presented (FYI, in Chennai, it doesn't need to be).

[elya 17]

e-ticket is no problem. I would advise not to buy it before she gets her visa, though.

Is she prepared to bring her cat through customs in the U.S.? the big problems are typically not with the airline. It's fairly easy (by comparison) to bring pets into Russia but a lot more complex to bring them to the U.S. I don't know exact details - sorry - but I believe a pre-approval process is part of it.