Air France booking check, check-in and Paris transit for Indians

How to look up a booking on Air France

1. 1Go to airfrance.in and open My Bookings from the site menu.
2. 2Enter the booking reference from your confirmation, or your Flying Blue card number if the trip is linked to it, and follow any further prompts.
3. 3Check the names, both flight dates and the Paris connection against your visa form.
4. 4If a leg is an IndiGo codeshare from a smaller Indian city, note which airline operates each segment.
5. 5From Delhi or Mumbai, plan to collect a paper boarding pass at the counter even after checking in online.
6. 6A reservation held without payment carries no ticket number and cannot be checked in on airfrance.in.

Time to Think and a flight reservation

Air France’s Time to Think option holds a booking and its price for a fee, but its terms conflict. A newer legal page allows up to 14 days and charges €10 for Economy within metropolitan France, within Europe or between Europe and North Africa or Israel, and €15 for other flights in every cabin except La Première. Older regional pages describe up to 3 days at €5 or €15. Neither version was confirmed for bookings made in India.

In every version the fee is not refunded and not deducted from the fare, payment goes through Your bookings, and an unpaid booking cancels itself. A long-haul trip from India would fall in the higher band if the option is offered at all.

A flight reservation from the desk is the other route for a visa file: held in your name without paying the airline, on Air France or any carrier that fits your plan. It is not a ticket and cannot be checked in. The holding airline controls how long an unpaid hold lasts, and that varies, so order it for your appointment day.

Check-in at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru

Air France opens online check-in 30 hours before departure. Its India site then adds a rule that surprises first-time flyers: “You may check in online, but you must collect your boarding pass at the airport” for flights departing from a list that includes Delhi and Mumbai, along with Algiers, Cairo, Casablanca, Havana, Malé and others. Bengaluru and Chennai are not on that list.

So from Delhi or Mumbai, online check-in secures your seat but not a mobile pass: go to the Air France counter for a printed one and allow time for document checks there. Air France also says that if no boarding pass can be issued online or at a kiosk, you should go to a counter and allow extra time for additional checks.

Online check-in is not possible for trips that include a train, except from Strasbourg or Brussels, for upgrades paid online with Flying Blue Miles, or for travel with an animal. The counter closing time was not stated on the pages we read.

Changing planes at Charles de Gaulle on an Indian passport

France lifted its airport transit visa requirement for Indian ordinary passport holders on 10 April 2026, by a decree published in the Journal Officiel the day before. The French Embassy in India says it covers passengers who remain in the international zone during a layover on the way to a third country. Before that, Indians had needed a French transit visa since April 2021.

The change began as a pilot. The India–France joint statement of 17 February 2026 says visa-free transit “will be reviewed after a six month pilot period”, which falls around October 2026. We found no notice extending or ending it, so read the French Embassy in India page before booking a Paris connection. The embassy notice sets no time limit; the 24-hour limit mentioned in some articles comes from secondary sources.

Flying on to a Schengen city such as Rome or Madrid means entering Schengen in Paris on a Schengen visa. A switch to Orly is a change of airport and always involves immigration. Whether every CDG terminal transfer stays airside was not confirmed, so keep the whole trip on one Air France or partner booking.

Air France’s India network and partners

A 2026 Air France release says it “currently operates 27 flights per week to Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore”, and its summer 2026 schedule added flights and larger aircraft on those routes, partly because of the Middle East disruption. Chennai was once announced as a fourth gateway but is missing from the 2026 count, and the India site’s Chennai page describes a mix of partner flights and connections, so do not assume a nonstop from Chennai.

Air France-KLM codeshares with IndiGo, which reaches Indian cities beyond the three gateways. On 1 June 2025 IndiGo, Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic signed a memorandum on network, loyalty, cargo and sales, subject to approvals. If you start in Amritsar, Kochi or another city Air France does not serve, ask for the domestic leg on the same booking as the Paris flight.

Air France check-in from Indian airports

Air France questions, answered