flydubai booking check, Hold my fare and OK to Board from India

How to look up a booking on flydubai

1. 1Go to flydubai.com, open Book and manage, and choose View or change booking.
2. 2Type the last name of a passenger on the booking.
3. 3Enter the booking reference number from your confirmation.
4. 4Check the names, flights and dates. A held booking stays payable here until its hold time runs out.
5. 5Between 48 hours and 75 minutes before departure, check in online with the same two details, after any OK to Board approval you need.

Hold my fare or a flight reservation

Hold my fare costs AED 29, is non-refundable and is charged separately from the fare. flydubai’s main page says an Economy booking can be held for up to 24 hours and a Business booking for up to 72 hours. Its FAQ instead links the length to the time left before departure (see the table), and the exact hold time is shown when you select the option. It works on all flydubai flights except interline and codeshare bookings, and the flight must leave at least 50 hours after you book.

Pay within the holding time through Manage booking, using your booking reference, or the booking “will be automatically cancelled”. An earlier flydubai answer also said no changes are allowed while a fare is held.

For a visa file, this hold costs money and ends within three days at most. A flight reservation from the desk is held without payment, which is the point of it, and it lapses whenever the airline decides, with no set length. Neither can be used to fly, and neither will get you OK to Board, which needs a paid booking.

OK to Board for Indian passport holders flying from Delhi

flydubai’s India page is direct: “An Ok to board approval from flydubai is mandatory for citizens of India travelling from Delhi.” It applies only to paper or electronic visas. On a tourist or visit visa it applies only to ECR passports; on an employment or residence visa it applies whether the passport is ECR or ECNR. You do not need it with a stamped visa or a valid Emirates ID.

You apply after paying for your booking, at a flydubai Travel Shop in the UAE or India, for what flydubai calls a nominal charge. Bring the original visa, a copy of your passport and the booking confirmation. Approval takes at least 48 hours and must be in place before you check in online. The same page adds that a “Return ticket must be booked when travelling on a tourist or visit visa”.

So the flight you actually take to Dubai on a visit visa needs a paid return, bought early enough to allow the 48-hour approval. A flight reservation can support a visa application, but it is not a ticket and cannot satisfy OK to Board.

Online check-in and Dubai airport timings

Check in on the website or app from 48 hours to 75 minutes before departure. If plans change, you can cancel online check-in through the portal up to 4 hours before departure, change the booking, and check in again. Older flydubai advice gave a 90-minute cut-off, so go by the current page.

At Dubai, flydubai asks you to arrive at least three hours before departure, and airport check-in closes 60 minutes before. Its operational updates add that from 1 April 2026 non-Indian nationals flying to India, including OCI holders, must complete India’s e-Arrival Card on the Bureau of Immigration website or the Indian Visa SuSwagatam app, between 72 and 24 hours before departure and free of charge. Paper landing cards are no longer accepted. Indian passport holders are not covered by that rule.

Eight Indian cities, the Air India interline and Dubai connections

flydubai’s own India pages and sitemap show eight cities: Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Mumbai. Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram are not served, and the old Thiruvananthapuram page now redirects to a general India page. On 16 September 2026 flydubai announced an interline with Air India that gives its passengers single-ticket access to Bengaluru, Chennai, Chandigarh, Goa, Jaipur, Pune and Varanasi. Air India, not flydubai, flies those legs.

flydubai operates mainly from Terminal 2 at Dubai International, with some flights from Terminal 3, and it works with Emirates on codeshares. Emirates’ transit visas are sold for Emirates tickets, so do not assume they cover a flydubai-only journey. A change between DXB and Al Maktoum (DWC) is a change of airport, which means entering the UAE.

If a flydubai booking does not show

Re-enter the last name and the booking reference; the form needs both. A held fare that was not paid in time has been cancelled automatically, and the AED 29 is not returned. If part of your trip is an Air India interline leg, remember that Air India operates that segment.

Unpaid reservations from any source end when the airline releases them. That is why a flight reservation for a visa file is ordered for the day the file goes in, not weeks ahead.

Hold my fare: hold length by time to departure (flydubai FAQ)

flydubai questions, answered