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The five-minute booking checklist

Everything in the guide comes down to a handful of checks you can run before you pay. None of them takes long. Together they take about five minutes, and they are the difference between booking on evidence and booking on hope.

Print this page, screenshot it, or copy it into your notes. It is meant to be used, not admired.

Before you pay

Who is selling this?

I can name the legal company selling me this ticket, and find its registration or imprint.
I am on the real domain — I read it from the right, character by character, and arrived here by typing it or using my own bookmark, not by clicking a link in a message.
Payment is going through a normal card checkout, not a bank transfer, crypto, gift card, or a friends-and-family payment.
Nothing is rushing me. If there is a countdown or someone insisting the price vanishes in ten minutes, that is a reason to slow down, not speed up.

What am I actually buying?

I have read the fare conditions: refundable or not, changeable and at what cost, what happens if the airline moves the schedule.
I know what is included — bag allowance, seat assignment, boarding position — and what costs extra.
I know which aircraft type operates this flight, and I have looked at the cabin actually installed on it.

Is it any good?

I checked this specific flight number's recent punctuality, not the airline's reputation.
I counted the connections, and any layover I have is realistic for that particular airport.
If I read reviews, I looked at recent, specific ones for a pattern — not the average, and not a single glowing anecdote.

Is the price right?

I divided the fare by the scheduled block time and compared the per-hour figure against my own benchmark, not against what flights "feel like" they should cost.
I compared within the same haul length, not across one.
If I am paying above my benchmark, I can name the specific reason — unique routing, a hotel night saved, a one-off trip, or reliability I am deliberately buying.

After you book

I saved the confirmation, the exact fare conditions, and a screenshot of the price and terms as they were at the time of booking.
I verified the booking on the airline's own site or app, using the confirmation number.
I re-checked the schedule about a week out.
I re-checked again 24 to 48 hours before departure, including the aircraft type if the cabin was the reason I chose this flight.

If something goes wrong

Verify the booking directly with the operator before assuming the worst.
If it is not real: contact the card issuer and open a chargeback immediately, in writing. Do not wait to be certain, and do not rely on the outer time limit.
Report the seller to whatever platform or network they reached you through.
Save the evidence now — listing, profile, messages, payment record, confirmation. Fraudulent listings disappear fast.
For cross-border disputes inside Europe, the European Consumer Centre network handles traders in other EU countries. For outright fraud, file a police report as well; insurers and card issuers frequently ask for one.

Why this is free

This guide tells you not to take claims on trust, so here is the checklist from its last page, free and without an email address. If it is useful on its own, the 39 pages behind it explain why each item is on the list — what a bad answer looks like, and what the benchmark figures actually are. In the PDF every item also carries the page number of the section it came from, so the checklist doubles as an index into the guide.

See what's inside — 15 € →