Air India Manage Booking: Change, Cancel, Seats & Add-ons (2026)

Your booking reference, the PNR, is the six-character code near the top of your Air India ticket and confirmation email. It’s the key that unlocks everything you might want to change before you fly: your seat, your bags, your meal, even your travel date. One screen on airindia.com holds the lot.

We see the same thing at HappyFares all the time: travellers think managing a booking means calling and waiting on hold, when most changes take a couple of minutes online. In our experience the people who open “My Bookings” the day they book — just to check the seat and the spelling of their name — almost never hit a nasty surprise later. This guide walks through every task you can do in Air India Manage Booking, what’s free, what carries a fee, and where former Vistara bookings now live.

How do you manage an Air India booking online?

You manage an Air India booking on airindia.com by opening “My Bookings” (also labelled “Manage Booking”), then entering your 6-character PNR and the lead passenger’s last name exactly as it appears on the ticket. According to Air India, this single retrieval screen is where you change flights, cancel, add baggage, pick seats, add meals, and check in.

Here’s the exact flow on the website:

1. Go to airindia.com and select “My Bookings” from the main menu (it’s sometimes shown as “Manage Booking”).
2. Enter your 6-character PNR (the booking reference from your confirmation email or SMS) and the last name exactly as printed on the ticket.
3. Submit to retrieve the trip. Your itinerary, seats, add-ons, and the available actions all appear together.
4. Choose what you need — change, cancel, seats, baggage, meals, check-in, or contact details — and follow the prompts to pay any difference and confirm.

One small thing trips people up: the surname has to match the booking precisely. If retrieval fails, it’s almost always a spelling or spacing mismatch on the name, not a problem with the flight. Type the name as it appears on the e-ticket, not a nickname or short form.

If you had a Vistara booking

Vistara merged into Air India during 2024-25, and the two now operate as a single carrier under Tata ownership. In practice that means airindia.com and the Air India app are the one system for managing former Vistara bookings too. If you’re holding an older Vistara reference, retrieve it through Air India’s “My Bookings” using your PNR and last name. If the code won’t pull up online, the Air India contact centre can trace it and confirm where the booking now sits.

How do you manage an Air India booking on the app?

The Air India app gives the same authoritative booking screen as the website, just faster on a phone. Download the official Air India app on iOS or Android, open “My Trips”, and either sign in with your Flying Returns account or pull up a trip with your PNR and last name as a guest. Air India’s app surfaces your itinerary, seats, add-ons, and check-in on the booking screen.

We generally suggest the app to anyone who flies more than once or twice a year. Once you’re signed in, upcoming trips appear automatically, so you’re not re-typing the PNR each time, and you’ll get push notifications if a flight time moves. For a one-off trip the website is perfectly fine; for a frequent flyer, the app saves real effort across a year of travel.

Can you change or reschedule an Air India flight in Manage Booking?

Yes. You can change or reschedule an Air India flight through “My Bookings” on airindia.com or “My Trips” in the app — retrieve the booking, choose the change-flight option, and pick a new date or flight. Per Air India, a fare difference plus a change fee may apply, and both depend on your original fare type and how far ahead you make the change.

Two separate costs can land here, so it helps to keep them apart. The first is the fare difference: if the new flight costs more than what you paid, you cover the gap. The second is the change or reschedule fee set by your fare rules. On the most flexible fares that fee can be low or waived; on the cheapest fares it’s higher. The exact amounts are shown in Manage Booking once you select the new flight, so you can see the full cost before you commit.

A practical habit worth keeping: if your plans even might shift, change the flight as early as you can. Rescheduling well ahead of departure usually means a smaller fare difference and a calmer process than scrambling in the final day or two, when the closest flights are often the priciest.

If you need to cancel

You can cancel an Air India booking from the same “My Bookings” screen — retrieve the trip, choose the cancel option, and submit the request. Whether you get a refund, and how much, depends on your fare rules: a cancellation fee usually applies, and the refundable portion varies by fare type and how close to departure you cancel. The figures are shown in Manage Booking before you confirm.

Read the refund breakdown carefully before you hit confirm. On a flexible fare you may get most of the fare back after the cancellation fee; on a deep-discount fare the refundable amount can be limited, sometimes down to taxes and certain charges. We’re deliberately not quoting a fixed cancellation fee, because it genuinely varies by fare and timing — the dependable number is the one Air India displays for your specific booking. If anything looks off, the contact centre can explain the breakdown before you proceed.

One more point: if Air India cancels or significantly reschedules your flight, that’s a different situation from you choosing to cancel, and passenger-protection rules apply. India’s civil aviation regulator, the DGCA, sets out passenger rights around airline-driven cancellations and refunds, so check those if the airline is the one that changed your plans.

How do you choose seats and add baggage or meals?

You add seats, extra baggage, and meals as paid add-ons inside Manage Booking on airindia.com or the Air India app. Retrieve your trip with your PNR and last name, then open the seats, baggage, or meals section and pick what you want. Per Air India, prepaid extra baggage bought online is offered at a discount compared with buying excess at the airport, so adding it in advance saves money.

Here’s how the three add-ons behave:

• Seats. Open the seat map and pick your spot. Standard seats may be free depending on your fare; preferred seats — extra legroom, front rows, windows — usually carry a charge shown on the map. You can update your seat any time before web check-in closes.
• Extra baggage. Add prepaid excess in the baggage section. Domestic excess is charged per kilogram; many international long-haul routes use a piece system instead. The live price for your sector shows before you pay, and prepaid online beats the airport rate.
• Meals. On routes where meals are selectable, pre-book or choose a special meal in the meals section. Booking ahead means your preference is locked in rather than left to availability on board.

Here’s the read that saves the most money over a year of flying: the smart move isn’t always to buy add-ons at all — sometimes it’s to book the fare that already bundles them. On the cheapest fare, seats and bags are paid extras; a slightly higher fare can include a better baggage allowance or free seat selection. Before you add a prepaid bag or a paid seat, compare the cost of those extras against simply choosing a fare that already covers them. It’s the same trade-off whether you’re adding one bag or kitting out a family of four.

If you’re flying international with Air India

International bookings need a little more thought than domestic ones. First, confirm whether your route uses a weight allowance or a piece system before you add baggage — routes to the USA and Canada, among others, use pieces, so you’d be buying a whole extra bag rather than a few kilos. Open Manage Booking, check what your fare already includes, and only then decide what to add.

Seats and meals matter more on a long-haul flight, too, so it’s worth sorting them early rather than at the gate. And if your itinerary mixes a domestic Air India sector with an international one on the same ticket, the international baggage allowance generally governs the whole journey — check your e-ticket so you don’t buy extra baggage you already have.

Is Air India web check-in free, and how do you do it?

Yes, web check-in on Air India is free, and so is checking in at the airport counter — no Indian airline charges to issue a boarding pass. You web check-in from “My Bookings” on airindia.com or “My Trips” in the app once check-in opens for your flight: retrieve the booking, confirm passenger details, pick or keep your seat, and download or save the boarding pass.

The only check-in-related cost that ever applies is optional paid seat selection — choosing a preferred seat — which is separate from the check-in itself. The boarding pass is free whether you get it online or at the counter. We always nudge travellers to web check-in the moment it opens, not because it costs anything to wait, but because it locks in your seat choice and saves time at the airport, especially when you’re only carrying cabin baggage.

Once you’ve checked in online, you can download the boarding pass straight from the same Manage Booking screen, save it to your phone, or print it. Keep it handy for bag drop and security, and you’ll move through the airport noticeably faster.

What else can you update in Air India Manage Booking?

Beyond flights, seats, bags, and meals, Manage Booking is also where you update your contact details and retrieve documents. Air India’s “My Bookings” lets you correct the email and phone number on a reservation, which matters because that’s where the airline sends schedule-change alerts and check-in reminders. Keeping the contact details current is a small step that prevents missed notifications.

From the same screen you can re-download your e-ticket, view the fare and add-ons you’ve already paid for, and get your boarding pass after check-in. If you need something the self-service screen doesn’t cover — a name correction, a complex multi-passenger change, or help with a booking that won’t retrieve — the Air India contact centre handles it. Have your PNR and passenger details ready before you call so the agent can pull up the live booking quickly.

Common Questions

How do I open Air India Manage Booking?

Go to airindia.com and select “My Bookings” (also labelled “Manage Booking”), then enter your 6-character PNR and the lead passenger’s last name exactly as it appears on the ticket. You can do the same in the Air India app under “My Trips”. From there you can change or cancel the flight, choose seats, add baggage and meals, web check-in, and download your boarding pass.

How much does it cost to change or cancel an Air India flight?

It depends on your fare type and how close to departure you make the change. A change can carry a reschedule fee plus any fare difference; a cancellation usually carries a cancellation fee, with the refundable amount set by your fare rules. We don’t quote fixed figures because they vary — the exact cost is shown in Manage Booking for your specific booking before you confirm.

Is Air India web check-in free?

Yes. Web check-in on Air India is free, and so is checking in at the airport counter — no Indian airline charges to issue a boarding pass. The only optional cost connected to check-in is paid seat selection, where you choose a preferred seat such as extra legroom or a front row. The boarding pass itself is free whether you get it online or at the counter.

I had a Vistara ticket — where do I manage it now?

Manage it on Air India. Following the Vistara–Air India merger in 2024-25, both airlines run as a single carrier under Tata ownership, and airindia.com plus the Air India app now handle former Vistara bookings. Enter your existing PNR and last name in “My Bookings”. If the reference doesn’t retrieve online, the Air India contact centre can locate it and confirm your current booking.

Can I choose my seat for free on Air India?

Sometimes. Standard seat selection may be free depending on your fare, while preferred seats — extra legroom, front rows, or specific windows and aisles — usually carry a charge shown on the seat map in Manage Booking. You can select or change your seat any time before web check-in closes. If a free standard seat is fine, you can simply accept the one assigned at check-in.

The bottom line

Managing an Air India booking is mostly a two-minute job once you know where to look. Open “My Bookings” on airindia.com or “My Trips” in the app, enter your 6-character PNR and last name, and you can change or reschedule the flight, cancel and request a refund, choose seats, add baggage and meals, update your contact details, web check-in, and download your boarding pass — all from one screen. Web and counter check-in are free; change and cancellation fees depend on your fare and timing, and the exact numbers always show before you confirm.

One principle holds across every task here, including former Vistara bookings: the airline’s own record is the one that counts. Change flights early rather than late, prepay baggage online rather than at the counter, and check the fare and refund breakdown before you confirm anything. Do that, and you’ll manage your trip with a lot more certainty — and usually a lower bill. For more, see our guides on checking your Air India PNR status and adding extra baggage on Air India.