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Re: Business receipts

dfwskier
Aviator A

As I said earlier in this thread do a two on one printing of the SW e-mail confirmation you get when you book a flight, and everything will be on one printed page.

 

The left side will be the first SW page which includes your name, date of travel, and city pairs (better known as itinerary). The right side will the the second SW page which includes the price of the ticket. You don't need the final SW page to get what you say you need. 

 

Edit add: another option would be to print at 50% and print the first two pages of the SW e-mail.

Everything mentioned above will print top to bottom on one piece of paper.

Re: Business receipts

CathyLo
Explorer C

As an administrative assistant, when booking travel for an executive, the e-mail confirmation goes to the executive.  I haven't come across the option to be able to cc myself.  But as the one doing his expense reports, I need to be able to print out the receipt with the dollar amount.  I can do it when booking on other airlines. 

Re: Business receipts

dfwskier
Aviator A

There is a potential solution.

 

 Do a print screen just after completing a booking. SW's confirmation will be on your screen and it contains everything you need.

 

 

Re: Business receipts

AJ131
Explorer C

You keep saying to print up the confirmation emails. That's not an acceptable solution. It's not too much to expect that you can go to "My Account" and get a record of every transaction, whether the flight has occurred or not. It should be built in.

 

In my case, I often have to change my business travel plans. So I often need to pull a receipt to reconcile expenses for travel that may have been purchased in August but had to be moved to November.  The expense was incurred in August, so I have to provide a receipt months before the travel will take place. Your repeated suggestions that we go sifting through old emails and printing one up at 50% size (who the heck works with paper records these days, anyway?) is not helpful. 

 

Once Southwest has my money, "My Account" should contain a record of the transaction. It's really just that simple.

Re: Business receipts

dfwskier
Aviator A

@AJ131 wrote:

You keep saying to print up the confirmation emails. That's not an acceptable solution. It's not too much to expect that you can go to "My Account" and get a record of every transaction, whether the flight has occurred or not. It should be built in.

 

In my case, I often have to change my business travel plans. So I often need to pull a receipt to reconcile expenses for travel that may have been purchased in August but had to be moved to November.  The expense was incurred in August, so I have to provide a receipt months before the travel will take place. Your repeated suggestions that we go sifting through old emails and printing one up at 50% size (who the heck works with paper records these days, anyway?) is not helpful. 

 

Once Southwest has my money, "My Account" should contain a record of the transaction. It's really just that simple.


Hello.

 

As far as " (who the heck works with paper records these days, anyway?)"  Apparently your employer requires you to do.so"

 

I know you want to be able to get things in the way that you desribed. The fact is that method is not currently available, and that frustrates you. I understand that. I think your suggestion is a good one. The question becaome, "if the website won't do do what you want, what else can you do?"

 

Until the website is modified,  there are workarounds that I've mentioned that allow you to get a one page receipt that provides all the information that you need on a travel receipt. 

 

1) Perform a print screen upon completing a booking

2) Print pages 1 and 2 of the 3 page confirmation e-mail pages at 50%

3) Print pages 1 and 2 of the 3 page confirmation e-mail  pages side by side on one page

 

 All three of those methods provide a one page receipt that includes all information that your accounting department would require.

Re: Business receipts

dfwskier
Aviator A

 

 

 

 

xxx


@AJ131 wrote:

 

...

 

In my case, I often have to change my business travel plans. So I often need to pull a receipt to reconcile expenses for travel that may have been purchased in August but had to be moved to November.  The expense was incurred in August, so I have to provide a receipt months before the travel will take place. Your repeated suggestions that we go sifting through old emails and printing one

 

...


Actually you don't have to "sift" through old e-mails.. You can go straight to the one you need.

1) Obtain your confirmation number from the website

2) Search your e-mail for that cnfirmation number. If you've changed your itinerary, use the one entitled "Updated Flight Reservtion", If you have not changed your itinerary use the e-mail entitled "Flght Reservtion."

 

You'll know whether or not you've changed anything because all e-mail tied to that one confirmation number will appear when you search by confirmation  number.

Re: Business receipts

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@dfwskier wrote:

 

 

 

 

xxx


@AJ131 wrote:

 

...

 

In my case, I often have to change my business travel plans. So I often need to pull a receipt to reconcile expenses for travel that may have been purchased in August but had to be moved to November.  The expense was incurred in August, so I have to provide a receipt months before the travel will take place. Your repeated suggestions that we go sifting through old emails and printing one

 

...


Actually you don't have to "sift" through old e-mails.. You can go straight to the one you need.

1) Obtain your confirmation number from the website

2) Search your e-mail for that cnfirmation number. If you've changed your itinerary, use the one entitled "Updated Flight Reservtion", If you have not changed your itinerary use the e-mail entitled "Flght Reservtion."

 

You'll know whether or not you've changed anything because all e-mail tied to that one confirmation number will appear when you search by confirmation  number.


 

Actually, you do have to do some sifting. 😉

 

Pulling up a confirmation number for a recent flight pulls up 5 emails that contain the confirmation number. One is the actual confirmation, the other 4 are:

 

08/30 New Orleans trip (CODE): Have you booked your hotel?

08/30 New Orleans trip (CODE): Your flight's booked. Let's complete your travel plans.

08/30 New Orleans trip (CODE): Have you booked your rental car?

08/30 New Orleans trip (CODE): Get prepared to fly!

 

(All better than the previous "Your flight is right around the corner!" messages, I'll admit.)

 

FYI: Checking My Account > My Preferences > Communication, I see the ability to subscribe/unsubscribe from the various newsletters, but no way to decline these additional emails.

 

But your point stands: Until Southwest makes getting a simple receipt from the website available (if ever), printing the confirmation email as a 2-up is probably the best option.

Re: Business receipts

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@chgoflyer wrote:

@dfwskier wrote:

 


@AJ131 wrote:

 

 

You'll know whether or not you've changed anything because all e-mail tied to that one confirmation number will appear when you search by confirmation  number.


  

But your point stands: Until Southwest makes getting a simple receipt from the website available (if ever), printing the confirmation email as a 2-up is probably the best option.

 


There is the receipt section under past flights - although kind of skimpy on the details it is standard format for everyone and takes up one page as desired - but you can only get them after flying, which it sounds like the issue for many people is turning in receipts immediately after purchase, or after purchase and changes but prior to flight.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Business receipts

cydoc
Explorer C

It is almost incredible after so many years of customer requests, and customers' having to put in extra time and effort, that Southwest STILL does not offer a *simple* way to download an invoice for a past or future flight, instead forcing customers to search their emails for a 3-page statement that is not an invoice although it contains payment information. Just about every other retailer today offers a simple self-service way to print out a basic invoice for a past or pending order.

 

It makes me wonder if there is a structural reason Southwest does not want to provide easy access to invoices, even though it would make their customers, especially business customers, much happier. Here are some possibilities:

 

1) Southwest doesn't want anyone to easily find out what someone or some company paid for their flight. Perhaps the discount price offered is a sensitive and confidential contractual price. Thus to get the information, you must go through the rigamarole of parsing 3-page emails, making it difficult to analyze, say several hundred flights to find a discounting pattern.

 

2) Southwest wants you to see the advertising and other irrelevant marketing information in the email every time you want to check your flight details, including payment information. I don't think this is the case, but if so, it's pretty sad.

 

3) Southwest does not have the technical capability to set up this simple, ubiquitous DIY service that every other company provides to its customers. I very much doubt this is the case.

 

4) Perhaps Southwest does not want to take the risk that someone with online access to invoices might hack into financial or other systems. If so, then at the least Southwest could just send a simple PDF invoice that we can file (and submit for reimbursement) -- rather than the 3-page email that sure doesn't look an invoice to a corporate accountant. it's neither professional nor business-friendly.

 

It's a real mystery, but it would help if Southwest could explain why they're dragging their feet.

Re: Business receipts

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

It would be interesting to hear the thoughts on this, I agree.

 

There is this overly simplified receipt available, but only for after flight is complete.

 

https://www.southwest.com/myaccount/trips/past

 

I don't know if it is as systematic as you are describing, it seems to be something on the to-do list that has just never been tackled - to take the devil's advocate opinion - Southwest seems to be doing very well with business travel, why would they prioritize some effort for then when obviously things are going pretty well? 

 

(Not that they can't do it for convenience, but there are other more important needs?)

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.