Electronic tickets have made life a lot easier for travelers, and travel arrangers, who can’t keep track of pieces of paper. But that doesn’t mean we are anywhere near a paperless society.
As any travel agent will attest, requests for copies of past invoices and tickets are a fairly regular part of the business. Sometimes, depending on the organizational ability (or lack thereof) of the client, more than once for the same trip.
The most common reason is for an expense report, or for requesting missing frequent flier credit. But whatever the reason, it’s part of the service. Even when we have to grit our teeth because it’s the probably third invoice lost out of the last four.
Some agents do charge for the time and research involved, but many do not. And it’s one way that an agent booking can add value. It is usually much easier to call up your travel agency than to try to chase down the right human at an airline who can find what you want.
Now, in addition to easier, agencies might be able to add “and cheaper too.” This morning a client called looking for receipts from last month for her boss, four of them, and said she had tried to call United first because it didn’t show our agency information on his credit card bill. But the airline wanted $25 per charge for a copy.
I asked her for to send me any numbers that were listed on the bill. And discovered that the reason there was no agency information, was that the charges were direct from United. As it later turned out, the charges were for some excess baggage fees. And yes, here’s another fee — the airline has quietly added a $25 fee for getting past-date invoices.
In this case the client was able to get enough information from the traveler, once I told her they were United fees, to write up something to satisfy her accounting department. In some situations, however, a receipt might be necessary to be reimbursed. And the IRS frowns on vague documentation. So not paying the $25 fee might not be an option.
At this point I haven’t heard of any other airline charging this fee. Although some consolidators charge for ticket copies after the fact. And the traveler concerned in this story was the highest elite level, so it doesn’t appear that the charge will be waived for frequent fliers. To be fair, his assistant didn’t push it, so no way of knowing if the airline might have backed down.
Travelers who never lose anything will probably think this new fee is an excellent idea. And certainly it makes sense to have the people who generate the extra work pay the costs involved. Of course, it’s always easier to say that before you’ve mislaid a receipt. Or two, or four.
(Photo from Dan_DC/flickr/creative commons.)
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