Travel Technology - Outlook just "ate" my travel file with all my email confirmations...do I need them?

I am not sure what happened but all of a sudden I cannot access my travel file in Outlook that has ( or had) all my emailed flight confirmations for several trips coming up...the emails are gone and the folder when opened up has turned brown with a message saying cannot access..

Any way I have back -up.... not only the airline website that has stored my reservations but I have printed hard copies as well.. ... is there any reason why I should have email copies fromthe airlines for these travel arrangements or am I pretty well covered.....

I am not sure what happened but all of a sudden I cannot access my travel file in Outlook that has ( or had) all my emailed flight confirmations for several trips coming up...the emails are gone and the folder when opened up has turned brown with a message saying cannot access..

Any way I have back -up.... not only the airline website that has stored my reservations but I have printed hard copies as well.. ... is there any reason why I should have email copies fromthe airlines for these travel arrangements or am I pretty well covered.....

Are you a member of any of the airlines' programs? If so, you can go online and access, then print replacement copies. I normally like to have a copy just in case. Do you know if the account was POP3 or IMAP? Depending on which one it is, you might still have the files on the server or on the computer and we we could maybe help you get them back...

I had a HHonors reward stay in LAS over the weekend. Somewhere over Nebraska I realized I had left my printed copy of all of my paperwork in my laptop bag. As this was not a work trip, I did not bring my laptop. Thankfully I had left the e-mail confirmation for the reward stay in my personal e-mail inbox, which I can access from any internet connected computer. I just used the business center in the Doubletree to print it out for the desk clerk when I checked in.

Other than that, I can't remember ever needing the printed confirmation of anything.

Oops, I forgot to read the second part of the post. You don't need the email copies. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have the printouts just in case.

As long as you have access to them in some version, you do not need the e-mail ones. The only time it's an issue is if you are checking into a hotel and they don't have the same rate you think you should get (say the Newark Hilton, the only place it's ever hapended to me, more then once) you need copies of it.

I must say I was in the 'I don't need these' last year for a trip to Moscow on LH. I had junked the printed e-ticket receipts as I have never had to show them. Unfortunately, when we got to check-in at SVO, LH had messed up the change to the booking and the agent asked us for our paper tickets! The one time I didn't have the receipt. Fortunately there was an LH rep there that did sort out the mess in the end, but I now do tend to take the receipts with me as hard copy.