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BA unable to give me a receipt for a flight I purchased directly from them

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Old May 3, 2018, 1:28 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by WorldLux
@stimpy: Have you tried printing the receipt via QR/AY?
I just tried AY's site. Under their MMB I can find the flight details, but when I try to get the E-Ticket receipt it says it is unable to find the booking. The same as ba.com
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Old May 3, 2018, 1:36 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by Anonba


The fact that its made over the phone wont affect this, if its a booking that is part flown or flown does. If a booking is part flown or flown you lose functionality in mmb and contact centre lose ability to resend receipt, only option is to do request ba.com/receipt. However last i checked while it can take upto 28 days the actual turnaround time was only a couple of days.
That's actually not true, at least from my experience. The receipt was not available via MMB even before I took the first leg. Also, each time I telephoned into BA they said they would be pleased to send me the receipt and I believe from their standpoint they did. But BA's IT appears to have blocked it. As I said above the Twitter team tried the same. These people had no problem accessing the receipt. But they cannot send it to me by any means apparently.

Here is a quote from the Twitter team when I asked about Whatsapp or Skype...

"We don't have those facilities. I know that seems strange for a large company like ourselves, however we can't send by those means yet. I can get this looked at by the Executive Club, they'll be able to raise a ticket with I.T, to see what is causing this. I'll let them know your Gold status and ask them to look at this as soon as possible for you. I'm sorry for all of this hassle for something that should be so simple. "
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Old May 3, 2018, 2:34 pm
  #18  
 
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Same here! I bought a PE ticket recently on ba.com and never received a receipt. When I called GGL for a receipt they say they couldn’t send it.

So I proceeded to UUA to J and the only receipt I was sent was for the upgraded ticket with additional taxes and surcharge payable. Very strange.
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Old May 3, 2018, 2:54 pm
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by stimpy
I bought a normal ticket over the phone (UK Gold line) from BA and have already taken the outbound leg....... etc....

This is quite appalling, I travel a lot for clients and need to submit travel expenses. The only legal requirement in the UK is a VAT receipt must be issued if a VAT registered purchaser asks for one. However, as there is no practical way of checking if the person making the request is registered for or acting on behalf of a VAT registered company in practice asking for a VAT receipt will always get you a receipt.

I always ask for a VAT receipt because I am VAT registered but the suppliers don't need to know that.

You could ask CS for a VAT receipt rather than a (non) VAT receipt.

I would get into terrible trouble if I didn't present evidence of payment to clients and depend on BA's e-ticket receipts as evidence. I would be hopping mad if I paid for a ticket and didn't get one of those, even if ordering over the phone.

Good luck!
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Old May 3, 2018, 6:07 pm
  #20  
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Can you see BA tickets on the Saudia Airlines website? It works for almost all carriers.
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Old May 3, 2018, 7:56 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by cheshirepete


i know quite a lot about regulations regarding expenses. HMRC need proof you made a journey as part of business expense. One of the obvious proofs is an Invoice or receipt, Failing that evidence of expenditure via a credit card statement is valid as ‘proof’ of expenditure. I often have to export my Oyster TFL contactless travel as an AMEX export of the transaction. They are all valid ‘proofs’ of an expense. There’s a misconception you need a receipt or invoice. It is the ideal solution by its not a requirement for an expense, just proof is sufficient under the wording of current legislation!
Nonetheless, many businesses require much more of their employees. Either because they don't know better or because they have odd contractual obligations when they pass disbursements on to a client. There are still business which require the "original" boarding pass along with a receipt, despite the fact that there likely has not been an "original" boarding pass for a good long while and the fact that a boarding pass exists proves not very much.

In addition, multinational companies often require the most stringent documentation for a group of countries in which they operate. Simply for ease of administration.
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Old May 4, 2018, 12:51 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by ginger50
This is quite appalling, I travel a lot for clients and need to submit travel expenses. The only legal requirement in the UK is a VAT receipt must be issued if a VAT registered purchaser asks for one. However, as there is no practical way of checking if the person making the request is registered for or acting on behalf of a VAT registered company in practice asking for a VAT receipt will always get you a receipt.

I always ask for a VAT receipt because I am VAT registered but the suppliers don't need to know that.

You could ask CS for a VAT receipt rather than a (non) VAT receipt.
Unfortunately, BA.com doesn't agree with you:

UK VAT receipt information

Answer Id 1254 Updated 21/04/2017 12.14 PM (BST)
Question
Where can I get a VAT receipt for a British Airways ticket that I have purchased?
AnswerAir travel isn't subject to VAT, therefore we don't issue any receipts of this type.
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Old May 4, 2018, 12:53 am
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by stimpy
That's actually not true, at least from my experience. The receipt was not available via MMB even before I took the first leg. Also, each time I telephoned into BA they said they would be pleased to send me the receipt and I believe from their standpoint they did. But BA's IT appears to have blocked it. As I said above the Twitter team tried the same. These people had no problem accessing the receipt. But they cannot send it to me by any means apparently.

Here is a quote from the Twitter team when I asked about Whatsapp or Skype...

"We don't have those facilities. I know that seems strange for a large company like ourselves, however we can't send by those means yet. I can get this looked at by the Executive Club, they'll be able to raise a ticket with I.T, to see what is causing this. I'll let them know your Gold status and ask them to look at this as soon as possible for you. I'm sorry for all of this hassle for something that should be so simple. "
The way the receipt is generated is an automated option in the booking system. Basically option is clicked and email address put in and it should send.
There isnt an option to send it another way.

However Il re phrase my previous answer to say being made over the phone shouldnt have affected this. Its possible something was missed from the booking when created meaning when sending the email is tried it fails. If that has been checked and it still cant be sent then the ba.com/receipt option sends the booking to back office to be actioned manually.

There are rare occassions where everything is done correctly but specific bookings become corrupted and have errors like this. Again ba.com/receipt to have it done manually works.

Last edited by Anonba; May 4, 2018 at 12:58 am
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Old May 4, 2018, 1:18 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by Anonba
The way the receipt is generated is an automated option in the booking system. Basically option is clicked and email address put in and it should send.
There isnt an option to send it another way.


Well I would say technically there are options. The BA staff I've spoken to and tweeted are able to see my receipt on their screen. They could cut and paste it into a tweet DM, email, Skype, whatsapp, online PDF, etc. That seems to be allowed at other airlines. Skyteam for instance, at least KL, AF and DL, are very responsive on social media and appear to have discretion in these matters. But it appears that BA staff are not allowed to work in this manner.

However Il re phrase my previous answer to say being made over the phone shouldnt have affected this. Its possible something was missed from the booking when created meaning when sending the email is tried it fails. If that has been checked and it still cant be sent then the ba.com/receipt option sends the booking to back office to be actioned manually.

There are rare occassions where everything is done correctly but specific bookings become corrupted and have errors like this. Again ba.com/receipt to have it done manually works.
That explanation sounds very plausible. Hopefully IT can fix it, or sometime over the next month I will get a response from my ba.com/receipt entry. Meanwhile I am floating thousands in unreimbursed travel expenses.
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Old May 4, 2018, 1:25 am
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by Often1
Nonetheless, many businesses require much more of their employees. Either because they don't know better or because they have odd contractual obligations when they pass disbursements on to a client. There are still business which require the "original" boarding pass along with a receipt, despite the fact that there likely has not been an "original" boarding pass for a good long while and the fact that a boarding pass exists proves not very much.

In addition, multinational companies often require the most stringent documentation for a group of countries in which they operate. Simply for ease of administration.
Yes I can understand that some businesses are probably over the top on admin and 'proof'. The official guidance is quite clear, however!

https://www.gov.uk/employer-reportin...record-keeping

"You reimburse an employee’s travel expenses - you’ll need to keep a record of when and why the employee travelled, and where possible keep receipts as evidence."
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Old May 4, 2018, 1:47 am
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by stimpy
Well I would say technically there are options. The BA staff I've spoken to and tweeted are able to see my receipt on their screen. They could cut and paste it into a tweet DM, email, Skype, whatsapp, online PDF, etc. That seems to be allowed at other airlines. Skyteam for instance, at least KL, AF and DL, are very responsive on social media and appear to have discretion in these matters. But it appears that BA staff are not allowed to work in this manner.



That explanation sounds very plausible. Hopefully IT can fix it, or sometime over the next month I will get a response from my ba.com/receipt entry. Meanwhile I am floating thousands in unreimbursed travel expenses.
Its unlikely they are able to view it.

Through the reservation system the receipt isnt displayed its as i described very functional and says send email receipt.

They would however be able to see the ticket and the booking so can tell you how much you paid etc.


The only way BA could possibly view it would be through an ‘agent version’ of MMB which allows someone to go into MMB and use the view/print e ticket receipt option you would have but the ‘agent version’ would enable them to do it without having to enter the card again. If this isnt working for you in MMB it would very very likely be the same in this system.
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Old May 4, 2018, 2:08 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by beergut
Air Travel does attract VAT but it's zero rated.

They'd be legally obliged to give an invoice (not receipt which is just a record of payment) to another VAT registered business.
Not according to HMRC. 5.6 Do I always have to issue an invoice: No. You don’t have to issue a VAT invoice to a registered person if: your invoice is only for exempt or zero rated sales within the UK
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Old May 4, 2018, 2:16 am
  #28  
 
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I have to say that BA's provision of receipts can be flaky to say the least. Most of the time they arrive fine (although far too long to print out), but make any changes to your flight and the receipt might never arrive, despite making multiple requests. It's true that BA can't issue VAT receipts as such as travel isn't subject to VAT - but that shouldn't stop them issuing receipts and improving their process for doing so.
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Old May 4, 2018, 2:35 am
  #29  
 
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If you used a credit card, just ask for a receipt that way - you should be able to do this online by clicking on the transaction and submitting a query. Not necessarily a chargeback, though I'm sure that would get BA off their butts to write the damn receipt.
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Old May 7, 2018, 4:46 am
  #30  
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I received a response now from the web form request.

Unfortunately due to system limitations, we are unable to re-send a duplicate receipt for the transaction you require, but can confirm the following:
For ticket number 125-XXXXXXXXX booked on XX April 2018 you paid a base fare of €2725.00 plus taxes, fees and charges of €469.43, making a total paid of €3194.43.
This ticket was subsequently revaled on XX April 2018 to ticket number 125-XXXXXXXXXX
This was due to an involuntary schedule change, therefore there was no additional cost for this revalidation.


Actually there was no involuntary schedule change, but rather I called back shortly after booking because they had one of the legs on the wrong date. I wonder if that is the reason that BA is unable to issue receipts? Also, I wasn't asking for a duplicate, but rather the original receipt. And I haven't even asked them for a receipt from a previous flight I took, but never received a receipt. So I wonder now if I book another flight with BA will I receive a receipt? I don't know what to expect. Plus of course this "receipt" does not list the ticket class which is what most corporate accounting and compliance departments want to see. And if this level of effort they give to Gold members, what kind of consideration to lesser members receive?
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