Tracking unused funds
 

So, I book flights for my family of five a few times a year. I myself fly pretty regularly. Flights changes and my notes about cancellations are starting to spiral.

I'm starting to lose track of unused travel funds, pax names, confirmation numbers, and expiration dates. I just booked a flight with funds from a cancelled reservation that is newer than another one available.

Also, I have gift cards and travel vouchers!

I am an amateur coder so I'm going throw a little tool together to keep track of all this, but first I wanted to check to see if there's a) anything similar out there and b) what the demand is for something like this.

Thanks,
X

Some people have posted they keep an Excel spreadsheet listing all their flights and/or travel funds.

I'm sure if your programming is even halfway good, it would be of use to a lot of people!

A simple way to track TTFs would be very helpful.

Any automated tool that interacts with Southwest's website is a violation of the Terms, websites offering services have been quickly shutdown.

An independent application would be harder to shutdown but would need maintenance to prevent changes to the website from breaking it.

I wonder if OP (or somebody) could make an tool that automatically scans email confirmations of purchases/changes/cancellations. As far as I know, they show confirmation numbers, prices, and expiration dates in a pretty structured format so it should have all the necessary information to track - as long as WN doesn't change their confirmation format any time soon.

This reminds me that I should go through my recent emails and try to combine some funds for some upcoming trip I know I'll take. I'm certain I've lost a few $5.60 credits over the years, I hate how difficult they are to track. I definitely like the email scanning idea, my skills are limited but I could probably at least put something like that together.

So far Excel and more importantly staying on top of making the entries as soon as I cancel something have worked for me, but I'd be curious to see any automated tool.

Seems like something that Tripit or apps like it could be programmed to do....Good suggestion to their developers.....

I'm playing around with this idea and I've got a prototype. All I can say is that this gets complicated fast. Especially with multiple passengers on the same PNR and if that gets cancelled!

Also, the e-mail confirmations / cancellations are not 100% reliable. I have one that says "Residual Travel Funds" for payment instead of the PNR.

This is a must and really the only practical solution IMO. It's the discipline to immediately record each transaction as it occurs is vital.

gmail can find any Southwest confirmation for a particular date if you search for ddmmmyy which appears in the subject line of a confirmation.