How to get a copy of your airline receipt

You flew to a client meeting on Tuesday and back on Thursday. The expense system wants an airline receipt, and the confirmation email you forwarded isn't one. It has the flights, but no ticket number, no tax lines and no sign of the $35 bag you paid for at check-in.

The receipt you need comes from whoever sold you the ticket. If that was the airline, you can usually download it from the airline's website. American, Delta and Southwest keep receipts online for 18 to 24 months. JetBlue's limit is 13 months. Bags, seats and anything you bought on board often sit on a separate receipt with separate rules. If a travel agent or a site like Expedia sold you the ticket, most airlines will send you back to them.

We read the receipt pages of eight US airlines on 4 November 2026. Every rule below comes from the airline's own help pages, not from a travel forum or someone else's roundup. Where a page wouldn't load for us, we say so. One of the eight, Spirit, no longer flies at all.

This article is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Airlines change their help pages and their time limits without notice. Check the current page before you rely on a deadline given here.

The short version

• You need the e-ticket receipt, not the itinerary. The receipt shows the ticket number, the fare, each tax and what you paid. An itinerary only shows the flights.
• Get it from whoever sold you the ticket. If you bought on the airline's website, the airline has it. If you used a travel agent or a booking site, ask them first.
• The window is 13 to 24 months. Delta keeps 24 months under My Receipts. American and Southwest keep 18 months. JetBlue won't send receipts for travel completed more than 13 months ago.
• Bags, seats and extras are often separate. Delta's baggage receipts carry their own number. Southwest and JetBlue send extras through a request form.
• In-flight purchases follow other rules. American's appear online 72 hours after the flight and stay for 6 months. JetBlue's must be asked for on board.
• Spirit stopped flying on 2 May 2026. If you need a Spirit receipt, search your email for the confirmation and keep your card statement.

Receipt, itinerary or confirmation: which one do you need?

You need the receipt. An airline receipt, which airlines also call an e-ticket receipt or a ticket receipt, is the record of what the ticket cost and how you paid. It's the only document that shows the fare, each tax and fee, and the total charged to your card.

Three other documents get mixed up with it.

A booking confirmation is the email you get when you book. It has a six-character confirmation code and your flights. Some airlines put the payment details in it, and JetBlue tells customers to use the "Payment Details" in that email as their receipt. Others don't.

An itinerary is the list of flights, with times, seats and terminals. It changes when the schedule changes. It's for travelling, not for proving a cost.

A boarding pass proves you were checked in for a flight. It has no price on it. JetBlue says it "is unable to reproduce or reprint boarding passes for past-flown flights", so don't plan on getting one back later.

Document	Who issues it	What it shows	Enough for an expense claim?
Booking confirmation	Airline or booking site	Flights and confirmation code, sometimes the price	Sometimes, if it includes the payment details
Itinerary	Airline or booking site	Flights, times and seats	No
Boarding pass	Airline	That you checked in for one flight	No
E-ticket receipt	Whoever sold the ticket	Ticket number, fare, taxes, total and payment	Yes

What does an airline receipt have to show?

For US tax, a receipt has to show four things. IRS Publication 463 says documentary evidence "will ordinarily be considered adequate if it shows the amount, date, place, and essential character of the expense". On an airline receipt, that means the total paid, the travel dates, the route, and the fact that it was an airfare for you.

The ticket number is the part people miss. It's a 13-digit number, and the first three digits identify the airline that issued the ticket. Delta's start with 006, and Delta says its baggage receipts begin with 00682. It's different from the six-character confirmation code. One booking can hold several tickets, one for each passenger, and the ticket number is what ties a receipt to one person.

There's no small-amount pass for most flights. The IRS waives receipts where "your expense, other than lodging, is less than $75", and few fares come in that low. The same publication also excuses "a transportation expense for which a receipt isn't readily available". Airlines do publish receipts, so that exception is a poor fit for an airfare.

One more line in the publication is worth knowing if you fly on points. "If you were provided with a free ticket or you are riding free as a result of a frequent traveler or similar program, your cost is zero." On an award ticket, the cost you can claim is the taxes and fees you paid, and the receipt shows those.

How do you get a receipt from each airline?

Sign in to the airline's website and look in your past trips. American, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue and Frontier all have an online route. If the trip is too old, or the receipt is for a bag or a seat, use the airline's receipt request form or email address.

Each row below sums up what the airline's own page says. "Not stated" means the page we read doesn't say. It doesn't mean there's no limit.

Airline	Where to look online	How far back	Older trips or extras
American Airlines	Receipts for tickets and fees, on aa.com	18 months	Same tool covers fees and seats
Delta Air Lines	My Trips, or My Receipts with an account	24 months with an account	Email ticketreceipt@delta.com
United Airlines	We couldn't load United's pages	Not verified	Not verified
Southwest Airlines	My Account, Trips, Past, View Receipt	18 months	Receipt request link
Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines	Ticket copy request form	12 to 18 months, with a research fee	Not guaranteed after 18 months
JetBlue	Original confirmation email, then request form	13 months	Request form for bags and seats
Frontier Airlines	Manage Trip, or View Receipt in the app	Not stated	Separate portal for in-flight purchases
Spirit Airlines	Stopped flying on 2 May 2026	Not available	Your own email and statement

How long airlines keep receipts online

Months after travel that a receipt can still be retrieved online, as each airline states it

1. Delta Air Lines24 months
2. American Airlines18 months
3. Southwest Airlines18 months
4. JetBlue13 months

Count across the eight and a pattern shows:

Across the eight airlines we read	Count
Let you get a receipt online, with no fee mentioned	5 of 8
Say how far back you can get a receipt	5 of 8
Mention receipts for bags, seats or other extras	4 of 8
Send travel agency bookings back to the agency	4 of 8
No longer operating	1 of 8

That's our count, and the article in five lines. A recent flight booked direct is easy. An old one, a bag fee or an agency booking is where it gets slow.

American Airlines

American Airlines' Receipts and refunds page splits receipts in two. For tickets it says: "Request a receipt for tickets, fees and ancillaries, like seats. Receipts are available starting 24 hours after your purchase or change for up to 18 months."

That 24-hour wait matters if you changed a flight. The receipt that reflects the change won't exist until a day after you made it. Purchases made in the air have their own links, covered in the section on in-flight purchases below.

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines gives you three routes, depending on how long ago you flew and whether you have a delta.com account.

Within 24 hours of your last flight, go to My Trips, enter your first name, last name and confirmation number, then "Scroll down to Payment Details and click on Email Receipt".

With a delta.com account, Delta says ticket receipts, baggage receipts and receipts for other purchases "from the past 24 months can also be accessed via delta.com using the My Receipts feature". That's the longest window of the eight airlines.

Without an account, after 24 hours, email ticketreceipt@delta.com. Give the passenger name, the 13-digit ticket number and the type of card you paid with. Delta asks you not to include the card number. If you don't know the ticket number, send the date of travel and the origin airport instead. The request "must be submitted by the ticketed passenger or credit card holder".

United Airlines

We couldn't read United Airlines' receipt pages. From our connection, united.com timed out on every request on 4 November 2026, so we can't quote its current rules or its time limit. Sign in at united.com and look for the trip under your past trips. If the receipt isn't there, contact United through united.com.

Be careful with phone numbers. Several pages that rank for "United receipt" list numbers that don't come from United. Use only the contact details on united.com.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines' help page is the most precise of the eight. Receipts for past trips are on the website only: "receipts for past trips are not available in the Southwest® app".

Sign in, select My Account, then Trips, then Past, find the trip and choose View Receipt. The limit is stated plainly: "Receipts can only be retrieved for trips within 18 months of the travel date."

For anything else there's a request link. Southwest says to use it "for travel older than 18 months or for optional travel charges—such as Priority Boarding, seat upgrades, or checked baggage". For a trip you haven't taken yet, Manage Reservations has a Resend Receipt button that emails a copy to the purchaser.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines

Alaska Airlines now handles receipts for Hawaiian Airlines too. Its page is titled "Request a Ticket or Service Fee Receipt - Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines". When we opened it, the site showed us a CAPTCHA instead of the page. What follows is the page's text as search engines hold it, so check the live page before you rely on it.

For travel in roughly the last 12 to 18 months, you fill in a ticket copy request form and pay a research fee. The page doesn't give the fee in the text we could read. For anything older than 18 months, Alaska says it can't guarantee the records still exist. It also says it "is unable to provide a receipt or confirmation for tickets issued by a travel agent or any other source outside of Alaska Airlines".

JetBlue

JetBlue starts with your inbox. "If you need a receipt for a past or future flight booked directly with JetBlue, please access your original JetBlue confirmation email and reference the Payment Details."

If the email is gone, or you need a receipt for something bought after booking, use JetBlue's request receipt page. That covers "bag fees, EvenMore® seat fees, priority security, etc.". Have "the full name on the ticket, flight date, email address, and your six-letter confirmation code" ready.

JetBlue lists what it won't send receipts for, which is more than most airlines say:

• "Reservations in which travel was completed over 13 months ago."
• Flights on other airlines, "including Interline and Codeshare flights".
• Bookings made "through a travel agency including online travel agencies like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc."
• Packages with hotels or cars, and in-flight purchases.

If you changed your flight, "a receipt will only be available for your most recently-exchanged ticket". For the original, go back to the first confirmation email.

Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines says you can get a booking receipt "two ways only: through the Frontier website or the FlyFrontier app". On the website, go to Manage Trip, enter your last name and confirmation code, and choose Print Confirmation or Resend Email Itinerary. In the app, it's My Trips, then Manage My Booking, then View Receipt. Frontier's page doesn't say how far back this works.

Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines shut down on 2 May 2026. Fortune reported that the airline began "an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately", and that "customer service is no longer available". On 4 November 2026, spirit.com didn't respond to our requests.

So nobody can issue you a new Spirit receipt. Use what you already have:

1. Search your email for the Spirit confirmation. Spirit called its receipt an itinerary receipt, so search for that phrase and for your confirmation code.
2. Download your card statement for the month you booked.
3. If it's for an expense claim, file a missing receipt declaration with your employer, using the statement as support. Our guide to a lost receipt on an expense claim explains how.

What do the receipt request forms ask for?

Some forms want five details and some want sixteen. On 4 November 2026 we opened the receipt request forms that loaded for us and listed every field they mark as required. We didn't submit any of them.

Form	Required fields	What it asks for
JetBlue, Request a Receipt	5	First and last name, flight date, six-letter confirmation code, email
American Airlines, Wi-Fi receipts	4	Last name, last 4 digits of the card, a start date and an end date
Frontier Airlines, Receipt Portal	Starts with 1	How you paid on board, card or wallet versus cash or voucher, then the flight details
Southwest Airlines, Receipt Request	16	Flight date, airport, flight number, confirmation number, origin and destination, full name, email twice, phone and a full postal address

The quickest is JetBlue's. Its form covers "a flight taken in the past 13 months, or for fees not included on your itinerary". It also links to separate tax invoices for Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, which a business traveller to those countries may need instead.

Southwest's is the longest, because it handles everything the account can't: trips older than 18 months and extras such as "Priority Boarding, Extra Legroom seat, baggage". Have the flight number and the confirmation number in front of you before you start.

Frontier's in-flight portal isn't run by Frontier. Its privacy policy names Retail inMotion, an Irish company, which says it issues the electronic receipt "pursuant to an agreement in place between Retail inMotion and your airline". American's ticket receipt tool returned an Access Denied page to us, so it isn't in the table.

Can you get a receipt for bags, seats and in-flight purchases?

A checked bag or a seat upgrade is usually a separate purchase, so it gets a separate receipt. Many expense claims fail here: the ticket receipt is filed, and the $35 bag fee has nothing behind it.

The airlines handle extras in three different ways:

• On the same receipt tool. American's covers "tickets, fees and ancillaries, like seats". Delta's My Receipts includes "baggage receipts, and receipts for other purchases made through delta.com".
• Through a request form. Southwest sends Priority Boarding, seat upgrades and checked bags through its receipt request link. JetBlue does the same for bag fees, EvenMore seats and priority security.
• With their own number. Delta's baggage receipts have a document number that begins with 00682, separate from the ticket number.

Purchases made in the air are a different matter. Food, drinks and Wi-Fi are paid on board, and every airline handles them differently.

Airline	Receipt for in-flight purchases
American Airlines	Online, from 72 hours after the flight, for up to 6 months
Frontier Airlines	Receipt Portal, searched by payment type and flight number
JetBlue	Ask the crew at the time. "Onboard receipts cannot be processed after flight."
Southwest Airlines	The page names no receipt route. The charge shows on your statement as "SOUTHWESTAIR*INFLIGHT"

JetBlue adds that in-flight purchases "can take up to four weeks to post to your credit card". If a charge looks missing, it may just be late.

Booked through Expedia, a travel agent or a company tool?

Then the receipt comes from them. Four of the eight airlines say so in plain words. Delta: "For reservations booked through a travel agency or an online site, please contact the travel agency or online site to receive a copy of the ticket." JetBlue and Alaska say the same.

Southwest splits it. It can give you receipts for extras on an agency ticket, "but you'll need to contact your travel agent for a ticket receipt for the air portion".

This applies to booking sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline, and to company booking tools run by a travel management company. The seller issued the ticket and took your money, so it holds the receipt. Look in the booking site's trips section, or ask your company's travel desk.

If you also paid the airline directly for a bag or a seat, you may end up with two receipts for one trip. The booking site's receipt covers the ticket, and the airline's covers the extras. Hotels work the same way: the booking site proves what you paid it, and the hotel issues the itemised folio.

What if the receipt isn't there?

Usually the trip was booked another way, under another name, or it's older than the airline's window. Work through these in order. It's the same first move as in our guide to what to do when you lose a receipt: go back to whoever charged you.

1. Search your inbox. Look for the airline's name with "receipt", "confirmation" or "e-ticket". JetBlue treats the confirmation email as the receipt.
2. Check who booked it. If a colleague, a travel desk or a booking site made the booking, the receipt is in their account, not yours.
3. Find the ticket number. It's on the confirmation email and on any earlier receipt. Delta's email route works best with it.
4. Use the airline's request route. That means Southwest's request link, JetBlue's request page, Alaska's ticket copy form or Delta's email address.
5. Ask before the window closes. Southwest and American stop at 18 months, and JetBlue at 13. If you know you'll need a receipt, download it the week you fly.

Is a card statement or boarding pass enough?

Rarely. A card statement shows that you paid an airline a sum on a date. It doesn't show who travelled, where to, or how much of it was tax. A boarding pass shows the flight and the passenger, but no price.

Your employer sets its own rule. Many accept a statement line with a missing receipt declaration when the receipt really can't be had. Few accept it when the airline can still produce the receipt.

For US federal tax, Publication 463 says "a canceled check by itself doesn't prove a business expense without other evidence to show that it was for a business purpose". A statement plus the confirmation email plus a note of the trip's purpose is a much stronger record than any one of them. Our guide to lost receipts for taxes covers what the IRS accepts when the receipt is gone.

If your employer pays a daily allowance instead of reimbursing meals, the airfare is still claimed separately with its receipt, and so is a rental car. Our per diem rates report explains what the allowance covers and what it doesn't.

Once you have the PDF, save it somewhere you'll find it. A receipt that supports a deduction is worth keeping for at least three years, and our guide to how long to keep receipts explains why.

When not to use a rebuilt receipt

We make receipt templates, though none for airlines. We'll still be direct about this.

It isn't what's being asked for. An expense approver or a tax examiner wants the record of the ticket the airline or agency issued. A document you drew up yourself isn't that, however accurate the figures are.

It can be checked. Every real airline receipt carries a 13-digit ticket number, and the airline can look it up. A made-up receipt has nothing behind it, and finance teams now screen for them: on one audit platform, AI-made images were 70.8% of flagged fake receipts by mid-May 2026, as our expense fraud report sets out.

It's fraud. Handing in a receipt you made as though the airline issued it is fraud in most places, even when the flight was real and the price is right. Our terms prohibit using Repceipt to submit a false expense to an employer or to support a tax deduction.

You don't need it. Five of the eight airlines let you get the receipt online, and the booking site has it if the airline doesn't.

How we checked

We opened each airline's own receipt and help pages on 4 November 2026 and read every statement about where a receipt is kept, how to ask for one and how long it stays available. The wording above comes from those pages.

The eight airlines are American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska (with Hawaiian), JetBlue, Frontier and Spirit, the largest carriers a US traveller is likely to book. For Spirit, we used Fortune's report of the shutdown, because the airline's own site no longer answers.

We also opened the receipt request forms for JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier's in-flight portal and American's Wi-Fi receipts, and recorded every required field. We didn't submit them, and we didn't fly these airlines to test them. This is a reading of what each airline publishes and asks for, not a test of whether its form finds your trip.

What we could not verify

• United's receipt rules. united.com timed out on every request we made, so United's row in the table is blank. We haven't filled it from forum posts or third-party pages.
• American's ticket receipt form. The tool American links to for tickets and fees returned an Access Denied page to us, so we can't list its fields.
• Alaska's research fee. Alaska's page showed us a CAPTCHA. We used the page text held by search engines, which describes the fee but not the amount.
• How far back Frontier goes. Frontier's help pages don't give a number.
• Spirit's records. We don't know whether anyone will answer a receipt request for a Spirit flight now. We found no statement saying so.
• Booking sites' own steps. We relied on what the airlines say about agency bookings, not on each booking site's help pages.
• Outside the US. What a receipt or VAT invoice must show differs by country. This guide covers US airlines and the IRS rules.

Common questions

How do I get a receipt for a past flight?

Sign in to the airline's website and look in your past trips. Delta keeps receipts there for 24 months, and American and Southwest for 18. If the trip isn't there, use the airline's receipt request form or email. If you booked through a travel agent or a site like Expedia, ask them instead.

How far back can I get an airline receipt?

It depends on the airline. Delta keeps 24 months of receipts for account holders, and American and Southwest keep 18 months. JetBlue won't send receipts for travel completed more than 13 months ago. Alaska charges a research fee for older copies and doesn't guarantee records over 18 months.

Is a flight itinerary the same as a receipt?

No. An itinerary lists your flights, times and seats. A receipt shows the ticket number, the fare, each tax and fee, the total and how you paid. Expense systems and the IRS want the receipt. Some confirmation emails include the payment details, and JetBlue tells customers to use those as the receipt.

How do I get a receipt for a checked bag or seat fee?

Check the airline's receipt tool first. American's covers fees and seats, and Delta's My Receipts includes baggage receipts. Southwest and JetBlue handle bags and seat upgrades through a receipt request form. Delta's baggage receipts have their own number, starting with 00682.

Can I get a receipt for food or Wi-Fi bought on a plane?

Sometimes. American posts in-flight receipts online from 72 hours after the flight, for 6 months. Frontier has a Receipt Portal searched by payment type and flight number. JetBlue only issues them on board at the time of purchase, and says they "cannot be processed after flight".

Who gives me the receipt if I booked on Expedia?

Expedia does, or whichever booking site or agent sold you the ticket. Delta, JetBlue, Alaska and Southwest all say to contact the agency for the ticket receipt. If you paid the airline separately for a bag or seat, the airline issues that receipt.

How do I get a receipt for a Spirit Airlines flight?

You probably can't get a new one. Spirit stopped flying on 2 May 2026 and said its customer service is no longer available. Search your email for the original confirmation or itinerary receipt, and keep your card statement. For an expense claim, file a missing receipt declaration.

Corrections and updates

Pages last read on 4 November 2026. No corrections have been made since.

Airlines change these pages without notice. If one here is out of date, tell us and we'll update it and give the new date.

Sources

Read on 4 November 2026.

• American Airlines: Receipts and refunds and Find your inflight Wi-Fi receipts
• Delta Air Lines: Need Help? Other Useful Information, section "Obtaining receipts for past travel"
• United Airlines: united.com, which did not load for us
• Southwest Airlines: I need a receipt and Receipt Request
• Alaska Airlines: Request a Ticket or Service Fee Receipt, which showed us a CAPTCHA
• JetBlue: Receipts and Itineraries and Request a Receipt
• Frontier Airlines: How can I get my purchase receipt or itinerary resent to me? and How can I get my receipt for an In-Flight purchase?, which links to the Receipt Portal run by Retail inMotion
• Fortune: Spirit Airlines ends operations immediately, with refunds to come but no help rebooking, 2 May 2026
• Internal Revenue Service: Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses, chapters 1 and 5, for deductible airfare and what documentary evidence must show

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