SKYTICKER FIELD NOTES · OCTOBER 31, 2026

When the receipt says points.

Your booking currency matters as much as the flight number.

Two receipts can describe very different purchases

A bank travel portal may issue a confirmation that names an airline and lists a cash price, even when you redeemed bank rewards at checkout. An airline award confirmation may instead show miles and a separate cash tax payment. Both describe a real itinerary, but they do not establish the same comparison baseline.

Start by finding the amount actually redeemed, the rewards program, any cash portion, and the organization that issued the ticket. Do not assume that the largest dollar number in the email is the amount you paid in cash. It may be a retail reference, a card charge, taxes, a mixed-payment portion, or a separate service.

Record points and cash separately

Imagine a receipt with 32,000 points redeemed and $11.20 paid in taxes and fees. The cash component is $11.20; it is not the cash purchase price of the entire flight. A newly advertised $250 ticket cannot be compared with $11.20 to decide whether the original redemption fell in price. Nor should the 32,000 points be assigned an invented dollar value.

Keep each quantity in its own unit. Record the points or miles exactly as shown, the cash paid in its stated currency, and whether the email contains an unambiguous complete-ticket retail value. If a field is missing, leave it unknown and check the receipt or your provider account.

Bank points and airline miles are different

For a bank-portal booking, begin with the bank travel provider that issued the reservation. For an airline award, begin with the loyalty program that issued the ticket. The operating airline may not be the organization that can change or refund the original transaction. Do not assume that a lower cash fare implies a lower award price or that a points difference can be returned.

The original provider must confirm the redemption’s rules and available options. SkyTicker does not determine a rewards program’s refund policy or transfer points between accounts.

What the current importer supports

SkyTicker’s Gmail discovery includes booking-related messages from supported airline, booking-site, and major bank travel-portal domains. The deterministic parser looks for explicit redemption wording, such as points redeemed or miles used. Marketing text about earning points should not convert an ordinary cash purchase into an award booking.

Every extracted field remains reviewable. Email formats vary, attachments are not read, and a supported sender does not guarantee a complete import. If a message is not found, paste its visible itinerary and receipt or enter the fields manually. Check the payment type yourself before saving.

What a live cash quote can tell you

Cash quotes can offer reference context for an award itinerary, but the current pricing adapter does not verify award inventory, redemption rates, a points refund, or a credit. SkyTicker labels these observations as reference-only and excludes them from USD price-drop calculations and automated credit alerts. A manual award review with the issuing provider remains necessary.