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Pre-Trip Approval (PTA)

Table of Contents

Overview

Pre-trip approval (PTA) is a process put into place to better manage business travel by allowing a trip to be approved or declined before it is ticketed. It offers an automatic method of controlling travel spending by designating travel approvers who can approve or deny a user's travel request.

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Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Custom Field Collection

Configure pending queue under Custom PNR

  • Under the Service tab click on Travel Agency

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  • Click on Custom PNR

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  • Click on Mapping which you would like to update

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  • Move to the bottom of the mapping and click on Add PNR Line

  • Under Line No. enter line number which script will reside in your mapping. In this example we are using line 159

  • PNR Field Type: select Pre-Trip Approval

  • Custom PNR Requirement: Enter Script

  • Requirement Type: Select Script

  • GDS: Click on GDS your mapping should write to

The below example Is for a Sabre client, script written to line 159 follows the screen shot. You can adjust the output based on the GDS you are writing to

PNR Script:

//Ticketing Field for PTA Pending Approval

function zeroPad(num,count)

var numZeropad = num + '';

while(numZeropad.length < count) {

numZeropad = "0" + numZeropad; 

}

return numZeropad;

}

if ((UserPnrData.DataType=="new" || UserPnrData.DataType=="purchase_hold")&&(UserPnrData.UserBooking.PreTripApprovalInfo.CurrentApprovalState=="WAITING_FOR_APPROVAL")){with (UserPnrData.UserBooking.AgencyTransactionDate)

{

var day=UserPnrData.UserBooking.AgencyTransactionDate.Day;

day=zeroPad(day,2);

out.print("7TAW" + day + Month + "/HOLD");}}

Approved, Ticketed/Declined and Expired Queues

Programmed under Agency Configurations

  • Go to Service tab click on Travel Agency

  • Click on Agency Settings

  • Click on Setting Name to be configured

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  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Add PTA Configurations

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  • Enter Pseudo-city and Queue for each Approved, Declined and Expired bookings

  • Enter the time window for the primary approver to approve or decline the trip, and the time window for the secondary approver. The primary approver window is best set to 4 – 6 hours, with the alternate approver well before the 24-hour void window

    • Tip: The time windows should total less than 24 hours. Declined flights can be automatically canceled within 24 hours of purchase. If the flight is declined within the 24-hour void window, the ticket cost can be fully refunded.

  • Click on Save

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Setting Passenger Name Record (PNR) Configuration

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Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Creating Custom Field Collection

  • Enter the collection name into the Name field for each collection, such as PTA, pretripapproval or pretripnotification. Use a label which clearly defines the collection.

  • Be sure to click the checkbox for Ask for User Input on the Purchase Page. This will display on the Trip Purchase page, allowing travelers to enter additional notes to approver.

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Creating Custom Fields

  • Click the radio button for Approval required or Notification only

  • Decide whether to send the approval email to the manager within the profile, or to a default approver

    • If you would like the manager listed in the traveler’s profile to receive the approval/notification email, click the box next to Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver

    • Leave unchecked if you would like the approval/notification email to be sent to the default approver email, which you will need to provide in the next section

    • Note: If the setting for "Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver" is used, the default approver email value is ignored unless the traveler doesn't have a profiled approver (secondary approver field is still applicable)

  • Enter the email addresses for the default approver and the secondary approver. If the default approver has not approved or declined the itinerary within the defined period, an email is sent to the secondary approver default email address

  • Decide whether or not to automatically cancel declined itineraries

    • Click the box next to action you would like the system to take

      • Note: Offline-generated or offline-changed PNRs and itineraries with expired approvals are not auto-canceled

  • Click the Advanced link at the bottom of the Field Type Preference section to enter the JavaScript criteria for this field

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Use Case JavaScripts

  • PNR and Pre-Trip Approvals JavaScript are in many cases interchangeable. For further Information: JavaScript Examples

  • Need further help creating a script, please open a Support Case

Example Script

  • Flying to specific airport

//Alaska and Hawaii

 

if((UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="ANC")||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="FAI") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCodee=="HOM")||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="JNU") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="HNL") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="KOA") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="LIH") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="ITO"))

  

{out.print("true");}else

{out.print("false");}

Add to Custom Field Set

Once you have completed programming PTA collection, you will then need to add it to the custom field set

  • Go back to Custom Field Configurations, and Click on Custom Field Sets

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  • Click on Set which you would like to add PTA

  • Click on Add Collection to Set

  • Click check box next to collection you would like to add to the set and click on Add

  • You can adjust the order in which the fields appear and select Save

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  • Confirm you have Service Rules updated as well 

    • Ensure you have the correct custom field sets assigned to the correct groups

  • Commit Changes shown at the top of the screen

  • Please be sure to test.

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Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Designating  Approver Status Manually

  • Click on User tab

  • Click on Account Permission

  • Click on Travel Approver Permission

  • Click  on Save

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Assigning Manager Manually to Traveler Profile

  • Click on User tab

  • Click on Personal and Employee Info

  • Click on Travel Approver Name

  • Select Approver from list

  • Click  on Save

Upload Approver

  • You can upload a file to establish user-approver relationships. Templates are available under the Profile tab. 

  • Before preparing your profile upload, consider, as a profile upload can be damaging if not managed correctly. See Preparing a Profile or Delegate Upload File, and keep in mind the following:

    • Save the upload file template as a new file before adding or changing rows and columns

    • Follow the template instructions to enter information in the new file 

  • Follow these general steps when assigning the approver role to any profile:

    • Consulting the User Profile Fields page, locate the Role column (roleSet.role) in the new file for each approver

    • Enter ROLE_TRAVEL_APPROVER in the Role column (roleSet.role) for each user to be designated as a travel approver

    • Upload this new file to establish the approvers in your site

  • Follow these general steps to assign approvers to users:

    • After uploading the file to establish approvers in your site, you can then assign approvers to users

    • Consulting the User Profile Fields page, locate the Travel Approver ID column (userInfo.travelApproverID) in the new file for each user

    • Enter the external ID of the approver for this user, defined previously as ROLE_TRAVEL_APPROVER in the Role column (roleSet.role). For example, if the userInfo.travelApproverID value is 28846, then the user whose external ID is 28846 should already have been uploaded and already have been assigned the role of Travel approver (ROLE_TRAVEL_APPROVER) in the Role column (roleSet.role).

    • Upload this new file to establish the approver-user relationships

  • Ensure that all custom fields, corresponding collections, and custom field sets are created first before uploading profiles containing custom fields. If not, the upload will possibly fail.

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Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Steps

  • Agent books reservation and sends to mid-office

  • Agency mid-office queues PNR to PNR Synchronization queue listed in Agency settings

    • There is not a seperate queue for those reservations out of policy and those that are in policy, all PNRs are sent to the PNR Synchronization queue

    • Note: This is the same queue you should be sending all offline booked and changed/canceled bookings

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  • Deem processes reservations based on PTA set up on site

    • Reminder: Not all offline bookings can be processed through Deem PTA, below are an example

      • If fare is $200 over the lowest logical fare require approval, DEEM does not know what the lowest logical fare was at the time of booking

        • You would need to create a PTA script to call all air bookings out of policy and require approval, if they want to capture for offline PTA

  • If reservation is not out of policy it will be sent back to ticketing queue for processing

  • If reservation is out of policy an email will be generated to the approver. once approved or declined it will be sent back to the agency for processing

  • Special Note: In the event the fare will expire, the hotel is within the cancellation policy,  or a trip will commence within the first approvers time window, the system will auto approve the reservation. This is not a configurable item. 

    • Note this process is for both online and offline bookings.

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