Travel Policy - Best Practice

Benefits and Need to Know

Benefits

• Configure travel policy for one or more policy groups.

• Configure multiple policies for an individual group or groups.

  • Example: Default Group -  Domestic and International Policy.

    • See attached Wiki article.

Need To Know

Travel Policy clones over from your template, during the creation of your site.

• Travel Policy List: Is a list of policy decisions.

  • In order to have different travel policies for users, you create or edit each policy list.

• Travel Policy Set: Provides the ability to compartmentalize policies to be later added to a group.

• Service Rules: Provides you with an area to file sets to the appropriate groups. Please click link, for further information around Travel Service Rules.

Task

Process and Helpful Hint

Edit Travel Policy List

The Travel Policy clones over from your template. which can be edited by taking the following steps.

• On the Services tab, select Travel Policy.

• Select Policy List.

• Select the policy you would like to edit.

  • Travel Policy Configuration and Recommendations provided below.

• Once configuration is configured move to the bottom and select Save.

• Validate that the travel policy has been added to the travel policy set.

Add To Set

Now that you have updated your travel policy, you will need to validate that the policy list/lists have been added to the correct set. This will allow you to add the travel policy to the Service rules for each appropriate group.

• On the Services tab, select Travel Policy link.

• Select Policy Set.

• Garbage can with a red X indicates the policy is added to a Service Rule.

• All of the sets look to be added to the Service Rules, but you will want to validate you have assigned them to the correct Service Rules.

Validate Service Rules

Added/validate all travel policy sets have been added to the Service Rules.

• On the Rules tab, select Service Rules.

• Select Edit to the right of each rule, under the Travel column.

• Scroll down to Travel Policy and select travel policy for the group.

  • Note: If you have not also applied your Compliance Codes, you will be required to select the Compliance Codes in the next section.

• Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select Save.

• Confirmed updates have been made to each group.

• Select Save Priority Changes.

• Select Changes not applied in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

• Select Commit.

• Yay! Changes have been successfully committed

• As with any updates to the site, you will want to test to make sure everything is working properly.

Task

Process and Helpful Hint

Creating new Travel Policy through cloning existing policy

While the policies are cloned over from your template, you can not only easily edit the travel policy (as demonstrated above), but you can also clone an existing policy to create another.

Example: Let’s say you have two policies on your temple (Default and VIP). Default being the most restrictive and VIP which is the least restrictive. You now need to configure a third policy that allows for business and first class when traveling internationally.

• Select Clone to the far right of the group you would like to clone.

• Change Policy Name: In this example changing to Manager Policy.

• Move down to First Class Policy and Business Class Policy.

• Select Yes to the right of both.

• Travelers are permitted to book first class: Select Yes.

• Travelers are permitted to book business class: Select Yes.

• Options for both will be expanded.

• Limit first class to international flights: Select Yes.

• If these are the only changes move to the bottom of the screen and select Save.

Add To Set

Now that you have created your new travel policy list. You will need to add a set so that you can add it to the Service rules for the appropriate group.

• On the Service tab, select Travel Policy.

• Select Policy Set.

• Select Add A New Policy Set.

• Enter Set Name:  in this example I have entered Manager Policy.

• Select Add Policy.

• Select radio button to the left of the policy you would like to add.

• Select OK.

  • Note: if there is more than one policy to add such as if you have built a domestic and international policy.

    • Select radio button to the first policy you would like to add.

    • Select OK & Add Another Policy, you will then be brought back to the same screen to select the next policy for that set.

    • Select Ok to complete that policy set.

• Select Save.

Add to Service Rules

Added/validate all travel policy sets have been added to the Service Rules

• On the Rules tab, select Service Rules.

• Select Edit to the right of each rule, under the Travel column.

• Scroll down to Travel Policy and select travel policy for the group.

Note: If you have not also applied your Compliance Codes, you will be required to select the Compliance Codes in the next section.

• Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select Save.

• Once you have confirmed updates have been made to each group, select Save Priority Changes.

• Select Changes not applied in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

• Select Commit.

• Yay changes have been successfully committed.

• Test to ensure everything is working as you expect.

Task

Process and Helpful Hint

Using Amount or Percentage to Trigger "Out-of-Policy"

• Enter the maximum allowable difference between the lowest policy compliant airfare and the user's selection:

• Enter the maximum allowable difference between the lowest policy compliant airfare and the user's selection:

Note: When $ and % are both set to pick the lesser or higher of the two for compliance. Select which should be used if both percentage and currency parameters apply : Greater or Lesser of the two.

Applying Unused Tickets and Entering Fee and Purchase Limits

• Enter the maximum Apply lowest policy compliant airfare to unused ticket add collect: Select Yes or No.

  • Yes -  Applies the new ticket additional collect amount to the original ticket’s value for policy compliance. The system provides the estimated cost of changing the trip for each available flight option and applies minimum cost savings to the lowest available price based on the ticket exchange. In the event the system recommends a new ticket be issued, policy will be based on the cost of the new ticket as compared to other similar options where the original unused ticket is not part of the exchange solution.

• Enter the maximum allowable airfare change fee: In addition to the possible ticket price increase, enter the maximum change fee allowed and select the currency for the fee.

• Enter the maximum allowable airfare cancellation fee: Enter the maximum cancellation fee allowed and select the currency for the fee.

• Enter the minimum advance purchase time range (in days): Enter the minimum number days before a departure ticket purchase is allowed. This is usually set to between 7 and 14 days. The trip would be out of policy if it were booked less than 7 or 14 days before departure date.

• Apply policy window to users search window?: Yes or No

  • Yes - Policy is applied to the search parameters the user selects on the Trip Planner page.

  • No - This is referred to as dynamic air policy.  Policy applies to the flights selected rather than the times searched.

• Select the earliest limit of the time range that will be used to evaluate policy compliance for itineraries with flights: Select time range from menu

  • Options: 1-24 hours.

  • Recommendation: 2 hours.

• Select the latest limit of the time range that will be used to evaluate policy compliance for itineraries with flights: Select time range from menu.

  • Options: 1-24 hours.

  • Recommendation: 2 hours.

Setting Seating Class of Service Policies

• First Class Policy:

  • Select Yes or No. If Yes is selected the following will appear

    • Limit first class to international flights: Select Yes or No

    • Minimum flight time for first class: Select the hours and minutes of flight time before a first class ticket would be allowed.

    • Apply minimum flight time per flight segment: Select Yes or No.

      • Yes - Applies to each flight segment.

      • No - Minimum is applied to the total flight time for connecting flights.

    • Minimum flight distance for first class: Enter the flight distance before a first class ticket would be allowed and select the unit of distance measurement.

• Business Class Policy:

  • Select Yes or No. If Yes, select the following will appear.

    • Limit Business class to international flights: Select Yes or No.

    • Minimum flight time for first class: Select the hours and minutes of flight time before a first class ticket would be allowed.

    • Apply minimum flight time per flight segment: Select Yes or No.

      • Yes - Applies to each flight segment.

      • No - Minimum is applied to the total flight time for connecting flights.

    • Minimum flight distance for business class: Enter the flight distance before a first class ticket would be allowed and select the unit of distance measurement.

• Premium Class Policy:

  • Select Yes or No. If Yes, select the following.

    • Limit premium class to international flights: Select Yes or No.

    • Minimum flight time for first class: Select the hours and minutes of flight time before a first class ticket would be allowed.

    • Apply minimum flight time per flight segment: Select Yes or No

      • Yes - Applies to each flight segment.

      • No - Minimum is applied to the total flight time for connecting flights.

    • Minimum flight distance for premium class: Enter the flight distance before a first class ticket would be allowed and select the unit of distance measurement.

Setting Cost Reduction Options

• Must travelers always search for lowest available fare? Select Yes or No

  • Yes - The traveler must always search by fare. Any trip displayed as the result of another search method (refundable or non-restricted tickets) will be called out of policy. 

  • Recommendation: Yes.

Note: ONLY applies to single fare search - multi-fare search utilizes the fare tier for policy enforcement. In multi-fare search flow, the fare selection on trip planner is only used for defaulting the tab to the desired fare tier.

• Are connecting flights allowed when non-stops are available? Select one of the following.

  • No - With this option, in a market where both connecting and non-stop flights are returned, a traveler must select a non-stop flight regardless of the savings of a connecting flight.

  • Yes - but not required: With this option, in a market where both connecting and non-stop flights are returned, a selection will not be called out of policy regardless of any price difference.

  • Yes - required when cheaper and when journey time not significantly increased:

    •  Recommendation: If the traveler makes a selection other than what is required, the trip is flagged as out of policy. Enter the following.

      • Minimum savings required to accept connecting flights: Enter the amount of savings and select its currency.

      • Maximum time a connecting flight could add to a trip: Enter the allowed number of whole hours added to a trip by allowing connecting flights.

• Require connecting flight on same day travel: Select Yes or No

  • Require connecting flights when booking travel where the requested departure and return dates are the same.

    • Recommendation: No.

• Maximum connecting time required when no non-stops are available: 

  • Recommendation: 2 hours.

• If no flights are available within the maximum connecting time window, what is the next time window (if no flights are available within this time window, then all flights are considered for policy evaluation)? Select the hours and minutes from the dropdown lists.

  • Recommendation: 4 hours.

• Are double connecting flights required to reduce cost? Select Yes or No.

  • Recommendation: No.

• Are interline flights required to reduce cost? Select Yes or No.

  • Recommendation: No.

• Must travelers select an airline for which there are wholly unused e-tickets: Select Yes or No.

• Must travelers select an alternate airport to reduce travel costs? Select “No”, "Yes, any airport returned by the system" or "Yes, only corporate defined alternate airports". With either Yes answer, specify the following.

  • What is the minimum savings to require alternate airport: Enter the amount of savings and select the amount's currency.

  • Apply policy to alternate airports for: Select Departure, Arrival, or Both.

    • Recommendation: No.

Setting Preferred Airlines Options

• Require selection of preferred airlines: Select No, "Yes, for all flight legs" or "Yes, for at least one flight leg". With either Yes answer, specify the following:

  • Recommendation: No.

  • If yes, lowest required airlines preference ranking: Select All, First (most preferred), Second (highly preferred), or Third (preferred) from the dropdown menu.

  • Are travelers allowed to fly direct flights on other airlines? Select Yes or No.

  • Are travelers allowed to fly other lower cost airlines? ("Lower cost airlines" refers to non-preferred airlines.) Select Yes or No

    • If Yes, enter the minimum savings required to permit selection of other airlines and select its currency.

• Restricted vendors, if any, are flagged as out of policy: Select Yes or No.

  • Recommendation: No.

Setting Flight Payment Card

• Only the following options can be selected by the user as a valid form of airline payment:

  • Select No payment card restrictions for no restrictions.

Web Fare Options

If WebFare options (such as VMI Baby, Ryan Air, and EasyJet) are enabled in the display configuration (see Adding or Editing a Display Configuration for details), you can set this additional option.

•  Require select of Web Fare airlines: Select No, or one of the following:

  • Yes, It is allowed only if the web fare is cheaper: With this choice you must also enter the amount of savings allowed and select its currency.

  • Yes, it is required if the web fare is cheaper: With this choice you must also enter the amount of savings required and select its currency.

Note: Applies to TraveFusion carriers only.

Train Policy

• First Class Policy: Travelers are permitted to book first class.

• Business Class Policy: Travelers are permitted to book business class.

  • Recommendation: Select Yes, Acela rail services are available only in business and first class. Acela is used frequently by clients as it is the fastest service available on the Easter Corridor of the US. 

Car Rental Policy

• Require car rentals for trips with flights: Select Yes or No.

• Maximum Car Size Allowed:  Select max car size from the dropdown menu

Note: The user can set a default car size in the user profile that matches a size defined in this policy. If no car size is set as the default in the user profile, the default is set to Intermediate.

• Maximum daily Rental Car rate allowed: Enter the maximum amount for a daily rental car charge and select the amount's currency.

  • A weekly rate will be divided by 7 to compare the rate to the maximum allowed daily rate. 

  • The value entered here applies to the base rate + estimated taxes.

• Require selection of preferred car vendor: Select Yes to require the selection of a preferred car vendor.

• Restricted vendors, if any, are flagged as out of policy? Select Yes to flag a restricted vendor as out of policy.

• Out of policy car types: Select to select car types from the list box – hold down Control (CTRL) to make multiple selections. 

• Mark hybrids as out of policy: Select Yes to flag a hybrid as out of policy.

Hotel Policy

• Require hotel reservations for all overnight trips: Select Yes or No

• Require user to select properties with private rates: Select Yes or No

  • Private rate hotels are specific properties with pre-established discounted rates. They appear above any preferred hotel chain on the results page.

• Require user to select properties with preferred hotel chains: Select Yes or No.  

• For private rate hotels, limit room rate to private rate rooms only: Select Yes or No.

• Limit room price to company per diem, if available: Select Yes or No.

  • Company per diem room prices are defined by location – see Defining and Managing Hotel Per Diem for details. If Yes, the traveler will be called out of policy if the selected rate is higher than the per diem. If No, the rule is considered to be not enforced.

• Maximum Room Rate when company per diem is not available or available but not enforced: Enter the maximum room rate allowed if the per diem is not available or not enforced, and select the rate's currency

• Select one or more restricted room types:

  • Note: You can hold down Control (CTRL) and select to make multiple selections in the list box.

• Restricted vendors, if any, are flagged as out of policy? Select Yes or No

  • Recommendation: No.

Itinerary Parameters (optional)

• With optional itinerary parameters, you can apply policies for a specified time period, or for trips originating from certain locations

Tip: You can set up international flight policy or travel to a convention by selecting originating or terminating countries in the Itinerary Parameters section.

• Select the start and end dates to which this policy applies:

  • Select a Start Date and End Date from the dropdown menus if the policy should be effective only for a given time period

Note: If there is not end time you can leave it blank and the policy will apply until you change or remove it.

• Enter one or more airport codes separated by semicolons or select one or more state or country to which this policy will be applied

  • The policy will apply to all itineraries originating from the entered/selected locations.

  • To apply the policy to a trip originating from one or more specific locations (or to anywhere), select the radio button for one of the following.

  • By airport code

    • Select the radio button and enter origination airport/airports to apply this policy, separated by semicolons

      • You can select the airport code link to look up an airport code.

    • For example: SFO;SJC;OAK applies these policy settings for trips originating from the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, California, airports.

  • By states 

    • Select this radio button to specify the originating states. Select one or more states (hold down the CTRL key to select more than one) in the selection box that appears below this option.

  • By countries

    • Select this radio button to specify the originating countries. Select one or more countries (hold down the CTRL key to select more than one) in the selection box that appears below this option.

  • Anywhere 

    • Select this radio button to apply these policy settings to any trip originating location.

• Enter one or more airport code separated by semicolons or select one or more state or country to which this policy will be applied. 

  • The policy will apply to all itineraries terminating in the entered/selected locations.

  • To apply the policy to a trip terminating in one or more specific locations.

  • By airport code.

    • Select the radio button and enter origination airport/airports to apply this policy, separated by semicolons

      • Note: You can select the airport code link to look up an airport code. 

    • For example: SFO;SJC;OAK applies these policy settings for trips originating from the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, California, airports.

  • By states. 

    • Select this radio button to specify the terminating states. Select one or more states (hold down the CTRL key to select more than one) in the selection box that appears below this option.

  • By countries.

    • Select this radio button to specify the terminating countries. Select one or more countries (hold down the CTRL key to select more than one) in the selection box that appears below this option.

  • Anywhere 

    • Select this radio button to apply these policy settings to any trip terminating location.

• Bi-Directional: Select Yes or No.

  • Yes - Applies the policy in both directions (originating and terminating)

• Enter one or more airport code separated by semicolons or select one or more state or country to which this policy will be applied.

  • Applies the policy to a trip that connects through one or more specific locations.

• By airport code

  • Select the radio button and enter connection airport/airports to apply this policy, separated by semicolons.

    • Note: You can select the airport code link to look up an airport code. 

  • For example: SFO;SJC;OAK applies these policy settings for trips originating from the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, California, airports.

• By states.

  • Select radio button to specify the connection states. Select one or more states (hold down the CTRL key to select more than one) in the selection box that appears below this option.

• By countries.

  • Select radio button to specify the connection countries. Select one or more countries (hold down the CTRL key to select more than one) in the selection box that appears below this option.

• Anywhere.

  • Select radio button to apply these policy settings to any trip connection location.

Policy Messaging

• Non Compliant message displayed to the traveler: 

  • This message will appear on the Trip Review page if the trip selections are not compliant with these policy settings.

  • HTML tags are not allowed. 

• Non Compliant message displayed on confirmation emails:

  • This message will appear in the trip confirmation email if the trip selections are not compliant with these policy settings.

  • HTML tags are not allowed.

Policy Behavior

You can set the system behavior for trips that don't comply with these policy settings (out-of-policy or OOP).

• Select a system behavior for non-compliant trips: 

  • Require user to explain non-compliant trip

    • User will be asked to select from a list of Compliance Code

  • Require user to reselect compliant trip

    • User will be required to book a trip that is in policy.

• Require user to provide purpose of trip? Select Yes or No.

  • Yes - allows user to further explain why they are out of policy.

    • Enter the label to appear for the Purpose of Trip field.

    • Example label: Further explain why out of policy.

Host Agency

ou can enter queue information specifically for bookings that don't comply with these policy settings if you don't want to use the queue information (pseudo city code and queue designation) established in Setting Queue and Delivery Options.

• Enter the pseudo city code where a non-compliant booking will be queued: 

  • Enter the pseudo city code: (if the agency configuration PCC set in Setting Queue and Delivery Options will not be used). 

  • The booking will not fall into the default pseudo city code queue.

• Enter the queue designation where a non-compliant booking will be queued: 

  • Enter the queue designation: (if the agency configuration queue set in Setting Queue and Delivery Options will not be used). 

  • The booking will not fall into the default pseudo city code queue.