Pre-Trip Approval (PTA)

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Benefit

• Robust policy capabilities: Deem utilizes JavaScript, which allows for creativity when configuring approvals or notifications

• Allows for offline and online approvals

• Simple and quick process for Approver, simply click the Approve or Decline button within approval email

• Set up notifications and/or approval based on groups

Limitations

• Offline bookings: 

  • limited to what can be pulled from offline bookings

  • Cannot validate what the lowest logical fare was at the time of booking with an agent (both air and hotel)

Example: Offline booking where the policy states - Require approval or notification if travel booked is $200 over the lowest logical fare, or if booking a hotel that is $250 dollars over the lowest hotel rate. 

• For these examples, you would need to say all offline air or hotel bookings require approval or notification. 

• Approvals and notifications are completed through email only

  • Approvals are not available within the Desktop or Mobile app

  • Approval and notification emails cannot be re-generated

  • TMC does not have access to approve on the behalf of the client, or to see what trips are waiting approval

• Single layer approval process

  • Bookings can be approved by one individual only

  • Unable to require approval from more individual and then another

Need to Know

• Travelfusion and Instant Purchase carriers can be excluded from PTA

  • Travelfusion and Instant Purchase carriers  will be auto approved

Useful Terms

• Primary approver: User responsible for approving or declining trips triggered by the process

• Secondary approver: User identified to take action for trips triggering the process if the primary approver does not take action within the configured amount of time

• Expired Bookings: Bookings which have not been approved or declined by the primary or secondary approvers within the configured amount of time. These are not automatically canceled

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Contact Deem Channel Sales Director

• Contact Channel Sales Director for initial Pre-Trip Approval set up

  • Statement of Work (SOW) is required initial set

  • Pre-Trip Approval is a cost item

• Deem will help you set up your first site

  • Once you have Pre-Trip Approval set up on your Deem company domain, you will have the ability to program PTA on each of your clients’ sites as needed.

Open Support Ticket

If you have established at the domain level from above steps, you will only need to open a case if the client requires approval from manager within in profile

• Open a Support Ticket with the following details

  • Company Name:

  • Site ID:

  • Please enable Pre-Trip Approval for the above site, client is requesting manager to approval via manager within user profile

Note: The Deem Configuration Team must enable Pre-Trip Approval before you deploy within your client’s site

• You can complete your programming while the ticket is opened with Deem. Once Deem has completed their process and you have completed yours, you can then go live.

Note: A Deem Support Tickets is not needed if client requires approvals via a default approver/static approver

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Approvals or Notifications

• Determine if approvals/notifications will be sent to a static email or manager within the profile

• Determine if clients require approvals or notification

  • Approvals Required:  Approval email is generated, thereby requiring a manager from the traveler’s profile or a static approver to approve or decline a trip before being sent to the TMC for ticketing

  • Notification only: Notification email is generated to manage within the traveler’s profile or static approver for notification purposes only. No action required on the behalf of the email recipient.

Policy

• Identify Policy requiring Pre-Trip approval or notifications

Queues

• Identify processing queues

  • Pending/Awaiting approval

  • Approved/Ticketing

  • Declined

  • Expired

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Custom PNR

Configure pending queue under Custom PNR

• Click Services tab

• Click Travel Agency

• Click Custom PNR

• Select mapping to be configured

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

• 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: Select GDS your mapping writes to

• Click Save

• PNR and Pre-Trip Approvals JavaScript are in many cases interchangeable.

  • JavaScript Examples

Queues

Programmed under Agency Configurations

• Click Service tab

• Click Travel Agency

• Click Agency Settings

• Select Setting Name to be configured

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

Note: You may see Edit PTA Configuration if previously set up

• 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

Note: The first time window is the time in which a reminder email will be sent to the designated approver if they have not taken action. The second time window is the time in which second reminder will be sent to the designated approver if they have not taken action.

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.

Keep in Mind: If the trip has not been approved by the ticketing time line of the airline, the airline will auto cancel the trip. 

• Click on Save

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Creating Custom Field Collection

Configure PTA Policy, which is located under Custom Fields

• Click Services tab

• Click Custom Fields

• Click Custom Field Collections

• Click Add a New Collection

New Collection

• Name: Enter  such as PTA, PTAManager, PTAGuest. Label clearly, name in a way that it define the collection clearly. No spaces or special characters.

• Label: Will prefill from what is enter in the Name field, please update. Spaces are acceptable. 

• Description: Enter best description for the collection (Optional)

• Click Ask for User Input on the Purchase Page

Note: A field will appear on the purchase page allowing the user to enter additional notes to be sent to the approver

• Click Save

Creating Custom Fields

Configure Policy within Collection 

• Click on Collection Name under Custom Field Collections

• Click Add Custom Field

• Name: Enter Pre-Trip Approval Name

• Label: Will prefill from what is enter in the Name field, please update. Spaces are acceptable. 

• Field Type: Select PTA

• Click Approval required or Notification only

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

  • Click Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver: If manager within profile is required

Note: If the setting for "Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver" is used, the default approver email value is required. The default approver is ignored unless the traveler doesn't have a profiled approver

• Leave Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver: unchecked if default approver required

• 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

• Auto cancel declined PNR's?: Check box if trip should be cancelled if declined by approver

• Auto approve or cancel expired PNR's?: Select action that should be taken if trip has expired.  Has not been approved within desiccated time established within Agency Settings. 

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

• PTA Rules Description: Enter message which will be displayed on both the purchase page as well as email notifications 

• Click Advanced to enter JavaScript

• Enter JavaScript

• Click Save

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

Add PTA Collection to the appropriate Custom Field Set

• Click Back to Custom Field Configuration

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

• Select 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

• Confirm Travel Service Rules are updated properly, by ensuring 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 thoroughly

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Designating  Approver Status Manually

• Click on User tab

• Click on Account Permission

• Click on Travel Approver Permission

• Click  on Save

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

You may need to upload two separate profile uploads to establish approver roll and then a file to assign approver to the user’s account. You may can try to upload all in one file, but please note there have been random issues with one file.

Note: Column Header and role is case sensitive

What is needed to create upload to establish Approver Role (See attached template)

• externalID

• userInfo.userName

• userInfo.firstName

• userInfo.lastName

• userInfo.email

• roleSet.role_1: Value ROLE_TRAVEL_APPROVER

What is needed to create upload to assign manager to user profile (See attached template)

• externalID

• userInfo.userName

• userInfo.firstName

• userInfo.lastName

• userInfo.email

• userInfo.travelApproverID: Value externalID of manager

Note: 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.

Please follow the same procedures as you would when uploading the Profile Upload

• siteid_upload.csv

  • Example: malissademo-deem_upload.csv (malissademo-deem is the SiteID of my demo site)

• csv (comma delimited)

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Steps

• Agent books trip and sends to mid-office

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

Note: Deem does not have an independent queue for for Pre-Trip Approval

• Deem processes trip based on PTA set up on site

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

• If trip is out of policy an email will be sent to the approver

• Once approved or declined it will be sent back to the agency for processing

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

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Pending Approval Message

• To Traveler – ‘Your trip is pending approval for travel. You will be notified once it is approved, and the trip will be sent to [agency name] for processing. Online changes are not allowed until the tip is approved for travel, please contact your agency directly for changes.’

• To Approver 1 – Pre-trip approval required [rules description]

Reminder Approval Message

• To Approver 2 – Pre-trip approval required.  Primary approver did not respond within the expected timeframe. [rule description]

Approval Message

• To Traveler – ‘Your trip has been approved for travel.’ Existing confirmation message – Your trip has been completed.

• To Approver 1 – Pre-trip approval has been received and the trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing

• To Approver 2 – Pre-trip approval has been received and the trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing

Declined Message

• To Traveler – Your trip has been declined for travel. The trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing.

• To Approver 1 – This trip has been declined for travel and sent to [agency name] for processing

• To Approver 2 – This trip has been declined for travel and sent to [agency name] for processing

Declined Auto Cancel Message

• To Traveler – Your trip was declined for travel and auto canceled. [existing auto cancellation message]

• To Approver 1 – This trip was declined for travel and auto canceled

• To Approver 2 – The trip was declined for travel and auto canceled

Expired Approval Message

• To Traveler – Pre-trip approval was not received for this trip. The approval process has expired, please contact your agency for further assistance.

• To Approver 1 – Pre-trip approval was not received for this trip and the approval process has expired.

• To Approver 2 – Pre-trip approval was not received for this trip and the approval process has expired.

Notification Only Email

• To Approver 1 – You are being notified that this trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing. [rule description]

Task

Process / Helpful Hint

Waiting for Approval

Bookings have not been approved or declined and are within the configured amount of time for review

Trip Declined

Bookings have not been approved or declined and are within the configured amount of time for review

Canceled

Bookings have been canceled either manually or by the pre-trip approval process if pre-trip approval has been configured to auto-cancel

Note: Remember to manually cancel any expired trips if pre-trip approval is not configured to auto-cancel. Although the air ticket is not issued, the trip is not auto canceled and could incur hotel penalties.

Pending Approval

These trips have been canceled either manually or by the pre-trip approval process if pre-trip approval has been configured to auto-cancel

Note: Remember to manually cancel any expired trips if pre-trip approval is not configured to auto-cancel. Although the air ticket is not issued, the trip is not auto canceled and could incur hotel penalties

Confirmed

Bookings which have been approved by primary or secondary approver and sent to ticketing