Adding or Editing a Travel Policy

Owned by IT Info
Last updated: Jun 28, 2023 by Kavita Pillai
16 min read

This topic describes adding or editing a travel policy on the Add or Edit page.

Overview

A policy list is a list of policy decisions. In order to have different travel policies for users, you create or edit each policy list, and then each policy list to a set that can be assigned to one or more groups. For example, if you have a set of policies for VIPs, and you have two groups of VIPs (US and Canada), you can assign the same set to both US VIP and CA VIP groups.

Tip: For a description of groups, see Groups Tab for Managing Groups.

Navigating to the Add or Edit Page

To add new policy lists, or view and change policies, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Services tab.

  2. Click the Travel Policy link. The Travel Policy Management page appears.

  3. Click the Policy List link. The Policy List page appears.

  4. Click Add a New Travel Policy to add a new policy, or click the name link in the Policy Name column to edit an existing policy. The Add or Edit page appears, showing the sections below (starting with "General Settings").

Tip: You can view and change policy sets for a group, and edit existing policies, by following these steps:

  1. Click the Add/Edit Policy Sets link on the Rules page for the group (as described in Enabling Travel Rules). The Policy Sets page appears.

  2. Choose one of the following:

    • To add a new set, see "Adding a New Policy Set" in this topic for further instructions.

    • To view or edit an existing set, click the set name link in the Set Name column. The set's Edit page appears with a list of policies.

  3. Click an existing policy name in the Policy Name column to edit that policy. The Edit page appears, showing the sections below (starting with "General Settings").

General Settings

  1. Click the Activate Policy checkbox in the General Settings section to make the policy active. (Uncheck this checkbox to make the policy inactive.)

  2. Enter or edit the name in the Policy Name field. Use a name that identifies the list of policy settings (such as "Default Travel Policy" or "VIP Travel Policy").

Flight Policy Settings

Scroll down to the Flight Policy section of the Add or Edit page, and follow these steps:

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

  1. Enter the maximum allowable difference between the lowest policy compliant airfare and the user’s selection: Enter the threshold amount that triggers the user's selection as "out of policy", and choose the currency for the amount.

  2. Enter the maximum allowable percentage between the lowest policy compliant airfare and the user’s selection: Enter the highest allowable percent difference between a compliant fare and the fare selected by the traveler. 

  3. Choose which should be used if both percentage and currency parameters apply: If you specify both a maximum allowable amount and a percent, choose which should be used if both apply: Greater, or Lesser of the two. In other words, If both percentage and amount are used to determine policy, decide whether policy be determined by the greater or the lesser of the two. For example: Assume the following:

    • The lowest cost compliant trip is $1000 with an allowed currency difference set to $100 before it is flagged "out of policy".

    • A percentage difference is set to 5% or $50 before it is flagged as "out of policy".

    • Decide which of the above two conditions will be within policy: the lesser (% or $50 in this case) or the greater (amount difference or $100 in this case).

Applying Unused Tickets and Entering Fee and Purchase Limits

  1. Apply lowest policy compliant airfare to unused ticket add collect: Choose Yes or No. Choosing 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.

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

  3. Enter the maximum allowable airfare cancellation fee: Enter the maximum cancellation fee allowed, and choose the currency for the fee.

  4. 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.

  5. Apply policy window to users search window? Yes or No

    1. When the setting is Yes, policy is applied to the search parameters the user inputs on the Trip Planner page.

    2. When the setting is No, this is called dynamic air policy. Policy is applied to the flights selected rather then the times searched.

  6. Select the earliest limit of the time range that will be used to evaluate policy compliance for itineraries with flights: Choose one of the following:

    • Same as group air-search window: Choose this to use the same setting as the one you use for the display configuration's setting, "Select the earliest limit of the time range that will be used to search all US domestic and Canadian airline availability based on the user’s requested time." (See Air Shopping Display Configuration for the display configuration setting.)

    • 1 – 24 hours in hour increments: Choose this to override the setting for the display configuration.

  7. Select the latest limit of the time range that will be used to evaluate policy compliance for itineraries with flights: Choose one of the following:

    • Same as group air-search window: Choose this to use the same setting as the one you use for the display configuration's setting, "Select the latest limit of the time range that will be used to search all US domestic and Canadian airline availability based on the user’s requested time." (See Air Shopping Display Configuration for the display configuration setting.)

    • 1 – 24 hours in hour increments: Choose this to override the setting for the display configuration.

Setting Seating Class Policies

  1. Set the First Class Policy: Travelers are permitted to book first class: Choose Yes or No. If Yes, select the following:

    1. Limit first class to international flights: Choose Yes or No.

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

    3. Apply minimum flight time per flight segment: Choose Yes or No. Yes is the usual choice. If you choose No, the minimum is applied to the total flight time for connecting flights.

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

  2. Set the Business Class Policy: Travelers are permitted to book business class: Choose Yes or No. If Yes, select the following:

    1. Limit business class to international flights: Choose Yes or No.

    2. Minimum flight time for business class: Choose the hours and minutes of flight time before a business class ticket would be allowed.

    3. Apply minimum flight time per flight segment: Choose Yes or No. Yes is the usual choice. If you choose No, the minimum is applied to the total flight time for connecting flights.

    4. Minimum flight distance for business class: Enter the flight distance before a business class ticket would be allowed, and choose the unit of distance measurement.

  3. Set the Premium Coach Class Policy: Travelers are permitted to book premium coach class: Choose Yes or No. If Yes, select the following:

    1. Limit premium coach class to international flights: Choose Yes or No.

    2. Minimum flight time for premium coach class: Choose the hours and minutes of flight time before a premium coach class ticket would be allowed.

    3. Apply minimum flight time per flight segment: Choose Yes or No. Yes is the usual choice. If you choose No, the minimum is applied to the total flight time for connecting flights.

    4. Minimum flight distance for premium coach class: Enter the flight distance before a premium coach class ticket would be allowed, and choose the unit of distance measurement.

Setting Cost Reduction Options

  1. Must travelers always search for lowest available fare? Choose Yes or No. If 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. We recommend choosing Yes. 

  2. Are connecting flights allowed when non-stops are available? Choose 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 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: With this option (recommended), if the traveler makes a selection other than what is required, the trip is flagged as out of policy. Enter the following:

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

      2. 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.

      3. Require connecting flight on same day travel: Choose Yes or No to require connecting flights when booking travel where the requested departure and return dates are the same.

  3. Maximum connecting time required when no non-stops are available: Choose the hours and minutes from the dropdown lists.

  4. 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)? Choose the hours and minutes from the dropdown lists.

  5. Are double connecting flights required to reduce cost? Choose Yes or No.

  6. Are interline flights required to reduce cost? Choose Yes or No.

  7. Must travelers select an airline for which there are wholly unused e-tickets: Choose Yes to require selecting a ticket from the unused ticket database.

  8. Must travelers select an alternate airport to reduce travel costs? Choose No, or choose "Yes, any airport returned by the system" or "Yes, only corporate defined alternate airports". With either Yes answer, specify the following:

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

    2. Apply policy to alternate airports for: Choose Departure, Arrival, or Both.

Setting Preferred Airlines Options

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

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

    2. Are travelers allowed to fly direct flights on other airlines? Choose Yes or No.

    3. Are travelers allowed to fly other lower cost airlines? ("Lower cost airlines" refers to non-preferred airlines.) Choose Yes or No. If Yes, enter the minimum savings required to permit selection of other airlines and select its currency.

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

Setting Flight Payment Card and WebFare Options

Set the Flight Payment Card: "Only the following options can be selected by the user as a valid form of airline payment:"

  • Click No payment card restrictions for no restrictions.

  • Click a payment card brand in the list box. Hold down Control (CTRL) while clicking to make multiple selections. Selecting either a Personal or Corporate card enables travel using that card. 

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:" Choose No, or choose 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.

Train Policy Settings

Scroll down to the Train Policy section of the page, and click the Yes or No button for the following:

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

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

Car Rental Policy Settings

Scroll down to the Rental Car Policy section of the Add or Edit page, and follow these steps:

  1. Require car rentals for trips with flights: Choose Yes or No. Choose No if travelers might share a car rental.

  2. Maximum Car Size Allowed: Choose None, Compact, Economy, Full Size, Intermediate, Luxury, Mini, Premium, or Standard from the dropdown list.
    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.

  3. Maximum daily Rental Car rate allowed: Enter the maximum amount for a daily rental car charge, and select the amount's currency. 
    Note:  A weekly rate will be divided by 7 to compare the rate to the maximum allowed daily rate. 
    Note:  The value entered here applies to the base rate + estimated taxes.

  4. Require selection of preferred car vendor: Choose Yes to require the selection of a preferred car vendor, or choose No.

  5. Restricted vendors, if any, are flagged as out of policy? Choose Yes to flag a restricted vendor as out of policy, or choose No.

  6. Out of policy car types: Click to select car types from the list box – hold down Control (CTRL) to make multiple selections, which include 2-3 Door, 2/4 Door, 4-5 Door, Wagon/Estate, Passenger Van, Sport, Coupe, SUV, Crossover, Roadster, and so on. Selecting a type flags that car type as out of policy.

  7. Mark hybrids as out of policy: Choose Yes to flag a hybrid as out of policy, or choose No.

Hotel Policy Settings

Scroll down to the Hotel Policy section of the Add or Edit page, and follow these steps:

  1. Require hotel reservations for all overnight trips: Choose Yes or No.

  2. Require user to select properties with private rates: Choose 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. To learn how to load private rates, see Configuring Private Rates.

  3. Require user to select properties with preferred hotel chains: Choose Yes or No.  Preferred hotels are entered in the Preferred Vendor section – see Managing Vendor Preferences for instructions. Preferred hotels are ranked and displayed in this order: Most Preferred, Highly Preferred, and Preferred. They appear below private rate properties on the results page.

  4. For private rate hotels, limit room rate to private rate rooms only: Choose one of the following:

    1. No: Any room would be considered within policy.

    2. Yes: If no rooms with a private rate are available, any choice at the hotel would be out of policy. If you choose Yes, choose a selection for the following:

      • If private rate rooms are not available, allow room rates up to per diem: No, Only at private rate hotels, or Any available hotel.

  5. Limit room price to company per diem, if available: Choose 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Select one or more restricted room types: You can hold down Control (CTRL) and click to make multiple selections in the list box. Selections can include No Restrictions, Do not permit Suites, Do not permit Superior rooms, Do not permit King rooms, Do not permit Queen rooms, and Do not permit double rooms.  Be especially careful when limiting the room type – In all suite type properties, the room may be considered out of policy when in fact it may not be.

  8. Restricted vendors, if any, are flagged as out of policy? Choose Yes or No.

Itinerary Parameters

With optional itinerary parameters, you can apply policies only for a specified time period, or only 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.

Scroll down to the Itinerary Parameters section of the Add or Edit page, and follow these steps:

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

  2. To apply the policy to a trip originating from one or more specific locations (or to anywhere), click the radio button for one of the following (for the option labeled "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 orignating from the entered/selected locations."):

    • "by airport codes": Click this radio button to specify the originating airports. Enter the airport codes, separated by semi-colons (;), in the field that appears below this option. You can click 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": Click 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": Click 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": Click this radio button to apply these policy settings to any trip originating location.

  3. To apply the policy to a trip terminating in one or more specific locations (or anywhere), click the radio button for one of the following (for the option labeled "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."):

    • "by airport codes": Click this radio button to specify the terminating airports. Enter the airport codes, separated by semi-colons (;), in the field that appears below this option. You can click the Airport Code link to look up an airport code. For example: SFO;SJC;OAK applies these policy settings for trips terminating at the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, California, airports.

    • "by states": Click 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": Click 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": Click this radio button to apply these policy settings to any trip destination.

  4. After specifying terminating locations, choose Yes or No for the Bi-directional option. Choosing Yes applies the policy in both directions (originating and terminating).

  5. To apply the policy to a trip that connects through one or more specific locations (or anywhere), click the radio button for one of the following (for the option labeled "Enter one or more airport code separated by semicolons or select one or more state or country to which this policy will be applied."):

    • "by airport codes": Click this radio button to specify connecting-flight airports. Enter the airport codes, separated by semi-colons (;), in the field that appears below this option. You can click the Airport Code link to look up an airport code. For example: SFO;SJC;OAK applies these policy settings for trips that connect through the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, California, airports.

    • "by states": Click this radio button to specify the connecting-through 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": Click this radio button to specify the connecting-through 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": Click this radio button to apply these policy settings to any trip connection through any location.

Policy Messages

You can specify the messages that the traveler sees when a trip is not in compliance with these policy settings. Scroll down to the Policy Messages section of the Add or Edit page, and enter or edit the text in the following fields:

  • 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. 

The other policy message fields are not used.

Policy Behavior

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

Choose one of the following system behaviors in the "Select a system behavior for non-compliant trips" dropdown menu:

  • Collect compliance information only: The out-of-policy selection is allowed but recorded for reports. The traveler won't be informed that the selection is out-of-policy.

  • Require user to explain non-compliant trip: The out-of-policy selection triggers a compliance code message (see Managing Compliance Codes and Messages for details). After choosing this option, choose one of the following for the "Require user to provide purpose of trip?" option that appears below this option:

    • Yes: If Yes, enter the label to appear for the Purpose of Trip field, so that the user understands that the field is for entering the trip purpose. For example, you might enter Purpose of Trip for the label.

    • No.

  • Require user to validate pre-approval for non-compliant trip: Not currently in use.

  • Require user to request permission for non-compliant trip: Not currently in use.

  • Require user to reselect compliant trip: The out-of-policy selection is not allowed. The user must make another selection.

Host Agency

You 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.

Saving the Policy List

Click Save at the bottom of the page to save your changes. The Policy List page appears. You can then add another policy list by clicking Add a New Travel Policy and following the above steps.

You need to add the policy list to a policy set in order to assign it to a group. To add the policy list to an existing set, see "Adding a Policy List to an Existing Set" in this topic. To add a new set, see "Adding a New Policy Set".

Adding a Policy List to an Existing Set

To add a policy list to an existing set, follow these steps:

  1. Click an existing set name in the Set Name column. The Edit page appears. 

  2. Edit the name in the Set Name field. This name should be easily recognizable as a specific set. An example is "VIP Policy".

  3. Click the Add Policy button. The Search & Add Policy To Set page appears.

  4. Select a policy list to add to the set by clicking its radio button.

  5. Click OK & Add Another to add another list to the set, and repeat the previous step and this step until you've added all of the lists for the set.

  6. After making the final selection, click OK to finish adding to the set.

  7. Click Save to save your changes.

Note: To commit all of your changes after saving them, click the changes not applied link at the top of the page. The Commit Changes page appears. Click the Commit button.

Adding a New Policy Set

If you arrived at the Policy List page by navigating from the Services tab, follow these steps:

  1. Click Back to Travel Policy Management at the top of the Policy List page. The Travel Policy Management page appears.

  2. Click the Policy Sets link. The Policy Sets page appears.

  3. Click the Add a New Travel Policy Set link to add a new set. The Add page appears.

If you arrived at the Policy Sets page by navigating from the Rules tab, Click the Add A New Travel Policy Set link to add a new set. The Add page appears.

Follow these steps to add the new set:

  1. Enter a Set Name. This name should be easily recognizable as a specific set. An example is "VIP Policy".

  2. Click the Add Policy link to add list items to the set. The Search & Add Policy to Set page appears.

  3. Click OK & Add Another to add another list to the set, and repeat the previous step and this step until you've added all of the lists for the set.

  4. After making the final selection, click OK to finish adding to the set.

  5. Click Save to save your changes.

Note: To commit all of your changes after saving them, click the changes not applied link at the top of the page. The Commit Changes page appears. Click the Commit button.

The set can now be assigned to a group as described in "Travel Policies" in Enabling Travel Rules.