Booking Airfare

Purchasing Airline Tickets for Business Travel

Departments are strongly encouraged to book air travel with the UC Travel Center to avoid out-of-pocket expenses for travelers. UCLA will only pay for basic economy fares. Travel should be scheduled as far in advance as feasible and prudent to obtain the lowest possible fares. 

Be sure to complete your “Travel Profile” in Concur before booking airfare. Simply log on to the Concur Portal. Once in the profile form, fill in all the blanks. This allows the Travel Center to make your travel arrangements without having to ask for your personal information each time you travel.

Video – Update/Complete Your Travel Profile

Two ways to book air travel with UC Travel Center:

  1. Call to speak directly with a Travel Counselor at (800) 235-8252 or (310) 206-2639

You will hear prompts: 

  • Press 2 for NEW travel reservations
  • Press 3 for EXISTING travel reservations
  • Press 4 for assistance with the online booking tool or creating Pre-Trip Authorization
  • Press 5 for general information
  1. Contact the Business Office and they can email your travel request or inquiry to travel@finance.ucla.edu. A UC Travel Counselor will reply within two business days. Please see below for instructions. 

**An approved Concur Request ID is the only way to pay for direct-billed. UC Travel Center will require an approved Concur Request ID before issuing your airfare ticket. 

To have the Business Office issue payment (Request ID) for your airfare, please do the following: 

Instructions – Booking Airfare

  1. Complete the SON-Airfare Request Form.
  2. Send the form to your Fund Manager/ Director for approval. 
  3. Fund Manager/Director will verify funding and send the request to the Business Office at SONDLBusinessManagement@sonnet.ucla.edu. 
  4. Purchasing Coordinator will send the request to UCLA Travel Center. 
  5. The UCLA Travel Center agent will create a preliminary travel itinerary and email it to the requestor (subject line: "Payment Needed /Reservation not Ticketed."
  6. The requestor will need to reply to all and either approve the itinerary for payment or, if edits are required, inform the agent so an updated itinerary can be created. 
  7. If the requestor "approves" the itinerary, Purchasing Coordinator will process payment (Request ID) and inform the travel agent.
  8. Airfare is finalized, and the requestor will receive an email with the subject line: "Purchased." 
  9. Requestor will receive an email with the subject “Concur Action Required: Unassigned Direct Bill Airfare Transaction” in 3-5 days after airfare purchase. This email alerts the requestor that the airfare transactions have posted under their Concur profile and require attachment to an expense report. 

*The Business Office will log in and attach the transactions to an expense report in Concur to stop further email alerts. The requestor does not need to take any action. However, the requestor is required to submit their expense report along with any additional expenses they are claiming no later than 45 days after their trip for reimbursement processing.

Please Note: Concur/Express emails will be sent from an @concursolutions.com domain. Please ensure your spam/junk mail settings are updated to allow these as a safe sender.

Notifications sent from: AutoNotification@concursolutions.com

Reminders sent from: EmailReminderService@concursolutions.com

Supervisors are copied on certain email reminders; this setting cannot be changed.

Business Class Exceptions

UCLA will pay for the least expensive business class ticket for those travelers with a pre-approved justification to travel in business class. UCLA will pay for the least costly first-class ticket if the aircraft does not have business class. Health requirements must be documented by a licensed physician, acknowledged by the unit’s CAO/CFO, updated annually, and maintained securely in the Travel Accounting Office. Please refer to the following link for more information.