Carnegie Mellon University

Booking Travel

CTP, the university’s preferred travel supplier, offers a comprehensive ‘one-stop shop’ travel program with agency-vetted suppliers and negotiated airline, car rental and hotel pricing that supports the varied needs of all CMU travelers. Concur is CTP’s online booking tool and app that is accessible 24/7/365 and is the university’s preferred method for booking travel. Access your Concur account using your Andrew ID and password to book travel for yourself or others. Dedicated CTP travel agents are also available, at cost, to assist with complex travel. Review CTP's pricing sheet for these services prior to contacting an agent.

Book your travel through CTP/Concur to leverage benefits such as:

  • best price guarantee with an automated process to scan for best prices and issue refunds
  • an integrated emergency risk management system that ensures travelers are made aware of risks
  • unused ticket management
  • unique travel profiles that save user information, such as payment and travel preferences and traveler supplier loyalty program information
  • focused support and agency-administered travel booking

While booking travel through other third-party vendors is not prohibited by the university, travelers and travel arrangers are discouraged from doing so as they do not provide the same level of financial, service and safety benefits that are available through CTP/Concur.

Explore the sections below for booking information on:

CTP/Concur Booking and Approval Process Flights Hotels
Ground Transportation Parking

See the Travel Planning, While You Are Traveling and Expensing Your Trip pages for more information about those processes or for more information on CTP, visit the CTP Supplier Directory page

CTP/Concur Booking and Approval Process

Access Concur using your Andrew ID and password to book university travel for yourself or others. Prior to attempting to book travel, please make sure that the traveler’s Concur profile is complete and accurate and that a valid university Travel Card or personal card is on file.

When a travel booking is submitted through CTP/Concur, it routes to the traveler’s HR supervisor, as defined in a daily direct Workday feed, to review and/or approve the travel. The HR supervisor/travel approver has the ability within Concur to manually delegate their travel approval authority as needed. Approval delegation must occur prior to any travel requests being submitted and remains in place until the approver manually changes it.

 
Log in to SMART Portal/Concur

Faculty, Staff and PhD Students

Bookings are completed and ticketed at the time of submission in Concur. The HR supervisor/travel reviewer will receive a notification with a copy of the itinerary. The supervisor/reviewer or traveler arranger can make changes/cancel within the cancelation window designated by the airline, which will be stated in the notification. If the notification is forwarded, the recipient must access the itinerary through Concur to make any changes. The link contained within the email notification is only accessible to the original recipient.

View the Faculty Workflow document

SLICE Students 

Students traveling through Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement (SLICE) should coordinate with SLICE to arrange travel.

View the SLICE Workflow Document

Students traveling on behalf of the university (outside of SLICE travel) should work with the department sponsoring their travel. A travel arranger from the department can book travel on the students’ behalf through the “Book for Guest” tool in the CTP Concur online travel booking tool. See the "Guests" section for more information.

For students, the travel arrangers’ approver (as assigned by HR Workday feed) will receive an email of trip requests that contain “action by” information.” The timeframe for the approval is dictated by the airlines. If action is not taken within the required timeframe the reservation will be lost. The HR supervisor/approver can delegate approval authority but must do so prior to submission of the booking. Users who need to book travel on behalf of students can request access to book on their behalf by contacting CTP.

View the Student Workflow document.

Guests and Non-SLICE Students

Outside guest and Non-SLICE student bookings can be completed by a university travel arranger from the department sponsoring the travel through the “Book for Guest” tool in the CTP Concur online travel booking tool.

For outside guests and non-SLICE students, the travel arranger's HR supervisor/travel reviewer will receive a notification with a copy of the itinerary. The supervisor/reviewer or traveler arranger can make changes/cancel within the cancelation window designated by the airline, which will be stated in the notification.

View instructions on booking for a guest.

View the Guest Workflow document

Flights

CTP offers negotiated airline pricing, a best price guarantee, CMU policy requirement guidance and unused ticket management for all your flight needs. Your frequent flyer numbers, travel preferences and other travel management tools can all be stored in your Concur profile.

 
Log in to SMART Portal/Concur

Hotels

Travelers are encouraged to use Concur to book hotels for their university travel to take advantage of the established benefits and negotiated discounts CMU and CTP have with vetted and preferred hotel suppliers.

For current negotiated hotel rates, please log into Concur to view.

For those traveling on behalf of the SEI, please inquire about government rates at CMU's preferred hotels. Hotels typically offer government rates to government employees or cost-reimbursable contractors traveling on federal grants or contracts. When selecting a hotel, government rates should be compared to any other negotiated rates available. The government rate is often the lower rate and is available through CTP when requested.

Ground Transportation

When traveling for university business, easily book ground transportation, including rental cars, through Concur to automatically receive CMU and CTP negotiated pricing rates.

Dedicated CTP agents can assist, at cost, with booking individual and group ground transportation. 

CTP Group Travel Contact
+1 800-810-2695
+1 210-530-0857
groups@ctptravelservices.com

Parking

The Parking Spot is CMU’s preferred parking supplier. CMU faculty and staff receive a 20% discount at Pittsburgh and Los Angeles locations and a 10% discount at participating national locations.