Guide to PanAm Agent and Online Booking Tool Services!

Transcription

1 Guide to PanAm Agent and Online Booking Tool Services Sections: 1. Getting Started with PanAm 2. Booking with An Agent 3. TripCase 4. Online Booking Tool - Logging In & Completing Your Profile 5. Book Travel - Air 6. Book Travel - Hotel 7. Book Travel - Train 8. Book Travel - Car 9. Book Travel - Check-Out 10. Trips 11. Templates 12. Profile 13. More Tools 14. Travel Arranger Portal 1. Getting Started with PanAm 1 Go to the Welcome Portal at 2 Click Request an Account if you do not yet have a username and password. Once your employment and information is verified, instructions on creating your username and password will be ed to you. Note that the keywords (Online Booking Identifier and Access Authorization) in that are not your username and password; they are the keywords that let you get past the Create Account screen to the place where you get to create your own username. Please pick a username that is all lowercase letters without spaces or punctuation. 3 Click Book Travel Online in the center of the screen for the Online Booking Tool. 4 Click Book Group Travel if you are booking for a group of To work with a travel agent for your travel requests and questions, use the phone ( ) or (uri@panam.travel). 6 Download the Travel Cheat Sheet to your computer or print it so you always have our contact information. 7 On the Travel Cheat Sheet, it includes the Emergency Services Number. If you have issues in transit such as a flight cancellation, please call anywhere, anytime. Any nonemergency calls outside of normal 8am-6pm, Monday-Friday business hours will incur a charge. 8 Contact your Client Partner, Mike Dennis, with any positive or negative feedback about your customer experience.

2 1. Getting Started with PanAm 2. Booking with an Agent 1 Call or one of our PanAm Travel agents: or uri@panam.travel 2 Feel free to us for quotes or use the Online Booking Tool to obtain quotes for your TAR form. We do ask that if you plan on utilizing the OBT to purchase that you also use it for quotes. 3 as much detail as possible to the agents cities, dates, times, and any preferences for your air, train, hotel, or car needs. 4 We will also need your Employee#, Department#, TAR#, legal name, gender, and date of birth before we can ticket. 5 Instances where it is especially helpful to use an agent are for multi-destination or international travel. Agents can do more digging for you Any hotel reservations for conference rates must go through an agent, as well as if you are using any airline credits. You ll want to work with an agent if you need assistance with passports or visas. It is also a good idea to work with an agent for group travel since buying multiple tickets at once sometimes will affect prices. 6 Agents are also helpful if you are traveling internationally on federal grant money. Any travel on federal money must be Fly America Act compliant. The agents can ensure compliance. 7 Before ticketing, the agents will send you a final confirmation. This is to ensure all the trip detail and personal information is correct. You must reply that everything is fine before we will ticket. 8 Based on URI Travel Policy, Out of Policy trips will go to the Controller s Office for final approval even though you already have a TAR#. The travel agent will take care of this. The Controller s Office will contact you with any questions they may have. 9 See TripCase section below for how to keep your itineraries 3. TripCase 1 Whether you book with an agent or use the Online Booking Tool, you will receive a confirmation with your reservation. There will be a link for you to view your itinerary in TripCase. 2 You will need to make a login for TripCase at their website, You will want to use your work for your TripCase login, since that is where we will send your itineraries to, and that is how TripCase will know how to add your trip details to your list of trips on their website. 3 If your itinerary doesn t pull into TripCase, the itinerary to trips@tripcase.com from the address you use as your login. 4 TripCase has mobile apps for smartphones that you can download. These mobile apps let you see your itineraries on the go. It will also notify you of delays, gate changes, and other useful information. 5 For video tutorials and FAQ about TripCase, please see their Support page: travel.tripcase.com/support/

3 4. Online Booking Tool - Logging In & Completing Your Profile 1 Go to and click Book Travel Online. 2 Enter your username and password. Then click Log In. If you do not remember your password, contact PanAm 3 Note: If you do not have an account Request an Account at the above Welcome Portal website. All URI employees and graduate students are required to make profiles to book travel. Undergraduates and guests do not need a profile. They can book with an agent or a travel arranger can book for them as a guest. 4 The six tabs on the left-hand side under Get Started comprise your main navigation panel. 5 Go to Profile and complete the Personal Information and Forgotten Password sections. Please read the instructions as some information must be entered in a certain format. Both travelers and travel arrangers must complete their profile, otherwise you will get various errors upon trying to purchase. 6 You may also want to complete some of the other sections under Profile. For example under Settings you can enter up to three addresses for friends, co-workers, or family that you also want to automatically get every itinerary. Under Frequent Traveler, you can save your various frequent flyer numbers. Under Flight Preferences, Hotel Preferences, etc., you can save your travel preferences such as meal type, hotel room type, and window or aisle seat.

4 5. Book Travel - Air 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you can input your search parameters. 2 Make sure that Flight is checked. Then select Round-trip, One-way, or Multi-destination. 3 You can Shop by Schedule or Shop by Price. The former is helpful is you are looking for a specific flight. Sometimes it also shows a few more Southwest results. The latter is what you will primarily use, and it will search almost the entire day for the cheapest flights For Shop by Price you can also opt to search +/- 1 to 3 days if your dates are flexible. 4 Put in the cities you are traveling between as well as the dates and times. For cities with multiple airports, it will let you choose the specific airport or the option for all airports for that city. 5 Under Advanced Search Options you can change it took book from 2 to 9 tickets if you are buying for a group. Anything over 9 persons must go through an agent. 6 Click Search. 7 Now you are seeing your Options. You can easily modify your cities and dates by clicking Modify Search near the top-left of the page. 8 Using the gray bar on the left-hand side, you can eliminate some Options and narrow your search. You can constrain the time, eliminate flights with stops, narrow the cost window, and elect to show only certain airlines. 9 Note: If you selected Search by Schedule it will not show you the price unless you have selected all of your segments. 10 You may encounter a square with a star in it by the price, this indicates a Rhody Rate. These are fares that PanAm has specially negotiated with the airlines. They are fully-refundable with no change fees 11 You may encounter a red circle with a line through it by the price, this indicates an Out of Policy flight. You can still select it, but it will ask you a reason why you are selecting this. Sometimes you need a certain timeframe, sometimes there simply is no flight under $500. After purchase, these go to the Controller s Office for final approval. 12 Note: If you get an error saying that your flight cannot be priced, it is most likely because that flight (or one of the segments) has either sold out or the airline has adjusted its segment pairings. Sometimes, trying again in a few minutes helps once the airlines have updated the changes in their systems. If this doesn t work, contact an agent as they may still be able to get a seat or pair those segments together. But act quickly as this indicates the prices are most likely already going up Otherwise, please select another flight. 13 Note: The Online Booking Tool does not have access to special carrier fares such as Southwest Getaway flights. Because of the varying restrictions these flights have, PanAm cannot price match. 14 After clicking Select on the flight you want, you can pick you seat on the picture of the airplane. The Online Booking Tool will never sell you a sold out flight. If it does not let you pick a seat, this is because airlines often do not release 100% of their seats to be selected. You will have your seat assigned at check-in or at the gate. Some airlines let you go to their website 24-hours in advance and pick a seat in this case. 15 See Booking Travel - Check-Out section later in this document for purchasing details.

5 6. Book Travel - Hotel 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you can input your search parameters. 2 Make sure that Hotel is checked. 3 Put in the destination, as well as the Check-in and Check-out dates. 4 Click Search. 5 You can search by Address or City or Near an Airport depending on where the more precise location is that you want to stay at. You can also click Show company locations and other points of interest and it will tell you some regional attractions that perhaps you want to stay near. 6 Note: Searching by address is the easiest way to find a specific hotel that you already have in mind. Go to that hotel s website and find the address, and then put it in the Online Booking Tool address search. This especially helps because sometimes a hotel calls itself several names: a Doubletree may actually be The Williamsburg Inn, for example. So searching Doubletree would not yield any results. Searching by address fixes this problem 7 Select your Number of rooms. Then click Search Now. 8 Click Modify Search if you need to easily change your dates or location. 9 On the left hand side, you can narrow down your search by designating the Distance, the Hotel Name (but see #6 on how this sometimes can be tricky), and by Amenities such as airport shuttle. 12 You can also in the top left click Map View to view all hotels on a map. 13 Click on the name of the hotel for details such as payment policy and a full list of amenities. 14 Some results may show a red circle with a line through it indicating that it is Out of Policy, most likely because it is over the URI guideline cost limits. You can still select this hotel, but it will ask you to provide a reason why you are selecting this. After check-out, it will go to the URI Controller s Office for final approval. 15 After clicking View All Rates it will prompt you to Select your room type. 16 A screen will pop-up letting you know the cancellation policy as well as allowing you to put in up to three Special Requests. Then click Book Room. 17 See Booking Travel - Check-out section later in this document for purchasing details.

6 7. Book Travel - Train 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you can input your search parameters. 2 Make sure that Train is checked. 3 Enter the cities, dates, and times. 4 Click Search 5 If you click on the number of train in blue, it will give you some more details about the train. 6 Choose your train by clicking Select. 7 See Booking Travel - Check-out section later in this document for purchasing details. 8. Book Travel - Car 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you can input your search parameters. 2 Make sure that Car is checked. 3 Enter the city you are picking your car up at, the time and date of pick-up, and the time and date of drop-off. 4 You can select if you will pick a car up at the Airport or type in a different Address 5 Pick if you re going to drop it off at the Same Location or a Different Location. If a different location, it will ask you to type in that location. 6 Re-enter the dates and times that you need the car. 7 Select what sizes (up to five) you would like. Make sure they are sizes compliant with policy. 8 When selecting any special options, know that any extra costs may not be covered under policy. 9 Click Search Now 10 It will show you the prices for the various sizes you selected to compare. And you can click Car Details for more information. 11 Note: National and Enterprise are the preferred car companies for URI. 12 Click on the Total Price in blue of the car you want. 13 All cars automatically go to Out-of-Policy approval. Please select the designated reason and continue with your booking. Upon making your purchase, it will go to the Controller s Office for final approval per policy. 14 See Booking Travel - Check-out section later in this document for purchasing details.

7 9. Book Travel - Check-Out 1 On the check-out screen, make sure to take note of the yellow box. This gives you an overview of the fare restrictions and policies for the ticket you are purchasing. 2 Trip Details: this section gives you a chance to look over all the details of your itinerary. 3 On the right-hand side of Trip Details you can Add to Trip if you forgot to search for a car or hotel and now realize you need one. 4 Also on the right-hand side of Trip Details is Save as Template. This is handy for when you are obtaining quotes and will need to come back to this trip. Or this is a particular flight that you take regularly. 5 Policy Compliance: this section will only show up if you selected an Out of Policy itinerary. Please make sure your contact information is correct so that the URI Travel Administrators can contact you if they have questions. Also, in the text box called Reason for Travel, please type your TAR#. This will help the Admins look into your trip easier. You will still be able to move forward with booking, but upon clicking Purchase it will go for final approval. They will either contact you with questions, or reply to PanAm that your trip is approved. 6 Traveler Information: this information will automatically pull in from your profile or the profile of your traveler (unless it is a non-uri employee that you are booking as a guest). 7 Billing Information: Air and Rail are billed to the URI Travel Card. Hotels go on your URI PCard (contract the Controller s Office if you need one). Cars do not need a card for a reservation. For Enterprise and National, it will be charged to the contract URI has with these companies. Otherwise, you will provide a personal card at check-in. 9 Delivery Information: this information will automatically pull in from your profile or the profile of your traveler (unless it is a non-uri employee that you are booking as a guest). 10 University of Rhode Island Accounting Requirements: Please enter your TAR# and select a Trip Reason. For Type of Travel, if it is personal and business, know that you must also have a quote for your trip without the personal component. If you are traveling internationally and using federal grant money, the trip must be compliant with the Fly America Act, which guides the use of federal government money for travel. 11 Additional Information: The traveler (and travel arranger, if the arranger is completing the booking) will receive a copy of the itinerary. You can enter up to 3 more addresses here to receive a copy. 12 Estimated Trip Cost: This is the cost of all your trip components, plus the PanAm Online Booking Tool service fee. 13 Click Purchase or Hold. Know you still must have all required information to hold a trip. Look below the Hold button to see how long this spot can be held. Know that putting something on hold does not guarantee the price. If the price goes up while it is on hold, you will still pay the increased price upon purchase. 14 Note: If you encounter an error when you click Hold or Purchase, most of the time it is a profile error. Regardless of what the error message says. Please make sure that both traveler and travel arranger profiles are filled out complete and according to the instructions. Contact PanAm if you still are having errors after checking your profile. 15 See the TripCase section of this document about how to view your itinerary.

8 10. Trips 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you click Trips on the left-hand navigation panel. 2 Click View All Trips. 3 Here you can see all of your Held, Active, Past, and Cancelled trips. It will only show the trips you booked using the Online Booking Tool, not the ones booked with agents. 4 Note: Travel Arrangers will have a drop down For Menu where they can select any of their travelers and see their travelers trips. 5 Click Select to see the trip details. 6 You can Send Itinerary to TripCase, the mobile app that keeps all of your trips and updates you on delays and gate changes. See the TripCase section of this document. 7 Click Itinerary to send this itinerary yourself or others. Type in their addresses and click Now. 11. Templates 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you click Templates on the left-hand navigation panel 2 Click View All Templates 3 Note: Remember that how you add a template is to search your trip and get to the check-out page. On the check-out page, there is a Save as Template button. 4 From here, Select your template. 5 You can Delete the template at the bottom of this page. 6 Or you can put in your Travel Dates and Price Itinerary to pull up your saved flight. 7 The other thing you can do from the View All Templates screen is to Acquire Trip, this lets you find templates that others have made. This is handy for Travelers to pick their flights, so that Travel Arrangers can acquire the template and book it for them. 8 Type in the First and/or Last Name of the person whose template you want to find. Then click Search. Sometimes searching by just first or just last name is helpful. 9 Find your traveler from the list of search results and click Select. 10 Find the template that you want to acquire and click Select. It will now show this template in your usable templates.

9 12. Profile 1 Personal Information: This section is required. Please follow the instructions on the page. Not following the instructions can lead to formatting errors, which can lead to errors upon checkout. Most prominently, do not put punctuation in your name and use hyphens for phone numbers ( ). Don t forget to click Save. 2 Forgotten Password: This section is required. It allows your to select a password and answer that the system will ask you in case you forget your password. Don t forget to click Save. 3 Change Password: This section allows you to change your password. It is a good idea to change your password every few months. 4 Charge Cards: For Airfare and Rail, you will use the URI Travel Card. For Hotels, you will acquire a PCard from the Controller s Office. Once you have this, you can save it to your profile by clicking Add Charge Card and entering the information. This way you do not have to type in the information each time. 5 Settings: Any itinerary will be ed to you. Add up to three other addresses that you would like to receive your itineraries as well. 6 Display Preferences: You can change the time display settings between a 12-hr clock and 24-hr clock. 7 Frequent Traveler: Click Add Frequent Traveler Program and enter in your air and hotel rewards programs. Know that any miles and rewards accumulated through URI travel must be reapplied to future URI-related travel. 8 Passport and Visas: Click Add Travel Document to save your password or visa information onto your profile. This is especially helpful if you frequently travel internationally. 9 Flight Preferences: Enter your home airport code (PVD) so you don t always have to type it in. Also, put your seating preferences and save your special meal requests to your profile. 10 Hotel Preferences: Select up to three hotel special requests for your hotel room preferences. 11 Car Preferences: Select your preferred car type, and any special requests you always want for your rental cars. Remember that URI does not pay for car special requests that require additional charges. 12 Rail Preference: Select your home station (Providence is PVD) and put in your age range. 13 My Travelers: Arrangers, select if you want confirmations to send to just you, just your traveler, both, or none from the drop-down menu. Click Add a Traveler to search by first and/or last name to find your traveler. When you find them, click Select. 14 Note: If you cannot find someone when you search, try just their first or just their last name. If you still cannot find them, they may not have a profile. It will only display persons who have an account and have logged in. 15 My Arrangers: Travelers, select if you want arrangers to be able to add you as their traveler (otherwise, you will always have to come in and add your own arrangers). Also, designate if you want your arrangers to be able to change your profile. This can be helpful if they are booking for you and there are issues with your profile. To add your travel arrangers Click Add a Traveler Arranger to search by first and/or last name. When you find them, click Select.

10 13. More Tools 1 From the Online Booking Tool home screen, you click More Tools on the left-hand navigation panel 2 This section gives you a list of helpful travel links. 3 For Travel Arrangers, there is a link here to Book for Guest. This is how you can book for URI undergraduates and non-uri employees. Booking for graduate students or URI employees requires them to request an account at and then you can add them as your traveler. Booking for a guest looks the same as a normal booking, except you will have to manually enter the traveler s personal information at check-out. 14. Travel Arranger Portal 1 Travel Arrangers have access to the Travel Arranger Portal. It will take you to this screen upon login if you are an active Travel Arranger. You are not considered an active Arranger until you have added your first traveler on your Profile. 2 Travel Arrangers will always have two tabs in the top-left hand corner. One will say Travel Arranger and takes you to the Travel Arranger Portal. The other will say the name of the traveler whose profile you are currently working with. Before you book travel, make sure it is the correct name so you do not mistakenly book for another one of your travelers. 3 On the Travel Arranger Portal, all of your travelers are listed in a box on the left-hand column. To book travel for one of them, simply click their name. 4 You can check the box beside the names of your Frequent Travelers and the will show up in another list on the center of your screen. 5 You also have a quick link to Add/Remove Travelers at the bottom of the column that has your travelers listed. 6 To the right, you can select List View and Calendar View to see all of the upcoming trips in the next two weeks for all of your travelers. 7 Scrolling down, under Agency Tools there are several links. One is a link to book for a Guest (an undergraduate student or a non-uri employee). 8 You can also look up itineraries for travelers using Traveler s Records also found under Agency Tools. Click Search by Name, and type in the name of the traveler to pull up their upcoming trips. You can see the details and re-send the itinerary via . 9 Note: It will only pull up trips that were booked using the Online Booking Tool. It will not pull up the records for trips that were booked using an agent or adjustments made by an agent. 10 Finally, Arrival & Departure Status at the bottom of the Travel Arranger Portal lets you check on the status of a flight or a train to see if it is running early or late.