The following policy has been adopted by all three departments in our administrative unit: Philosophy, CAS, and Applied Linguistics. In part because of the size of our combined departments, we no longer can allow staff to lookup, arrange, or purchase flights or other forms of travel with their purchasing cards. This means you have the following options for arranging your travel:
- You can pay for the flight up front and be reimbursed after the trip has taken place. You may book the flight with any provider you like: Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, directly with the airline, etc.
- If you don’t want to pay for the flight yourself, you may:
- Book the flight with Penn State’s online Travel Services (https://www.concursolutions.com/portal.asp). The Sparks financial office will be direct-billed (DBAFed) for the flight. The service fee associated with this option currently is $5.70. This fee is added to the flight price and comes out of your travel fund allotment. See directions below for more information.
- Book the flight with a Penn State approved travel agency, such as Centre for Travel, or a Penn State Travel Service’s agent. The Sparks financial office will be direct-billed (DBAFed) for the flight. Centre for Travel’s service fee currently is $35, and Travel Service’s fee to use a live agent is $20. These fees are added to the flight price and come out of your travel fund allotment.
Please note that if you have a complicated itinerary and/or are flying internationally, Penn State recommends that you use Travel Services or an approved travel agency so that you will have assistance if there are problems with your flight. Travel Services cannot provide assistance, even in an emergency, if it does not ticket the reservation.
Please also note that your travel must be approved in advance of the trip using the department’s online travel application forms:
- Faculty: http://philosophy.la.psu.edu/Resources/faculty_travelfunds_form.shtml
- Graduate students: http://philosophy.la.psu.edu/graduate/grad_travelfunds_info.shtml
Reimbursement:
The Employee Travel Form/Worksheet for the ERS System (reimbursement form) is available on the web at https://guru.psu.edu/forms/employeetravelform.pdf. The form is a worksheet for employees who do not prepare their own reimbursement requests using the Employee Reimbursement System (ERS). The worksheet, with original itemized receipts, should be submitted to the Sparks Region Finance office, 231 Sparks, for entering into ERS. You will receive an email notification from AutoNotification@concursolutions.com, with a subject line “Report Ready for Submission” when the reimbursement is ready for your approval/submission
in ERS.
Mileage & Per Diem Information:
You can find per diem allowances for mileage, meals, and out-of-country travel using Penn State’s lookup tool: http://guru.psu.edu/TravelRates/.
Directions for using Penn State’s online Travel Services:
Prior to looking up flights, you must complete and/or update your profile as follows:
- Go into CONCUR https://www.concursolutions.com/portal.asp
- Select PROFILE
- Select Contact Information
- Check mark the 2nd box (E-mail 2)
- Tab to E-Mail 2 and enter fosparks@la.psu.edu
- Check mark the 3rd box (E-mail 3)
- Tab to E-Mail 3 and Faculty enter lmm38@psu.edu Lynn Maggs; Grad Students enter sah4@psu.edu Sally Arnold
Once you have found the flight you want to purchase, reserve the flight and follow the instructions to complete the reservation. Please note two important areas:
- Form of payment – choose DBAF (Direct Bill Airfare)
- Description of Travel box – please indicate in detail the purpose of your trip to include name of conference and/or event for example:
- “Workshop on Kant’s Critique of Teleological Judgment, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, VT”
Contact Information:
Penn State Travel Services
104 Procurement Services Building
University Park, PA 16802-1004
814-865-0395 (phone)
814-865-8392 (fax)
http://www.travel.psu.edu/airrail.shtml
Centre For Travel
114 Hiester Street
State College, PA 16801
Phone:
814-238-4987
800-255-2140
Fax:
814-238-7461
cft@centrefortravel.com