Ian Allan have provided guidance notes for using their online booking tool. They may slightly differ from the actual screens due to system updates but using them is similar to using the likes of Expedia or other online websites. See the attached guides attached.
The rules of booking yourself are simple, your trip must be for University business, you can only book for yourself and you must enter the unique & mandatory travel reference for trip when completing your reservation.
Where do I get the reference number?
For overseas bookings, once your Overseas Travel (the EXP4 form) is approved you will receive your unique travel reference number by email, you can enter this during the check-out process and your travel is booked.
For UK bookings you will need to email ahss-finance@cardiff.ac.uk with brief details of your journey requirements together with the finance code for us to pay for your bookings. You will then receive your unique reference to use online.
All bookings made are checked to ensure these references are valid. Should any bookings be made without the appropriate referencing, your system access will be removed, your Head of School notified and the booking may be cancelled. A finance code is not an acceptable reference.
The following pages contain details on how to complete the booking process once you have found your fares. If you need any help with using the systems please contact ahss-finance@cardiff.ac.uk. We are happy to help over the phone or come and give you/groups guidance if needed.
Your feedback on the systems will be most helpful in monitoring and developing the systems in the future. Please feel free to contact Martyn Struebig struebigm@cardiff.ac.uk.
Some helpful tips:
Eurostar can be booked by searching under flights, not rail.
KLM short-haul flights often do not include hold luggage. We have a College BlueBiz account set up behind the scenes. Luggage will be added to your booking automatically in a few days. Check My Trip on KLM’s website in a few days.
Easyjet & Ryanair – when making a booking through 3rd party agents they often add an additional charges under credit card charges. It may be cheaper to book an ‘all-in’ fare which includes hold luggage and charges.
Look at fare conditions e.g. what happens if you may need to modify your booking.
Check durations of flights. Cheaper flights are often unsuitably long. Sometimes staying an extra night (often a Saturday) makes a considerable saving which often more than off-sets the additional hotel costs.
Martyn Struebig
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