Booking your Air Travel
Booking your Air Travel
UNI Travelers
Last Updated: Mar 4, 2025
Booking your Air Travel
An approved spend authorization is required to book travel.
A credit card is required for bookings in Lightning or with a CTP agent. The university-issued T&H Card is recommended.
Before you begin, we recommend you check the available balance on your on your T&H card in UNI works. You may access you T&H card information on the UNI My Credit Card Transactions report in UNI Works.
Coming Soon: Flight FAQs
Log into the CTM portal
Please note that even if a Travel Arranger or Travel Assistant will be booking on the traveler’s behalf, your Lightning travel profile must be updated and all required fields completed. A credit card is required for booking.
Review the traveler’s profile, Known Traveler Number (KTN) and frequent flyer information. For more information on adding this information to your profile, click here.
Open the Lightning Booking Tool
To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.
To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab
Check the circle buttons to select all the applicable travel services: Flight, Hotel, Car, Rail
Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.
The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.
Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.
Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.
Travel Arrangers: If you want to add other employees to the reservation, type in the name of the next employee and select from the pop-up. You may choose up to 9 travelers who are traveling together on the same itinerary.
Guest Travelers
Travel Arrangers: To add a guest traveler or a student, click the Add guest traveler link. Then complete the required guest traveler detail fields.
Entering Flight Information
Enter the “From” and “To” airports for your departing flight. Enter departing date and time.
Enter the “From” and “To” airports for your return flight. Enter return date and time.
You can do domestic multi-city* by clicking the Add Flight link to add another flight segment.
You may add up to 5 flight segments. Click Search to display results.
*International multi-city itineraries must be reserved through our CTP travel agent rather than in Lightning.
Spend Authorization Number
Enter the 8-digit spend authorization number (Spend Authorization must be approved)
Click Search
Lightning will begin searching for available flights
After your search results display, you can toggle between your outbound and return flights using the tabs at the top of the page.
You can quickly modify the search results to view different departure times by clicking one of the three pre-set buttons for time ranges:
12:00 am (midnight) to 12:00 pm
12:00 pm to 7:00 pm
7:00 pm to 12:00 am (midnight)
You can filter the search results for:
Price
Departure
Arrival
Carbon Footprint
Airlines
Number of Stops
You can sort search results for:
Most Direct
Cheapest
Shortest
Earliest Departure
Earliest Arrival
Carbon Footprint
Lightning prioritizes search results that are within UNI’s travel policy and cost variances.
If your travel selection is not within these, you will see a symbol. Click the symbol for more information.
You might have to provide a reason for that selection before proceeding with the booking.
Quoting Airfare (travel arrangers only)
Review the travel preferences given by the traveler.
Determine if a non-refundable ticket or refundable ticket should be quoted/purchased.
Provide two comparable quotes for the traveler to review based on the traveler’s preferences.
Offer the lowest fares within two hours of a desired departure time.
It is acceptable to book a higher fare (up to $100 more than the lowest fare for domestic and $500 for international) if the higher fare flight has fewer stops.
A business reason will be required in lightning when booking flights with higher fares.
Any time an additional quote is requested that will cost more than the two quotes provided, you must add Michelle Sullivan (AP Manager) as a "Watcher" on the travel request to review the higher quote and approve the exception.
Transportation by commercial airlines is limited to main cabin seating.
Generally, travel upgrades including First Class seating and "early bird" check-ins are not covered by the University; however, purchasing an assigned (non-preferred) seat in the main cabin is acceptable.
If the airtime on any one flight segment is eight hours or more, the traveler may upgrade from coach class to the next most economical class (business class in most cases and first class where business class is not available).
Check all connecting flights/layovers.
Often times, the minimum layover time they post can still not be nearly enough time to make the connection especially if the operating carrier for one of your connecting flights changes (i.e. you fly American Airlines all the way to London and then have a British Airways flight from there to another destination.)
You might have to switch terminals (which alone can take up to an hour) and you will have to go through security and passport control again. Keep this in mind when flying through busy airports such as Chicago O'Hare, Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Heathrow, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, etc.
Upon returning to the United States you will have to go through immigration and customs (first city upon arriving to the U.S.), and re-check your bags, and go through security before you arrive at your next departure gate. Given this, you should allow for at least two hours, if not more, between flights to make sure you can get through all these steps and comfortably make it to your next flight.
For smaller regional airports allow a minimum of 1 hour layover at the connecting airport. For larger international airports allow a minimum 90 minutes to 2 hour layover at the connecting airport.
When booking international travel, it is highly recommended to contact a full-service agent, rather than booking in lightning for multi-leg international itineraries, group travel, or travel to remote destinations.
Trips booked using federal awards must use U.S. airline carriers, as outlined in the federal government's Fly America Act.
Choose Departing and Return Flights
Select the desired outbound and return trip fares based on the traveler’s decision.
Move to “Select Seats” or continue to “Skip Seat Selection”. Only non-$ seat selections are allowed.
Travel Arrangers: If two colleagues are traveling together, you may place them next to each other if possible.
Confirm the booking for the traveler
If you later decide you want to add hotel or car rental you can do so by clicking the desired service(s) on this page.
Enter Payment Method (if not already loaded from traveler's profile)
Select the Business Purpose for the trip
Review Fare Rules for each flight
Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of these rules!
Review the terms and conditions
Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of the terms and conditions!
To complete the booking, click the Confirm Booking button. You will receive an email confirmation from ctptravelservices.com.
Next Steps: View your reservations by going to the Lighting home page and click Manage Bookings at the very top.
For questions, please contact Business Operations at 319-273-2162, Option 3 or email obo-hub@uni.edu |