What are the benefits of using Collegiate Travel Planners (CTP) and the Lightning booking tool to book travel?

• Lightning and CTP collect the university’s travel and spend data for leveraging future rates with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies.

• Many of UNI’s travel policies, rules, and procedures are built into the booking process with Lightning/CTM to alert travelers up front when they are not in compliance.

• CTP provides enhanced services such as name changes to re-use unused flight tickets and an extended grace period time to cancel airline reservations without penalty.

• Duty of care capabilities to notify and account for travelers in emergency or urgent situations.

Why do I have to use the Collegiate Travel Planners (CTP) to purchase flights with my Travel & Hospitality card?

• Applying discounts to the fare reservation is limited to the GDS (Global Distribution System) associated with the travel agency, which permits the airline to connect the purchase to the University of Northern. 

• As UNI's business spend increases, the university can leverage more substantial discounts in the future.

• The CTM portal and Lighting booking tool can be accessed by all UNI faculty and staff.  Employee must first self-register and create a profile  in the CTM portal.

• UNI Faculty and Staff may also contact a CTP agent at: (877) 848-9330 or email: uni@ctptravelservices.com

Do I need a travel pre-authorization prior to travel?

• All travel for university business traveling beyond the Cedar Falls city limits is to be authorized prior to the trip start date with a OBO-hub travel request (approved spend authorization).

• UNI will (may) not reimburse travel expenses incurred without the required pre-authorization. Any expenses on a university credit card will (may) be considered a personal expense.

• Travelers on university business whose travel is being paid by outside sources or where there is not reimbursement are required to have an approved spend authorization prior to the start date, regardless of the funding source.

What is Duty of Care?

• The University of Northern Iowa is obligated to ensure a duty of care for the health, safety and security of employees and students while they are traveling on behalf of the University.

How does UNI comply with Duty of Care?

• By ensuring that air travel is booked with our designated travel agency, UNI is able to easily locate travelers through the comprehensive software our travel agency maintains. 

What is a Known Traveler Number (KTN)?

A Known Traveler Number (KTN) is issued to all individuals approved to receive TSA PreCheck® expedited screening.  The KTN must be added in the KTN field when booking airline travel reservations to have the TSA PreCheck® indicator appear on your boarding pass.   For more information, please visit TSA.Gov.

Does Collegiate Travel Planners (CTP) match lower prices found elsewhere?

• CTP will match a lower price from the airline’s direct website on the identical itinerary fare .

• Matching does not apply to third party travel sites such as Expedia or Kayak. Also NDC (New Distribution Capability) fares are not matchable at this time.

• To request price matching, promptly email a screenshot from the airline’s and Lightning’s website, including as much information about the itinerary as possible, to na.pricematch@ctptravelservices.com. They will communicate next steps. 

Is there a fee to use Lightning or Collegiate Travel Planners?

Yes.  Please refer to the Fee Schedule for details. 

You can minimize booking fees by:

• For individual travel - using the Lightning online booking tool instead of having an agent book for you. 

• For individual travel - booking airfare, hotels, car rental, etc. at the same time in one booking session. You will be charged just one booking fee when booked in the same session. A Lightning booking tool session ends if you log out, time out, or close your web browser. 

• If your travel provider(airline, hotel, car rental agency) allows it, you can modify your reservations by contacting them directly (airline, hotel, or rental company, Amtrak). Some airlines will require you to make changes through the travel agent if it was originally booked through the travel agent.

Note: Some airlines are charging a fee for making changes in lieu of the original travel agent.

Note: If you change directly with the travel provider, your itinerary in Lightning might not be immediately updated or updated at all.

An exception to calling the travel provider directly would be airline changes where the new reservation is less cost than the original or where the lead time on new reservation is very short. In those cases, contact the CTP travel agent.

How do I book travel for students or guests?

The CTM portal and Lighting booking tool can only be accessed by UNI faculty and staff.

Any travel by students or guests traveling on university business must be booked by a faculty or staff member on behalf of the traveler. 

Please follow these steps to book for a student or guest:

1. Employee must first Self Register and create a profile in the CTM portal.

2. Go to the Lighting booking tool in the CTM Portal, click on "Add Guest Traveler". 

3. Select flights, hotels, and car rentals* as needed. (For local hotel accommodations to be billed to your department, please contact the hotel directly. DO NOT use CTP for local hotel bookings)

*If you are renting a car on behalf of a guest, that person will need to be prepared to present ID and pay for the rental with their own personal funds when picking up the vehicle. By placing a reservation, the travel arranger is only placing a hold on the vehicle; it will need to be paid for at the time of pickup.