1) Allowing seat purchases or upgrades, adding on early bird check in

At our university, premium economy is allowed for intl flights, unless the travel is grant sponsored. First class travel is only allowed/reimbursed by business officer approval or medical justification.

Priority boarding fees, economy class upgrades (e.g., Early Bird, Economy Plus, exit row, aisle seat, etc.) and fees related to trusted-traveler programs such as TSA Pre-Check and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Global Entry Program are allowable.

3) Allowing and/or paying for spousal accompaniment. For example, on an academic study tour, the spouse attends as a chaperone or additional instructor, but is not an employee of the university. Or for a major donor event, the lead donor liaison would like his wife in attendance for appearance sake. Do you permit this? Do you have certain criteria they must meet in order to be eligible for consideration and financial coverage? If so, what is that? If financially covered, do you add it as taxable income to the employee and do you ever “gross up” to address those taxes? If not, and this a non-starter, does the employee make all travel arrangements and pay for their expenses personally? Any policy on spousal accompaniment, financial coverage, subsequent taxation of their participation and liability considerations would be great.

The spousal accompaniment depends on the occasion/situation requires business officer/Dean approval for these instances.

4) Allowing the employee’s children to attend business events or academic study tours. No payment is made for them, however, do you use university resources to make travel arrangements for them through your office, your TMC, are there additional convenience fees? Are there liability concerns you take into consideration for this? Is this allowed and if so, what are your limits (age limit)?

The faculty/staff member that travels with companions/family members can make their booking via the university travel agency of record if they desire and paying by personal credit card. However, the companion ticket is also charged the agent fee. The university does not pay the booking fees for companions. It is charged to the personal credit card.

Hi Breanna,

I'm interested to hear what other schools do as well.
1) Our current procedure is allowing seat upgrades/purchases for health and safety reasons (need extra leg-room due to recent surgery for example). Early bird check in would not be covered unless there was a business need.
2) We allow personal travel tacked on to business travel in certain cases. This is the language from WA state rule SAAM 10.20.40.d:
The primary purpose of the trip is official state business;
The traveler uses, where necessary, his or her approved leave for the vacation or personal part of the trip; and
The state agency does not incur any extra expenses beyond what it would normally incur had the trip occurred without any personal use coupled to the trip.
Basically the traveler needs to demonstrate there is no additional cost for the personal travel. This usually requires a comparison flight quote of the business dates taken at the time they book the trip with personal travel. This documentation is submitted with the actual flight receipt. They are responsible for any overage for the personal flight cost.
3) We allow the academic study tour example when the spouse is a registered volunteer for the trip. For donor events, we would not allow accompanying family funded with state funds.
4) We do not allow university (state funded) resources to be used to make travel arrangements for family, unless they are traveling on university business (like the volunteer chaperone for a student group).
I hope that helps!

Hi All,

Curious to hear about seat purchases from other universities as well. I understand that many probably restrict the purchase of upgraded seats/seats with more leg room without justification, but is the purchase of standard economy seats allowed when the only way to have one pre-reserved is to purchase one?

1) Allowing seat purchases or upgrades, adding on early bird check in - upgrades are not allowed at UNC-CH unless you have a medical exception on file with Human Resources documenting your need for an upgraded seat. We do allow the purchase of main cabin seats if it is necessary to secure a confirmed seat. Early bird check in is not allowed.

2) Adding personal time to business travel – is this allowed? If so, are they responsible to cover any airfare differences? Any other policies related to this? Yes, we allow this but ask that the traveler document the airfare difference between their bleisure travel and what they would have paid for the business travel. If the cost of the business travel ticket would have been less than the cost of the bleisure ticket, they are only reimbursed the amount of the business travel ticket.