Travel

UBC Travel is your convenient “one-stop-shop” for planning and booking University-related travel (air, lodging, and vehicle rental), quickly, conveniently, and cost-effectively.  

Services, including a low-fare guarantee when using Direct Travel agent and/or Concur online, are available for faculty, staff, students, and guests. UBC recommends paying for travel with the UBC Visa card to better utilize UBC funds and manage air travel credits. 

COVID-19 Global Travel Advisory: Effective March 1, 2021, The Canadian government has removed its advisory against non-essential travel for Canadians that has been in place since March 2020.  We continue to encourage any UBC related travel to be booked utilizing the university travel services (online with SAP-Concur or an advisor at Direct Travel) to ensure travellers and travel arrangers receive up-to-date travel advisory information and support in case of emergencies.

Please continue to review the Faculty and Staff Travel Guide and use the following university free planning travel tools to obtain a consolidated view of the various travel requirements.

There are several compelling reasons to use UBC’s Managed Travel Program for university-related business and/or research travel:

Duty of care

UBC’s travel program can help ensure the safety and well-being of our Faculty, Staff and Students when they are travelling for university-related business/research. Our system provides access to emergency re-booking assistance and advice 24/7, we track travel itineraries (in emergency situations), and we send alerts in case of natural disasters, political unrest, or other potential risks (before and during travel).

Cost savings

UBC’s travel program compares the various negotiated discounted rates with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies against public rates, resulting in more options and cost savings for the university and the traveller (i.e. faculty, staff, students, guests). Additionally, our travel program can track and analyze travel expenses, allowing UBC to identify areas where we can save money.

Time savings

Booking travel can be time-consuming, especially when you factor in the time required to research multiple vendor sites.

UBC’s Travel Program can simplify the shopping for travel process and provides a choice of booking method. Both methods are linked together (i.e. Direct Travel can help with your online booking on SAP-Concur).

  • Online platform with SAP-Concur, traveller and/or delegated admin. can book simple (air, car, hotel) itineraries OR
  • Book with an experienced advisor at Direct Travel, for more complicated itineraries (i.e. travel outside of Canada or a mix of business/leisure travel)

Both booking options have UBC’s negotiated rates loaded, along with public rates, including seat sales and the program offers a LOW FARE GUARANTEE, (restrictions apply, i.e. provide screenshot same business day).

Technological convenience

UBC’s travel program has mobile applications to help manage your travel itinerary more efficiently and book online during travel disruptions, (i.e. Tripit Pro by Concur & Concur for mobile).

Reduce financial risk

Using UBC’s resources to book and pay for travel can help minimize the loss of airline ticket credits and provide a more secure system to securely handle credit card information while reducing the risk of credit card fraud, including personal credit card fraud.

Data management

UBC’s program tracks travel expenses and can provide detailed reports and insight to Faculties, Units or Departments on travel spending, which can help manage financial and GHG budgets more effectively. And the consolidated financial information for all of UBC’s expenses booked through the travel program options has more weight with vendors to negotiate better rates in the future.

Policy compliance

UBC’s travel policy is embedded into our booking systems and exceptions can be tracked. The out-of-policy notification can help prevent employees from booking unnecessary upgrades or making non-compliant travel decisions, which can result in additional costs.

Overall, using UBC’s managed travel program can provide significant benefits, including cost and time savings, duty of care, reduction of risk, mobile conveniences, policy compliance, and improved data management.

SAP-Concur is UBC's online travel booking tool. Faculty and staff must register to take advantage of travel and booking services. Non-employee travel is booked through the Guest booking feature and no profile registration is required.

Faculty, staff, students and UBC guests can plan or book their UBC related travel through SAP-Concur or through an advisor at Direct Travel

Mar. 22, 2024

UBC employees get discounts for rail services between Pearson Airport and Downtown Toronto

As part of the UBC Travel Program , a 25% discount is now available for UBC employees who sign up with UP Express using their UBC email address for...
Mar. 22, 2024

Contacting your Direct Travel Advisor

Direct Travel Advisors can be used for UBC related or personal travel and are able to provide general advice on your travel planning, bookings, and...
Jan. 30, 2024

Increase in Direct Travel and SAP-Concur service fee effective February 1, 2024

Following the recent comprehensive formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process conducted by BCNet, and the subsequent careful consideration and...