What is the new UA Travel Card?
The university will be introducing a new UA paid Travel Card as part of the UA travel process improvement implementation. This card will be issued to employees that travel on university business and to travel coordinators. The use of this card will reduce the monetary burden to the traveler, streamline administrative processes, reduce hotel/lodging and airfare costs, and increase reporting capabilities.

The new travel process, including the Concur application suite and the new UA Travel Card, will be rolled out together over the next 8 months in a staggered implementation. As your department starts training to use the new travel process, you will learn more about how to apply for the UA Travel Card.

Benefits of using the new UA Travel Card

1. Reduces the monetary burden to the traveler– Travelers will no longer need to pay for travel related expenses with their personal cards and then wait for reimbursement for UA travel expenses. Travelers will simply use their new UA Travel Card for all travel related expenses and the university will pay the monthly card statements.

2. Efficient reconciliation process – The UA Travel Card transactions will feed directly into Concur. Assigning the card charge to an expense report in Concur populates the expense report detail and reconciles the card. No additional administrative effort will be needed to reconcile and approve card transactions through other methods.

3. Eliminates the payment of hotel/lodging taxes within Alaska– The new university paid Travel Card will be tax exempt for Alaska hotel and lodging expenses. This tax exempt status did not apply when payments were made by the traveler. It is estimated that the university will save approximately $167,000 a year in hotel/lodging taxes by switching to the new university paid travel card.

4. Access to airfare savings through negotiated Alaska Airline contract rates– Travelers will receive reduced prices on Alaska Airlines fares if tickets are booked through our new travel process and paid with a university travel card.

5. Increased buying power – A variety of reports are available through the new system to help manage the travel program and leverage our buying power with vendors.

6. Annual credit card incentives directly offset administrative costs– During this time when the university is attempting to limit administrative expenses and increase other forms of revenue, the incentive dollars that we receive related to our credit card usage help support essential programs by reducing the need to pay for some administrative costs.

7. Reduce administrative costs – The use of the card will significantly reduce the need for the University to spend resources processing reimbursement checks to travelers for travel costs, thus reducing UA’s administrative costs.

Please see the attached UA Travel Card FAQs for MORE INFORMATION.