What’s new and improved at OFB?

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Southwest Airlines, serving 63 cities with more than 3,300 daily flights, is now available for flight bookings on Orbitz for Business. These flights appear in the booking path, flight matrix and air search results. Please note the following tips for your Southwest bookings:

1. Bookings are available until 24 hours prior to departure. Inside of 24 hours, please call the Orbitz service center for assistance.
2. Southwest is a “ticket less” airline. When you fly with Southwest, use your Southwest confirmation number instead of a paper or electronic ticket number, along with your photo ID, to check in.
3. Online changes and cancellations are not yet available in Orbitz for Business. If you need to cancel or exchange your ticket, you can call the OFB service center for assistance.

PROCESS TO ASSIST WITH COMPLIANCE WITH THE FLY AMERICA ACT

When searching for international flights, OFB will now ask if the trip is US Government funded.

If answered in the affirmative, Orbitz for Business will only return those airlines that qualify under the “Fly America Act”

TRAVELERS CAN NOW NARROW FLIGHT SEARCH TO SPECIFIC AIRLINES, OR AIRLINE ALLIANCE

FREQUENTLY-VISITED LOCATIONS INCORPORATED INTO HOTEL AND CAR SEARCHES

Yale Travel Services will have the ability to load your frequently traveled locations into the program. This will enable you to search for hotels and cars based on the locations. You will find this particularly valuable when traveling to new or remote locations.

When initiating a hotel or car search, simply click on the Company Locations link and pick from the list. Your search will be “anchored” at that location and will show locations based on proximity.

The travel office has loaded locations for the major universities in the USA. Please contact the office if you have additional locations you would like added to the tool.

 

TRIP TEMPLATES

Travelers and arrangers will now be able to save their favorite itineraries into templates. Once a template is created, future bookings on the same routing can be created with less effort. To create a template, choose Save to Template from the Trip Tools menu

Follow the prompts to name the template, and the system will store the template in your My Stuff. When you wish to rebook the same itinerary, select the template from your list, click on Book Trip and enter your new dates. The site will search for and allow you to book the same trip elements for a new set of dates.