Getting around the university's shit travel booking service: an idea

[SomePig]

I keep hearing about people who cost their research trips / travel for grants, but then the costs blow out massively because Key Shit Travel - or whichever magnificently incompetent outfit the university is paying vast sums of money to - take so much time booking the flights, or can't even find the flights you've asked them to book.

Anyway. I have a conference trip coming up to a European city 😀

But it will be my first time travelling for work since the pandemic, so I've got to use the university's shitter than shit travel booking agency 😣

And if I give an inflated travel figure to allow for Shit Travel's incompetence, that's less time at the conference and more money taken away for other things.

So, I wondered if I could use a Eurail pass and take the train, and save some carbon while I'm at it? (It will take me about the same time to get across Europe as it would to get to New Zealand on a plane, but I can deal with that, so long as it keeps the travel costs down.)

Has anyone done this, ie convinced one of these stupid travel booking agencies to let them travel on a eurail pass? I know I have to also buy the seat reservations and pay sleeper couchette fees etc but I don't think those are subject to dynamic pricing in the same way that flights are. And price-wise it will work out roughly the same.

Mostly though it will be the satisfaction of having not been screwed over by Shit Travel.

I don't know if this is a bonkers idea or a genius one. If anyone's tried it, I'd love to know whether it was approved and how it went down with the bureaucracy.

My system doesn't even allow the 'plus' tickets that let you get the bus around the city when you get there.
If it lets you purchase one, and it's cheaper than the alternative, it should work surely.
But no I haven't tried it.
But did sacrifice about 2 days last week to Shitter Travel and their glitchy IT

I have done it! But I had to pay upfront and get reimbursed, so Shit Travel were not involved. Can you do that? Although come to think of it, I think I did hear that Shit Travel now deal with trains...

It was totally brilliant btw - I did SO SO much work on the train.

I always pay up front and get reimbursed so I don't have to use Shit Travel. But I have research partners (different university) who are not even allowed to do that! It is so wasteful.

Oh and more to the point re your actual OP @SomePig - my place is big on being green (it's their slogan) so I could easily sell travelling by train as an ethical issue. We're encouraged to take the train instead of flying even if we're going to the other end of the country. So a train across Europe would have them cheering!

I have in the past phoned key travel and explained their quote was double that of Expedia and they have got it down. Worth a try?

Why ARE they so shit? Did the internet happen to everyone else?!

Yeah, we’re only allowed to pay upfront and get reimbursed for travel under a certain (small) amount of money. Shit Travel have clearly stitched up or bribed someone senior in the university.

Re. trains, we even have to get them to parts of mainland Europe rather than fly. This has resulted in some trips that could have taken two days taking four, and significantly more cost incurred. Our “Green” senior management had also found another way to screw academic departments out of their own funding by charging us a green levy every time we set foot on a plane.

We're not allowed do this. I don't travel for work but DH does a lot and it's a constant pain for him. We live in a city that rhymes with Delfast and he has to remind them every time that there's an international airport 2 hours down the road in rhymes-with-Bublin rather than transferring through Heathrow.

We had to use Shit-travel until recently they booked a colleague into a hotel that didn't exist and she found herself stranded in the US in the middle of the night. Our HoD told us to book stuff independently and ignore the rules. yeah!

back when the rules were enforced, I would always get a quote myself off skyscanner etc, then a quote of KeyTravel, then email screenshots of both to KeyTravel and tell them to match exactly the independent quote. and they would.

also, I strongly recommend Eurostar + other trains for conferences in Europe. you can book the whole lot from trainline.com and it works.

Has anyone done this, ie convinced one of these stupid travel booking agencies to let them travel on a eurail pass?

Would it not be easier to persuade your uni to allow you to book it yourself by demonstrating worthwhile cost savings?

I have always been able to do it more cheaply. Using Ryanair and Airbnb for accommodation (if travelling with colleagues/students) can drastically cut costs and not something that can be done through Key Travel. I’ve even used discount vouchers, again something that can’t be done with Key Travel.

Going by rail, the travelling time might weaken your argument. I attended a conference in Spain at the end of last year and did look at going by train. I think it was 32 hours station to station as opposed to five hours my house to conference venue by air. The flight cost was less than £60 return.

But ShitTravel doesn’t care about the travelling time if it will save money on a flight. Dh had to go to Monterey with a 24 hour stop off in Calgary last year. Obviously by the time you have factored in accommodation it costs more but that’s Shit Travel for you.

But ShitTravel doesn’t care about the travelling time if it will save money on a flight

My point was that the extended travelling time for rail travel might weaken the argument for not booking through Key Travel.

"Would it not be easier to persuade your uni to allow you to book it yourself by demonstrating worthwhile cost savings?"

Universities' contracts with their travel providers often preclude them from using other providers.

One rationale given for the move to travel providers is to meet legal requirements for procurement. A second is to reduce the administrative time spent processing travel expenses claims for reimbursement, but this never seems plausible as far more staff time is wasted going back and forth with the travel providers, and anyhow staff still need to claim for meals and other ad hoc expenses.

Officially we're supposed to use KT Shit tRavel Agency but in reality we all book independently & claim back. One of my fave things about STA is they don't guarantee prices or times. If you have to take 3 trains to get to an airport: They'll have you arrive a day early for each leg of the train journey, and probably twice the price they initially said, and who knows where you'll stay compared to the original hotels they suggested.

The other problem is actually can't login in to ask STA questions, and when I do ask questions (seem to find a contact email) they ignore me. I get zero comments back. We have training how to use every Uni system and health & safety issue you can think of but nothing for how to use STA, so I still don't know how we're supposed to interact with them. I was employed at the Uni on/off for 30 years before I even heard about STA existing, that was maybe 3 years ago.

to be fair, I struggle with the expenses system too, and don't get me started on the nightmare that is procurement

Yep, the problem is that we are being told that we must book with Shit Travel. I've heard that insurance is one driver - it's much cheaper for universities to insure staff travel if it's all booked with a travel agency - and that does seem to make some sense, but I must say the 'reduce administrative time' argument gives me the rage. It's OK to load more time-consuming shitwork onto the shoulders of academics already on their knees with overwork, so long as it protects administrators 🙄

But I am heartened to hear that there pockets of resistance like the hero of a HoD some posts earlier who told their staff to book their own travel. It's one of those weird things about working in a university. Some of the people can break some of the rules some of the time. It's just knowing how, when and who can do is so that you don't get into trouble.

Some of the people can break some of the rules some of the time. It's just knowing how, when and who can do is so that you don't get into trouble.

It helps if you have been there a long time.

I think you are being a bit unfair on the administrators. Everybody is being asked to more in less time with fewer staff.

do more

But I am heartened to hear that there pockets of resistance like the hero of a HoD some posts earlier who told their staff to book their own travel.

I wouldn't be a hero or a successful member of the "resistance" if I told staff to book their own travel. University finance teams won't reimburse it, so staff will just be out of pocket.

I'm wondering if Academic Shit Travel is the same organisation as Arms Length Civil Service Shit Travel, specialists in finding the most expensive way of travelling anywhere. What they are good at though is finding trains rather than planes for carbon reduction (I work for the Environment Agency), so I'd say you have a good argument there @SomePig.

Exh books his own for Europe then claims back. Only uses the travel agent for long haul, and actually they are pretty good, we used them for family trips too

It's not the same travel agent though, they contract with a local independent one

Some of the people can break some of the rules some of the time. It's just knowing how, when and who can do is so that you don't get into trouble.

This. And senior men (but not senior women...) seem to be able to get away with a lot more than everyone else.

For a few years we were supposed to only book through STA, but in reality could still quietly book independently and get reimbursed. Apparently that has now been cracked down on.

I think you are being a bit unfair on the administrators. Everybody is being asked to more in less time with fewer staff.

I think the criticism is of senior (i.e. University level) management rather than the administrators themselves. The number of 'get stuff done in departments' admin staff has reduced significantly over the last decade, and lots more higher paid 'manager' roles have been introduced. And if academics are spending huge amounts of time wrestling with not-fit-for-purpose travel booking systems we've either got to spend less time on the things that senior management value in annual reviews or promotion applications, or do even more 'out of hours' work.

Someone mentioned Airbnb. We're not allowed to use it, even if there are compelling reasons (e.g. long-term field work + medical condition which requires a special diet) for 'health and safety' reasons. But STA will happily book you into a youth hostel, or a 'pay by hour hotel'...

Someone mentioned Airbnb. We're not allowed to use it, even if there are compelling reasons (e.g. long-term field work + medical condition which requires a special diet) for 'health and safety' reasons.

That was me. How about apart hotels? I have used those in the past and they allow a lot more autonomy than a standard hotel.

That would only be allowed if they're in STA's Ssystem. (I don't remember seeing any, but haven't personally looked for them specifically).

I recently travelled somewhere where there was nothing that Shit Travel could offer other than hostels within the university’s nightly accommodation allowance. Though I think that is a jointly-caused problem of Shit Travel overcharging and the university’s allowances being stuck at pre-Covid, pre-inflation rates.