Procedures
When faculty and staff travel in conjunction with personal vacation, the following standards should apply:
- The business portion of the travel must be justified.
- The traveler has provided a written estimate outlining the costs for the business portion of the trip.
- No personal expenses or portions of personal expenses can be charged to the University T&H Card.
- When personal travel is combined with business, the traveler must personally pay for all expenses and request reimbursement.
- Reimbursement for personal funds used to purchase airline tickets will not be made until the conclusion of the trip and no travel advances will be issued to facilitate the purchase of air tickets. If you are using federal funds, you MUST comply with the Fly America Act (PDF).
- When purchasing tickets with a personal credit card, the traveler assumes all risk. If the trip is canceled, ISU will not reimburse the traveler for the ticket of a trip that was not taken, as the credit for the unused ticket goes back to the traveler's credit card.
- When vacation or personal requirements cause indirect routing, cost of the direct route required for ISU business was compared and documented.
- University or federal policy requirements for travel were met for those segments of the trip identified as business related.
When requesting reimbursement for personal and business combined travel, the traveler should submit the actual expenses and an estimate of what the costs would have been, had there been no personal travel.
Iowa State University will reimburse the lesser of the expenses.
Flight comparisons must be made in advance of travel as they cannot be calculated retroactively.