Beginning July 1, 2025, U-M employees will be required to use Collegiate Travel Planners, U-M’s designated travel partner, to book flights for university-related travel.
The new requirement was announced in an April 14 email to deans, directors and department managers from U-M’s three executive vice presidents: Geoffrey S. Chatas, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Laurie K. McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; and Marschall S. Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs.
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The move was made after considerable discussion with senior leadership and a number of financial groups across the university and supports ongoing proactive measures related to potential federal funding changes. The policy change will also streamline the travel booking process and ensure that U-M leverages the best options and rates negotiated for the university.
Units can expect to save between 2% and 10% on most flights when booking with CTP, with the average savings being 4%. When the number of flights taken by employees for U-M business in a given year is considered collectively, the overall annual savings to the university will be substantial.
Booking travel with CTP offers a variety of benefits to the U-M community, including:
- Access to the best negotiated rates — U-M and CTP discounts will be automatically applied when booking business travel with CTP.
- Payment through U-M’s Central Travel Account, with receipt information automatically populating into Emburse Enterprise for straightforward expense reporting.
- 24/7 assistance to travelers through CTP agents and the travel portal.
- The ability to easily apply unused ticket credits to new bookings or reallocate them to alternate travelers within the university.
- Duty of care for U-M employees while traveling domestically and abroad, which helps ensure their health, safety and security.
The requirement will apply solely to booking flights and does not at this time impact other travel arrangements available through CTP, such as hotel accommodations or ground transportation. In addition, travel booking fees will be centrally funded for fiscal year 2026 and will no longer appear as individual expenses in Emburse Enterprise.
The U-M Travel Program Team holds regular training and Q&A sessions to help travelers and travel arrangers make the best use of CTP and the Lightning booking platform. Information about these sessions, along with training materials, can be found on the Travel Program webpage.
Sean Eddy
There is nothing streamlined about using CTP or their Lighting booking platform.
In the last 2 years we’ve had CTP, I’ve experienced few if any benefits. In my experience booking travel, it is the exception rather than the norm that their posted flights are cheaper than publicly advertised fares.
I just booked conference travel for June and my direct booking for $260 below CTPs advertised fare for the same departing flight (but with far worse return options). The justification will of course be included with my expense report. It’s a 15-20% direct cost savings from grants – and that’s fairly typical of what I’ve experienced over the last 2 years.
I’ve also had the issue where one leg of a two-leg flight where the first flight is altered so the second leg is an impossible connection. When this happens with direct booking, the airline automatically updates the entire itinerary being updated, but not CTP. Each leg was treated separately on my booking so I had to go through the process of contacting their agents and fixing something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
I have little confidence things will improve once we’re forced to use this system.
Pat Herbst
This is a terrible decision. Since the University started partnership with CTP I have looked up my travel on Lighthing as well as on Delta.com. I have consistently found Delta’s own costs cheaper than Lightning and also more availability of Delta flights at Delta than what Lightning will offer. I try to be a good steward of the funds that I raise (as most of the travel I do is with funds that I raise for my research). I think the University should accept our effort to save to the bottomline rather than honor a poor contract for a bad service.
Albert Smith
I have also steered away from using Lightning. When exploring bookings on the system for international travel, I am only offered expensive Delta flights (which are not direct). If looking outside of the system, I can find direct flights at less than half the cost of the quote in Lightning. This decision will take a larger portion of my research funding, and does not make anything more efficient from my point of view.
Sallee Klein
How will this system work with students who are reimbursed by a Third party funding agency? We’ve had a lot of trouble in the past navigating how students purchase a plane ticket through CTP, where they are not paying for the ticket, and they have to submit reimbursement receipts for a flight that they didn’t purchase. This isn’t as easy as just putting down that they didn’t purchase the ticket. Students are given a set amount of money and directions on how to spend it. Most third party student travel funding agencies simply aren’t nimble enough to handle these nuances.
Simple solutions for a complex organization are intoxicating, and typically come with bad hangovers.
Samet Oymak
When/If we are forced to book a more expensive flight through CTP:
1) Doesn’t this represent an improper use of federal funding (as we are prevented from booking a cheaper flight directly)?
2) Where is the fare difference going? Is it subsidizing CTP or the university?
Jeffrey Fessler
As an (interim) department chair, I did get the email from the Provost etc., but I didn’t realize it was sent just to chairs and that email did not ask us to spread the word to our faculty. I wonder how faculty who don’t read the Record are supposed to learn about this new (and possibly misguided) policy.
Lei Ying
I searched on CTP for a coming trip. It doesn’t offer all the options available on the airline’s website, and the price is not cheaper either. How could the university make such a decision without first asking for input from students/staff/faculty?
Vijay Subramanian
This was decided without any effort make to solicit comments or opinions from those who will ultimately have to use this system—faculty, staff and students. The system is clunky and wasteful: 1) poor interface in general; 2) doesn’t show the best flight itineraries in terms of both timings and cost (domestic flights come about 200-300 more expensive and international ones roughly twice, even whilst following the rules of the Fly America Act); and 3) includes a search surcharge (which is being waived for FY2026 but will likely apply after this time elapses). (I will say, however, that the hotel search option was much better, and more cost effective.) This doesn’t seem the best means to use hard-to-come-by monies, especially in the present (and foreseeable future). Plus, shouldn’t federal and other monies be used more effectively?