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Pre-Travel Arrangements

Travel specialists are available to help with many of your pre-trip necessities. We are very happy to provide students, staff, guests and faculty with services related to: 

  • Booking airfare
  • Paying for conference registrations using University funds
  • Reserving rental cars with special University rates and insurance included
  • Hotel reservations for groups

Airfare and Rental Cars

Note: All travelers need to sign into the UC Connexxus Travel System to create or update their profile to add SMORTERA, JMENDEZ and RBRIGHAM to their list of travel arrangers. Travelers should ensure that these arrangers have been saved to their profile. This only needs to be done once. 

Airfare 

Airfare can be one of the largest expenses incurred for business travel. When your research, experiment or coursework requires you to fly, we can facilitate the payment processing so you do not have to carry the expense until your trip is over (UC policy forbids travel related reimbursements from being processed until the trip is completed).

All business travel that include personal travel dates, require a cost comparison that should be obtained prior to or at the same time of booking the trip. The cost comparison should show the business dates using the same booking agency and airline. The personal travel cost must be the same or lower than the business portion alone. You are responsible to save the comparison and add it to your documents when submitting for reimbursement once your travel is completed. Note that any personal expenses incurred on a trip will not be reimbursed by the University.

University travelers (those with a UCMnetID) should sign into Connexxus and search for their preferred flights. Once a flight is identified, travelers should begin the purchase process by providing travel details and placing the flight on hold. Within one business day, our team will obtain the appropriate approvals and create the necessary pre-travel authorization number. We'll finalize your flight and you will receive a confirmation from Connexxus. 

Non-university travelers (guest speakers, researchers, collaborators etc.) should submit a request using our Travel Coordination Request Form. Using your specified parameters, our team will book your requested arrangements and provide confirmation to you and your UC Merced host. 

Rental Cars 

University policy does not allow for prepayment of rental cars. All travelers (University travelers and guets) must incur rental charges and then seek reimbursement once the rental has been returned. Booking rental cars through Connexxus allows travelers to take advantage of the University contracted rate which includes collision damage waiver at no additional cost. 

Learn more about the prepaid airfare process.

Click here for detailed flight and rental car arrangement instructions. 


Conference Registrations

In most cases, conference registrations can be prepaid using University funds. Conference goers can simply complete the Registration Request Form and send it SNSTravel@ucmerced.edu. Be sure to include all pertinent registration information with your initial request to avoid delays! 

Learn more about the conference registration process.


Hotel Reservations

In limited circumstances, the University may be able to reserve and pay for hotel stays for undergraduates and non-employees (only). Because of the varying degree of availability, travelers should email SNSTravel@ucmerced.edu with:

  • Name and address of preferred hotel 
  • Full name(s) of hotel guests / number of rooms needed
  • Check-in date and number of nights  
  • Business justification for University payment 

The ability for the University to prepay for hotel stays is on a case-by-case basis. Our team will contact the the requestor to inform if prepayment is possible. If University payment is possible, the requestor will need to provide the funding source for the expense. Our team will work with the hotel to arrange reservations and payment. 

Click here for detailed hotel reservation arrangement instructions. ** Coming Soon! **