Frequently Asked Questions

Concur is an online booking tool that University of Wisconsin System employees can use to book university-sponsored individual air, car or hotel reservations. Our contracted travel agency, Travel Incorporated, licenses Concur for University Travelers to use. Travelers can manage their itinerary, view changes, and research pricing by using Concur.

Concur uses SSO to log into Concur. Log in with your UW credentials. If you do not have a Concur profile, you will be redirected to a page to complete a Concur profile. 

Please review this file: Can I Book A State Rate In Concur (1) docx

 Concur cannot be used for personal travel reservations, unless purchasing business travel combined with personal travel. Cost comparisons must be obtained when booking air travel.

Your e-invoice will be send in the Final Itinerary email. If you deleted this email, and need a copy of your invoice, please contact uwstraveloffice@uwsa.edu with your date of travel and traveler's name to obtain a copy. 

How to retrieve the Travel Incorporated (TI) Invoice from FINAL ITINERARY email:

• After booking a reservation with Travel Incorporated travelers and travel arrangers will receive an email from with the subject line: FINAL ITINERARY DOE JOHN 25MAR – 30MAR
• From this email, click on ‘View Interactive eItinerary Online’.

• Once the Interactive e-itinerary is visible, locate & click on the invoice tab from the menu on the left side of the

Note: Travelers will receive a 2^nd email from Travel Incorporated that contains their invoice, travel arrangers will not. Arrangers must follow these steps to access the invoice.

• UW Travel Arranger can establish an Administrative Group code so students and guests can contact Travel Inc to book on their own. Training of the Travel Inc Admin Group Process will be provided in June 2020 and the process updated on UW TravelWIse after the July 1, 2020 go-live.
• Guests and students will work through University employees who have active profiles in Concur to book airfare, lodging and vehicle rental with Travel Incorporated.

Yes, the university’s contracted travel agencies can assist with companion/family travel.  However, please keep in mind their primary responsibility is to service university sponsored/business-related travel.  The consultants do not specialize in vacation travel. If your request exceeds their capacity, you will be referred to a vacation/leisure consultant. Also, keep in mind, service fees will apply to personal travel/companions.

It is the responsibility of the hosting department to ensure that all guests of the University are aware of UW Travel Policies. Guests should be provided a copy of the one of the University’s Visitor Travel Guide prior to scheduling travel.  If the guest books outside of policy, please reach out to your campus travel manager to inquire about obtaining an approved Travel Policy Exception.

Coaches for NCAA athletic teams should book through Shorts Travel whether it’s individual travel for a conference or recruiting trip, etc. or team travel.  However, coaches will not be penalized if they book their individual travel through Travel Inc.

Short’s does offer a low fare guarantee for all individual/live sell airline tickets.  However, due to the nature of group travel and the fact that fares found online are typically for single travelers, the fare match/guarantee will not apply to groups.

Short’s Low Fare Guarantee

If a traveler can document to Short’s Travel Management a lower fare at time of ticketing on an identical flight, STM will book the lower airfare (or the traveler may show evidence that the fare was purchased within same time period) and refund the original ticket.

There are several different types of insurance available to UW Employees.  Please reach out to your Human Resources Representative for more information.

Insurance that is specific to travel –

• Vehicle coverage through the Big Ten contract (Enterprise and National) and State of Wisconsin contract (Hertz)
• CISI – medical insurance required for students who are traveling Internationally

* The University does not pay for or reimburse trip insurance.

Concur registrations are available to employees only. To register, go to TravelWIse’s main page and you will see an option to register or login on the left panel. We have also linked Concur information (here). https://www.wisconsin.edu/travel/booking/concur/

In TravelWIse, the Travel Manager list is found under Contacts & Support.

We have created a Group Travel Resource page to identify the different needs of groups. Most likely, you will have to work with an agent, as agents are best to assist your group needs. Information on groups can be found in Group Travel under Planning in TravelWIse.

No. Because of our commitment to duty of care and our relationship with vendors, UW will still require the use of our contracted travel agency partners for all airfare purchases.

All individual reservations will be transitioned to the new agencies and will NOT remain with Fox.  The new agencies will have the ability to help with changes after July 1, 2020.

• Call Shorts after July 1, 2020 for NCAA Athletic travel booked with Fox prior to June 30, 2020
• Call Travel Incorporated after July 1, 2020 for all non-NCAA individual travel that was booked with Fox
• Only live/active group blocks will remain with Fox

No, UW air contract cannot be used for travel that is 100% personal in nature.   However, when combining personal travel with business travel, UW air contracts can be used.

Yes, travelers can combine personal and business travel and book individual tickets through Travel Incorporated. When a traveler elects to combine personal travel days with business travel, cost comparisons must also be obtained to ensure that the University is paying for the business trip dates only. A cost comparison must be provided to show the cost of the lowest appropriate airfare for the business travel dates only and another with the added personal dates. The lower of the two comparisons will be paid or reimbursed by the University.

Valid Cost Comparisons: Concur or agents from one of the university’s contracted travel agencies must be used for cost comparisons. Because of pricing and availability fluctuations, accurate cost comparisons must be done immediately, in succession, to be valid.

No, companions/family members are not eligible to receive UW contracted airline discounts.

No. All agencies have access to the same airline/car/hotel information in their GDS system and through airline group desks. If you get a quote from one agency, they may hold space with the carrier and tie up inventory that the other agency would then not have access to. This is highly discouraged and not an efficient use of time or resources.

If you’ve established a Group Block, book any individual ticket air deviations with Fox World Travel.

If you have spent time with Fox, beyond intake, continue working with Fox

Work with Travel Incorporated as the ‘group’ portion is less than 10.

Non-NCAA athletics groups of 10 or more should book with Fox World Travel. Groups of less than 10 should book with Travel Inc. However, if you’ve already started working with Shorts, it’s ok to continue doing so.  

The travel agencies will help you determine what type of group you need.  As a general rule, if you have 10 or more travelers, who will all be traveling together on the same flight, non-NCAA travel - you will work with Fox World Travel. If you have a group of 10 or more who will all be booking individually (i.e. traveling on different flights or paying with different credit cards), book with Travel Incorporated.

Yes, if medically necessary. Please provide an explanation for the expense in the justification section of the expense reimbursement report. An ADA exception may be requested, in which you will need to work with your Human Resources department to obtain a Reasonable Accommodation request.

As of July 1, 2020, UW policy will allow vehicle rental size, up to and including mid-sized SUVs.

Yes, National/Enterprise will continue to be the preferred suppliers for UW. Hertz will continue to be secondary.

Personal use may be added in conjunction with a business trip, either at the beginning of the end of your reservation. When reserving for strictly Non-Business/Personal use, use the Big10 Non-Business Use Booking Portal. Please note additional coverages such as CDW or LDW are not included when reserving a strictly personal rental. These coverages can be added for additional fees. Students under 25 and other youthful drivers may not rent for personal use.

Users are highly encouraged to book all vehicle rentals through Concur or our contracted travel agency partners as contract details are built into the booking channels.  However, booking directly with a vehicle rental agency is allowed.  When booking outside of Concur/contracted travel agencies, it is the responsibility of the traveler/arranger to make sure the preferred contracted vendors are being used (Enterprise/National) and that the Big Ten contract is being utilized. Tax exemption documentation must also be provided upon vehicle pickup.

Verify hours of operation at the Enterprise location you are renting from.  It is possible that the location is closed at the time you are entering into Concur. 

Note: pick-up and/or drop-off hours may need to be modified to accommodate the location hours of operation.

If you have determined that Enterprise does not have any cars available, explore other options.  Look into renting from National or Hertz, and if none of our preferred partners have availability you may want to condenser driving your personal vehicle or work with our travel agency to use another vendor.

Contact your campus travel manager for assistance in determining the best alternative.

Yes. 

Note: Most Airport locations are open on weekends.

No changes to local contracts will be necessary with the change of travel management companies. However, Short’s Travel Management specializes in athletic travel and has a lot of experience with bus/ground transportation.  They are both willing and able to book and manage reservations with current contracts on your behalf.  It will be up to each campus to determine if they’d like Short’s to be involved in the booking of local ground transportation. Part of the implementation with Shorts includes reviewing current contracts and discussing how they can help manage them. 

Yes. While we highly recommend using Concur or our contracted travel agencies, policy does allow you to contact the hotel directly (either by phone or on the hotel website) to book your lodging reservation.

No. Third party booking websites are prohibited under the travel policy

Starting July 1^st, 2020, the UW lodging policy now allows for the usage of Airbnb, and full prepayment of lodging.  Third Party bookings are still restricted (such as Expedia and Orbitz).

Please visit our Airbnb page for more information.

Conference lodging should be booked using the link provided with your conference registration or by contacting the conference hotel directly.

Note: Users are highly encouraged to search Concur for the conference hotel(s) as often rates found within Concur are less costly than the conference rate.

A listing of 2020 UW System contract properties is available on UW TravelWIse under Policies & Resources in a comprehensive hotel directory. See the UW System Hotel Directory. The directory is searchable by location and contains summary details of the property, including negotiated rates.

We highly encourage you to use UW preferred properties whenever possible. Booking with a preferred property allows the UW System to act as a liaison in the event there is an issue with your stay, and to ensure rates are below the maximum. However, bookings with non-preferred properties will still be reimbursed.

Reserve a non-preferred hotel within Concur, with an agent or by contacting the hotel directly – ensure that the property has a room available within the UW maximum for the location. Refer to the Rate Calculator to determine per night maximum lodging amount for the location.

If you are unable to find lodging within a reasonable distance from your location, you are required to provide documentation (i.e. screenshots from Concur) that a lower rate was not available.