megalab

Agree about playing with +/- time windows. Different windows give different search results. Windows that have your desired flight time near the beginning produce different results than if it is near the end of the window. Also, sometimes specifying (or mixing in) arrival times will yield different results.

Also play with price vs schedule searches. Schedule will generally give you more options, though if they get constructed at higher prices they could be flagged. If there is a connection involved you could work around this by constructing a search including the desired connection at the times you want. Usually your desired itinerary will one of the few available.

If there is no connection desired, try searching in a higher class of service, even if you are not entitled. This can also yield different search results. if your desired itinerary shows up, click on "show details" and click on "view more fares." Usually the corresponding coach fares (often the lowest refundable and non-refundable) will be offered. Those will be lower than say business and would then be reservable without a flag.

Those are some of my main tricks. Let us know how you fare. (No pun intended.) ;-)

Nurse Traveler

I third the use of playing with the +/- time. My lowest timeframe is 2 hours (wish it was 1) but I do my best. I always search ITA first to see what route I would like to take. I am required to choose the lowest logical (sometimes illogical) fare within $100. I've found that if I can't get the itinerary I want, separating a RT ticket into two one ways usually works for me.

For hotels, none of my colleagues seem to know about the super chain filter. I get stuck with a lot of La Quintas as my first choice. However, once I choose super chain (Starwood, Marriott, etc), my choices change drastically and are all allowed.

Often1

Concur has few limitations. What some people see here are restrictions imposed by their employer.

Also worth noting that for audit purposes, the employer can see exactly what you used for search parameters. Some employers care, some don't and some simply tolerate stuff.

Long Zhiren

It's never logical.

I use Kayak to see what's available.

When I see the flight I really want, I'll shove it into Concur as a multi-leg flight which always comes back as the lowest price itinerary.
For example, if I want SJC-IAH-JAX instead of SJC-DFW-JAX, I'll do a search on Concur as a multi-leg SJC-IAH + IAH-JAX. "Magically," the UA flight that I want, comes back. When I check-in, UA sees me going all the way through to JAX so it's perfect. In this case, the actual fare is $10 more than the AA fare, but my flight time might be an hour less and I get no baggage fees because of my status and my company winds up paying less anyway.
Of course, I need to apply my own judgement to make sure that my desired itinerary isn't extraordinary like five times more the next fare.

Hopefully, the Concur lurkers don't use my post here as an excuse to shut down my loophole, if you can call it that.

BlackBear05

If you have to use your personal credit card for your corporate travel, does your company still get a rebate?

Also, has anyone ever use the "Reserve/Hold" feature to make the reservation, and then try to call the airline directly to issue the ticket? I also have that situation where, I see a cheaper S fare on ITA but it keeps booking into a more expensive W

megalab

Until mid-last year we could use personal credit cards for all company travel expenses except airfare. Regardless, the only way the company gets a rebate is if they can document the expense is covered by their contract, which is mainly tracked through the corporate travel site, or at least by using your company's account number or discount code.

I'ver never tried to book on Concur then have it changed and issued by the airline because all our airfare had to be purchased via our corporate system. I know any bookings or changes to bookings (e.g. fare class) made outside Concur can't get back into Concur. One time I booked a multi-segment flight in Concur and applied for an upgrade. When one leg cleared I got an e-mail from AMEX saying my ticket had been cancelled. What happened is UA "took over" the ticket because it changed a fare bucket, and after that our AMEX TA couldn't make any changes I needed. I had to do it through UA, and UA couldn't charge or credit my company account, everything went on my personal card, which is out of policy (I was pissed).

Comments upthread suggest your corporate contract may be forcing a W fare on you even if there is an identical lower cost option out there. I guess the moral of this thread is be a good corporate citizen and do what the system wants. Look on the bright side; the sooner the system blows through your travel budget, the sooner you get to stop traveling!

hyho61

Like everyone here, we have to use Concur for our travel needs. However lately Concur is good with showing multiple itineraries and in our case they are good with Southwest airlines bookings and in fact gave me a deep discount on a business select fare vs the Southwest website !

I use Concur for car rentals, due to liability and insurance purposes. However I dont use Concur all the time for hotels, unless they are cheaper, plus I change hotels often so rather just book with them directly.

Wise-Broccoli8301

Some help here... I recently searched a transpacific flight on ITA and found that ANA can get me to China for cheaper than United business! Well, it's discount business obviously, but Concur doesn't seem to pick that up. The booking code looks different. Anyone found that to be a limitation?

Total #firstworldproblem, but I absolutely hate flying UA, so any way to get out would be nice.

Often1

I'm missing what it is that you are attempting to do that is problematic. What specifically do you want to book and what is Concur preventing you from doing?

Jillista

My company is just about to switch to using Concur to book travel (we already use it for expense reports) and I would like to know if anyone has any advice or tips for me to get started. I would also be interested if anyone has any issues that you think I should raise in our initial training.
I tried a search of the forums and didn't find very much in terms of tips and tricks but did find many mentions of people that use it.
I am 1K on United but have done more regional travel this year so I'm a little nervous about not making it for next year. I also am a little picky about hotels - my business travel is almost always to industrial areas so I'm careful about finding hotels that are safe.
Any advice would be welcome. Thank you all so much!

FirstInFlight

I have one client that uses it - total PITA. I dont know but I've always giessed it is built on Apollo. Many flight connections won't show etc. There are tricks to game it. I typically use another site to find the trip I want and then work in the search parameters in Concur to make it find those flights. That can be tricky if it is set up with tight cost controls. I would ask about the controls - if they set it to flag any flight option that costs more than $50 more than the lowest fare you will constantly have to get trips approved because the lowest fare will involve bad flights and long layovers etc.

MDtR-Chicago

See also:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onlin...avel-site.html

aBroadAbroad

Hopefully your query will gain better visibility here in the online travel booking forum.

Good luck!

~Moderator, Information Desk

Jillista

Thanks for moving my query - I read through this thread and will definitely try some tricks. It's frustrating, though, that I really have to do more legwork to find flights and then make Concur get me there. Ugh.
I'm wondering if my company maybe set up their policies to be too liberal. I know that our travel policies are not very stringent so I was surprised when they switched to Concur. It makes sense, though, that I get such a random mishmosh of options from VERY low (hotels I would never, ever, ever stay at unless I decided to start some hourly work on the side) to options that are much more $ than I would ever spend.

linglingfool

Biggest tip I have for getting flights lined up is to pay attention to the time bands in the search parameters. I think it defaults to +/- 3 hours, so make sure you know exactly when you want to leave and put that time in. If you widen the bands out too much, flights often don't appear as desired. Also, if you can restrict your search as much as possible, you won't run into compliance issues for booking flights that are too expensive as there are very few other alternatives that will pop up.