Introduction

We know booking travel can be a big burden when added to the list of all of your other work responsibilities. At CTI American Express Travel our number one goal is making sure that we make our clients happy and help to make their lives easier. With our agency you will have a dedicated agent to help you work out all of your business' travel, anytime, domestic or international. Also, here at CTI Travel we value the relationships we have with those whom we serve and, because of this, we feel the need to earn the right to do business with you every time we work with you. For this reason, there are no set-up fees or contracts with us. We are so confident in our ability to make you happy and save you money that you are free to give us a shot and free to go elsewhere if, for any reason, you are not totally satisfied with the service you get at CTI American Express Travel.
The process of starting up with us is simple. Just contact us and let us know you're interest, or contact us with any questions you have and we will be happy to help. When you make the decision to work with us you're company will be assigned a dedicated agent as well as both a back-up and an east-coast agent. We also have an after-hours service that will be available anytime you need them, as well as an on-line booking tool for extra convenience and ease.
We make life easier and stress free for you by going and bidding out different hotels to make sure you are getting the lowest rates possible. We have a lot of current clients in similar situations to you that have loved the opportunity of doing business with us. They have enjoyed the benefits of making their work load easier so they no long have to pull their hair out, and we're positive you will feel the same way.

Frequently Asked Questions

1)      Why is my ticket so expensive?

a.       ADVANCE, ADVANCE, ADVANCE BOOKING.  Make your reservations as soon as you have decided on travel plans. Airlines give discounts for early bookings at least 21 days in advance.

b.      If you can be flexible about when you travel, do so.  It can bring big savings. Even changing a flight’s time during the same day can affect the rate. Often the less popular early morning or late evening flights have lower rates.

c.       Check into another destination. You might be able to fly into a nearby neighboring city at a much lower rate.  Remember to allow for other costs when you consider this option.  You could lose the airport shuttle, and your rental car costs, gas, etc., may change. This might also take a little more travel time

2)      Why didn’t I get the seat assignment I wanted?

a.       Seat assignments are obviously important.  Your seat preference is always the first thing considered when reserving your seat; however, if you have been assigned an aisle instead of your preferred window it is because the aisle seat was not available.  The same goes for getting a middle seat…it was better to assign the middle seat rather than not assigning a seat.

b.      If you arrive at the ticket counter without seat assignment on an overbooked flight, you probably will get bumped off the flight and forced to take a later flight - which can be several hours or even a full day later.  Due to overbooking, getting seat assignment in advance can reduce the risk of getting 'bumped'.

c.       If you'd like a better seat on your flight be sure to ask at check-in.  Bulk-head and exit-row seats are usually last to be assigned and may be available

3)      What should I do if I have a very difficult itinerary to book with many stops?

a.       In this instance, call the travel agent.  It will be worth spending the money with a difficult itinerary as it could take too much time your of your day but please book those easy itinerary online

4)      What is the BEST WAY TO BOOK A FLIGHT ON TRIPNET.BIZ?

a.       You can choose flights by price or schedule

b.      Make sure and specify departure and arrival times, maximum stops and airlines, after you hit search, if you don’t see the flights you want you can use drop down menu at top of the page and search by departure time, arrival time and duration

c.       After you choose your flights and go to the traveler information page only fill out the information that is mandatory and has a red asterisk beside it which is first and last name, e-mail and business phone.

d.      The rest of your information will be pulled across from your profile that you filled out online including seat preferences, frequent flyer numbers, rental car ID numbers, etc. 

e.      Make sure and check the box that says “Remember my Details” at the bottom of the traveler information page and it will remember your name, email and phone number  the next time you go on.

f.        Again, on the next page you only have to fill out the items marked with a red asterisk which is gender and date of birth.

g.       On the Purchase Your Trip page, you can make any notes that you want the agent to know and then you can either place the trip on "HOLD" if you are not ready to confirm or "CONFIRM" if you want it to be issued.  You can also tell the agent in the comment box to book you a hotel and a car and save yourself the time of booking that yourself on the website.

h.      Once the trip has been confirmed it will be sent to an agent at CTI American Express Travel who will pull over your profile information, quality control the reservation and make sure all of the travel policies are being met.

i.         If you realize that you have made a mistake on the dates or need to change something after you have confirmed the reservation, call CTI American Express Travel and let them know so they can make the changes before ticketing.

j.        CTI does a 40 website search when you go to book your flight so that you will get the best flight for the best price.  They will send you an e-mail if you are out of policy or if they can get you a better price on the flights you need, so that you can definitely accept that better price.

5)      Where are our corporate rate hotels?

a.       Our corporate rate hotels are being entered into the system (at least the ones we know about)  If you have a negotiated rate with a hotel you need to CTI Travel know about this rate so we can get it added to the tripnet.biz system

6)      Why do I have to put in all my information every time I go into tripnet?

a.       If you have done your profile and you go on to book a flight/hotel or car you put in what flight etc. you want  and then you go to travelers details and after you put in all fields that have a red * on the first page there is a section at the bottom “Remember my details”  you click that box and then the next time all you ever have to put in is your DOB and your gender.  You will always have to put your DOB and gender as the TSA will not let them hold that information in the system.

7)      Can’t find a hotel in a specific town?

a.       Sometimes hotels you are looking for are listed differently or are in a different town or city than you think they might be so call or e-mail your agent for specifics on the hotel you are looking for.

8)      How can the afterhour’s phone line with CTI Travel help me?

a.       The afterhour’s line should be used for emergencies.  If you are stranded and need a different flight, if you need to change your flight at the last minute.  They are not equipped to answer your travel questions on a trip that you have in the future.

9)      Other helpful hints:

a.       Be an Early Bird - Whenever flying, do not book yourself on the last flight of the day. If you miss your flight you will end up stuck in an airport or hotel for the rest of the night.

b.      Check In Early - Check In at least 90 minutes before departing (overseas) or you may lose your seat. When you check your luggage, make sure they tag it directly to your destination. If you have to change airlines, you may not have enough time to claim luggage, pass through customs and immigration, and catch your next flight.

c.       To avoid being delayed at the airport, call the airline before leaving to be sure the flight is scheduled to leave on time.

d.      Using your laptop in-flight? You'll need to bring an auto/air adapter to be 'plugged in' when you fly.

e.      Remove Old Luggage Tags - One of the main reasons luggage goes to the wrong flights is because of old destination tags and check-in tags. Remove these so that the airlines don't get confused on the suitcase's destination.

f.        Upgrade Early - Upgrade as early as possible. Upgradable seats are limited. Try to upgrade as soon as you book your flight or as soon as you are allowed to upgrade according to the frequent flyer program's rule. Some airlines upgrade you right away; others automatically upgrade you at a set amount of time before departure, yet others require you to call or logon to request the upgrades when the upgrade window opens.

Added questions: 2/14/11

1)      How do you know your frequent flyer number is on your reservation/itinerary?

a.       You will see your frequent flyer number at the bottom of the itinerary and should be listed right above where it says “This ticket is non-refundable”.  It will read “Airline abbrev. Frequent Flyer and then you account number

2)      What do I put down where it says Employee Number?

a.       This CTI form is used for many companies and you do not have to put an employee number down on the profile.

3)      Can someone else book my flights or change my flights?

a.       Yes, if you have an assistant or someone else that helps you with your travel, they can go online, e-mail or call the agent on your behalf.  Make sure this person that helps with your travel knows your Date of Birth because this is a field that you do have to put in every time you book a flight, or you can book for any other company employee that you need to.

4)      Can I call CTI to set up my profile?

a.       If you have access to a computer and can go on their website and fill out your profile, this procedure is preferred so that CTI has this information directly from you BUT if you do not have access to a computer then yes, please call our corporate offiece directly at 800-800-6819 to get your profile set up.

5)      How do we handle reserving rooms and airfare for hourly employees who do not have a company credit card?

a.       Yes, you or anyone with your company can make reservations for any other employee.  If you are making an airline reservation you have to know the travelers date of birth. But for a hotel you can just book a hotel stay for anyone.

6)       If you are having the hotel directly billed to your company, then you can still have this done the same way.  There is a certain code that the travel agent uses to tell the hotel that it is a direct billed reservation or they even call the hotel you want and make the reservation over the phone.  It is very important that all airfare, hotel and car reservations are done through CTI as this is a way we can track the spending and the nights stayed at all hotels. 

a.       Also, please NOTE:  There is no charge from the travel agent for any hotel or car rental reservation; even if you call the travel agent direct there is never a charge for hotel or car reservation.

7)      You can still make the flight arrangements for any travelers and charge them to your credit card.  If you have someone who works for you and they do not have a credit card and you need them to travel, you can book them an airline ticket and charge it to your credit card.  Make sure to keep  a receipt for your expense report.

8)      When requesting a hotel please specify where actually you want them to look for the hotel.  Example:  If you tell them you want a Hilton at BWI make sure you tell them that you want a hotel at the airport because other individuals CTI may be working with may tell them they also want a hotel room at BWI and mean somewhere else in Baltimore.  It is always good to specify where you want to stay and PLEASE MAKE SURE AN LOOK OVER YOUR ITINERARY TO MAKE SURE IT IS WHERE YOU WANT TO STAY.

Online Booking Solution

CTI American Express presents our:

Online booking corporate travel management solution (OCTM)

Why your travelers don't get the best fares online themselves and what we can do to help!

1) Fact: Any given website gets the lowest fare about 60% of the time. Each website gets different fares based on several different factors. These including the way the parameters are set, how often their prices are updated and what pricing module they use for that site for that trip.

Answer:  Our specialists can assure that the lowest fare is offered. Whether it is a web fare or reservation system fare we will offer the fare and book it for you.

2) Fact: 73% of people check more than 4 different web sites when they purchase individual travel to find the lowest fare, but when purchasing corporate travel 89% check only one site.

Answer: CTI American Express Travel automatically checks 40 different websites and their prices along with our reservation system for each booking. We check all commercial and airline websites. This happens whether you book through an agent or on tripnet.biz.

3) Fact: The airlines offer mileage incentives and other perks to entice your travelers to pay higher fares. Sometimes for spending $200 extra your traveler can double their frequent flyer point earned on a specific flight. Without a third party involved in real time with full knowledge of the options this cannot be prevented.

Answer: We will not issue a ticket against your travel policy. With this standard you can be assured that no traveler goes against the policy and misuses their trip for personal gain. This effectively puts an end to the blank check that travelers take advantage of when people aren't watching.

4) Fact: Last year, 2010, 45% of travelers who booked online, without a pre-purchase audit, spent an additional 22% on average per trip and accounted for 91% of all such enticements purchased from the airlines.

Answer: There is no way to retroactively create the pricing structure for the time of ticketing. If abuse isn't caught in real time it can't be proven in most cases.  We assure this in our pre trip audit program for both on line and agent assisted tickets.

5). Fact: A company, who migrates from a post trip travel evaluation policy to a pre purchase policy compliance audit, drops their average ticket price by 21%.

Answer: This savings is a combination of savings from travel policy enforcement, pre-trip audit, capturing the savings from the 40% of times when your site doesn't have the lowest fare and the use of our contracted savings for your trips.

CTI American Express Travel's corporate travel policy management solution provides:

·       Pre- ticketing policy audit

·       Travel policy enforcement

·       Negotiated bulk rates

·       Extensive reporting

·       Upgrades

·       Rebate program participation

·       On the road traveler tracking

·       And much more



Mission Statement

"To Be The Best Meeting and Travel Management Company."

CTI pledges to our clients the highest levels of professionalism and service:

1. To serve our customers' needs with the highest level of commitment to be courteous, competent and reliable.
2. To greet all who visit our office with a friendly and helpful attitude, utilizing their names whenever possible.
3. To be an organization with whom customers are eager to do business. An industry leader in customer service, exceeding customer expectiations, insuring customer retention and new customer growth.
4. To empower employees to solve problems on the spot. Whomever receives the problem will own it, resolve it and record the result.
5. To insure all employees are well trained, listened to and suitably rewarded for a job well done. That employees feel a sense of accomplishment in their daily work, and know they make a difference.
6. To be an ambassador of our agency in and outside of the workplace. Always talk positively. communicate any concernsto the appropriate person.
7. To provide an environment that shows pride, concern and respect for our cutomers, vendors and each other.
8. To take pride in our personal appearance. Everyone being responsible for maintaining CTI's professional image by adhering to the clothing and grooming standards.

CTI Travel, Inc. sets the standard for service to meeting and business travelers. This standard means we do our best to be knowledgeable, reliable and dependable. When our clients call we will always return their call in a timely fashion, letting them know and feel our commitment to them. We NEVER show indifference to our customers needs, always servicing with

"Service A Step Above"