World Travel, Inc.

Find information about Columbia University's travel management company, World Travel, Inc (WTI).

    Columbia University has contracted with World Travel, Inc. (WTI) to assist Columbia travelers in making business travel arrangements, consistent with Columbia’s travel policies, cost considerations, and preferences.

    WTI travel services include self-service via the Concur Online Booking Tool (OBT) and assisted service over the phone via WTI Travel Counselors for reservations, including air, rail, lodging, and car rental, producing itineraries, e-tickets, and receipts. In order to book travel with WTI, travelers must maintain a travel profile that contains personal information.  In addition, when booking travel over the phone with WTI, travelers and Travel Arrangers will need to provide their Employee ID number to the WTI Travel Counselor. Your employee ID number can be found in your Concur profile and in PAC.

     

    Please review the Transaction Fee Chart for a complete description of Business Travel transaction fees booked on Concur Travel or with a WTI Travel Counselor over the phone.


    Hours of Operation

    Travel services through WTI are available 24/7/365 by calling 1-855-961-0313.

    Columbia designated Travel Counselors are available during regular business hours from  8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays).

    Please note: After regular business hours and on weekends and holidays, travel services are available through WTI’s Emergency Service Center.  Travelers and Travel Arrangers must have their Employee ID number available to provide to the WTI Travel Counselor.


    Travel Counseling

    To speak with a Columbia University designated Travel Counselor, please call: 1-855-961-0313

    If calling from outside the United States please call: 1-484-948-2514

    Routine queries may be emailed to a Columbia University designated Travel Counselor. If your query is time sensitive or if you require immediate assistance, please call a Travel Counselor at 1-855-961-0313 


    Support

    For navigational support with the Columbia University Concur Travel Online Booking Tool please call: 1-800-221-4730, Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET

    Request assistance via email with the Concur Travel Online Booking Tool.

     

    • 24/7 support from World Travel for changes, cancellations, or itinerary modifications when needed.
    • Itineraries and receipt information for travel (air, rail, hotel, car) will be fed to and available in Concur Expense.
    • Air or rail travel booked in Concur or through World Travel using the Central Pay method will be paid by the University.
    • All international travel booked on Concur or through World Travel is automatically registered for International SOS (ISOS) itinerary monitoring to receive pre-trip advisories and automatic real-time push alerts for destination countries.
    • International SOS partners with Zurich to provide health insurance for Columbia affiliates on official international Columbia-related Travel and travelers are registered for international Travel Insurance coverage through Zurich.  Visit International Travel to learn more about ISOS and Zurich.
    • Air or rail travel booked in Concur or through World Travel using the Central Pay method will include Travel Accident Insurance provided by third-party providers of Bank of America.  Policy inclusions and exclusions can be found on the Description of Coverage provided for Bank of America.
    • Travel vendor negotiated discounts are applied for travel booked on Concur or through World Travel.
    • All preferred vendors are displayed in Concur Travel as “Preferred" under the vendors name.
    • Additional benefits of our partnerships with some preferred airlines when tickets are booked via Concur Travel or through World Travel include:
    1. Fare discounts on most fare levels
    2. Name Change offering for name changes on wholly unused nonrefundable tickets for a nominal fee which allows for non-refundable funds to be used by anyone in the dept.
    3. Access to Preferred Seats, i.e. aisle, exit row or window near the front of the plane at no extra cost
    4. Priority Boarding for Delta SkyMiles® Members for early boarding

     

     

    Why am I being asked to provide my personal data to World Travel, Inc.?

    Columbia University has contracted with World Travel, Inc. (WTI) to assist Columbia travelers in making business travel arrangements, consistent with Columbia University’s travel policies, cost considerations, and preferences. WTI travel services include self-service via the Concur Online Booking Tool (OBT) and assisted service over the phone via WTI Travel Counselors for reservations, including air, rail, lodging, and car rental, producing itineraries, e-tickets, and receipts. In order to book travel with WTI, travelers must maintain a travel profile that contains personal information.

    What personal information is required of me?

    A travel profile requires the full name as it appears on the government-issued identification, date of birth, gender, mailing address (work and home), email address, telephone number (work and home). Since hotel reservations must be guaranteed and booked using a personal or corporate card, opting to add credit card information to your profile will avoid having to manually enter a card number each time a hotel booking is made. (Note: WTI is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) compliant.) There are also other optional areas of the profile that may be completed by you the traveler, such as meal preferences, seat preferences, airline, car rental, hotel loyalty numbers, and special travel requests, i.e., a request for a wheelchair and the traveler’s emergency contact information (full name, home address, and home telephone number).

    How is my personal information used?

    Your personal information is used by WTI solely to deliver travel services to you. Aggregated spend and travel data will be used to ensure we are leveraging the University’s collective spending to negotiate University-specific agreements with airlines, hotels, and car rental vendors to ensure improved services and competitive value. Additionally, reservations booked through WTI will be securely sent to International SOS (ISOS)—a leading Travel Safety and Security Services company the University has contracted with to ensure the safety and security of all individuals traveling on behalf of the University.

    Where will my travel profile exist?

    As travel reservations will be booked through Concur Travel and through the Global Distribution System (GDS), the booking system used by Travel Management Companies, your travel profile will exist in both Concur Travel and the GDS.

    Who is my information shared with?

    Beyond Concur Travel and the GDS, travel reservation information is sent to third-party travel suppliers such as airlines, hotels, train companies, rental car companies, and safety and security providers for the purposes of booking transportation and lodging. Credit card information is sent for the purpose of making payments related to travel reservations and is encrypted during the automated exchange process. Personal information including name, date of birth, Known Traveler Number, Redress Number (TSA PreCheck and Global Entry numbers), and passport information are sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Transportation Services Administration (TSA).

    How does WTI protect my personal information?

    WTI prioritizes all travelers’ security and privacy and has engaged an outside firm to audit its compliance under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI), and the AICPA’s Service Organization Control (SOC) 2, Type 2 standards on controls relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. WTI is a participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield and continually reviews its hardware, software, policies, and procedures to ensure that all data—and personal data in particular—is handled in a secure manner. World Travel’s privacy policies are publicly available and can be found at corporate.worldtravelinc.com/legal#privacy. World Travel engaged ReliaQuest in 2014 to perform traditional information security tasks like network monitoring, managing its Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)/Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), System Information and Event Management (SIEM) and maintenance of Web Application Firewalls (WAF), and works with ReliaQuest on weekly network vulnerability scans.

    If I have additional questions, who should I contact?

    Questions may be emailed to the Columbia Travel Team.

    Still have questions?

    Routine travel questions may be emailed to World Travel, Inc.

    For all other questions, visit our Finance Service Center.