Travel

CSU Long Beach pays or reimburses for travel related expenses that are ordinary, reasonable, not extravagant, and necessary to conduct official University business. All expense reimbursements and business travel arrangements must comply with University procedures.

CSULB Travel Policy for travel beginning on 4-1-2011.

CSULB Travel Policy

This set of procedures has been developed to provide guidance to CSULB business travelers, approvers, and payment processors for travel conducted on behalf of California State University, Long Beach. It supplies the details to statements referenced in the CSULB Travel Policy and explains the taxability of certain reimbursements:

CSULB Travel Procedures (PDF)

CSULB Travel Procedures Effective 1-1-2024 (PDF)

As a first step in planning any trip abroad, check the Travel Advisories for your intended destination:

U.S. State Department Travel Advisories

Procedures for Giselle's Travel

Effective July 1, 2013

  1. Obtain approval to travel from your appropriate administrator. If you are using Giselle’s, you must complete the Request for Travel form and have obtained the appropriate approvals prior to booking the travel.

    Request for Travel Form (PDF)

  2. Contact Giselle's Travel at 800-388-3238 to make or review travel arrangements.
  3. When the selected flights appear to be satisfactory, a copy of the itinerary is emailed to the passenger or travel coordinator for final review before ticketing. The subject of this email will be clearly marked "RESERVATION ONLY – NOT YET TICKETED."
  4. Confirm the acceptance of the reservations back to Giselle’s and email a copy of the approved Request for Travel form to Giselle’s with a c.c. to Accounts Payable.

    Giselle’s corporateres@globaltrav.com and cc. ap-travel@csulb.edu

    On the subject line of the email, please indicate:

    The Business Unit: Travel Request – Destination - Traveler’s name - (Dept Ref)

    Subject Line Examples:

    • LBCMP: Travel Request – Sacramento, CA - Sally Traveler (212-456)
    • LBFDN: Travel Request - Colorado Springs, CO - Pete Prospector(738-576)
    • LB49R: Travel Request - New York, NY - Tom Jones (106-879)

    Giselle’s will accept a faxed copy of the approved Request for Travel at #208-387-1414 if email is temporarily unavailable.

  5. Giselle's will complete the ticketing process. The final itinerary is emailed back to the employee or the department travel coordinator, along with a copy of the passenger receipt. The format of this receipt may vary, depending on the type of ticket and the airline's requirements.

    Note - The airlines have the right to change the price of a ticket until such time as the ticket is formally issued. Giselle's cannot guarantee the price originally quoted to the traveler will still be available when the completed Travel Authorization is received. Additionally, Airlines will only allow a reservation to be held for a limited amount of time before reclaiming the seats. Failure to provide Giselle’s with an approved travel request in a timely manner could result in your fares requiring to be rebooked. If the airline reclaims the seat, Giselle's cannot guarantee that the passenger will be rebooked on the same flight or fare, due to space limitations.

    In the rare event that a paper ticket is issued, passengers will be contacted when the ticket is available so that arrangements can be made for the ticket to be delivered.

  6. All airline tickets issued by Giselle’s are directly billed to the University. These tickets are considered an advance to the traveler. A travel claim must be filed by the traveler within 30 days after returning from the trip in order to account for or clear the advance.
  7. All other travel policies and procedures remain in effect.