Travel for UNOLS meetings, workshops and other official business will be reimbursed by the University of Washington (UW) after approval by the UNOLS Office at the School of Oceanography/UW. The following rules and guidelines should answer most of your questions regarding allowable costs and procedures; please read them before your trip. If you have any additional questions, please email the UNOLS Office or call 206-543-5060.
Upon completion of your travel, please submit the UNOLS Travel Claim Form. All travel claims much be completed within 60 days of travel.
UNOLS Travel Guidelines
- Travel Expense: Travel expenses reimbursed by the UNOLS Office under the terms of the cooperative agreement with the federal funding agencies must adhere to the approved federal per diem rates unless specifically authorized for higher rates. Access the federal per diem rates for the area you are traveling to here.
- Airline Reservations: Except for Federal employees, UNOLS travelers are not eligible for the GSA contracted airline rates. The UNOLS Office can only provide reimbursement for the cost of coach seats. All UNOLS travel must be in compliance with the Fly America Act. In order to keep travel costs within budget, it will be necessary for UNOLS travelers to make their best efforts to obtain lower airfares and use the lowest logical cost, and observe/exclude any fees due to personal preferences or convenience not necessary/critical to UNOLS business. Some of the factors that can reduce airline costs are to reserve flights early enough to get advance ticketing discounts, shop airlines and destination or departure cities. Please book your flights with your own agent or online with the air carrier. Reimbursement for the airfare should be included in your travel claim following the meeting. Please submit scan of your itinerary showing airline and class of service, and your airfare receipt indicating that payment was made and showing the cost paid. Itineraries without proof of payment will not be accepted as receipts for reimbursement.
- Personal travel combined with business: If you are planning to arrive early or stay extra days for other business or personal days outside the meeting dates please follow these steps:
- Traveler is required to print an online airfare quote for the UNOLS "business portion" dates of travel. This quote should reflect the lowest logical cost, and observe/exclude any fees due to personal preference or convenience not necessary/critical to UNOLS business. This printed quote must be done at the time of airfare booking to ensure dates are compliant with business travel dates and must show options for multiple airlines. The comparison itinerary can come from another traveler's itinerary which accurately depicts what the traveler would have done for business only, a travel agency or an online travel provider. Quotes printed after travel is completed will not be accepted.
- Book the airfare for your actual trip (including extra days).
- Request reimbursement using the least expensive airfare amount, whether this is the quote from #1 above or the cost of the actual airfare.
- Include all quotes and actual airfare receipts with your request for reimbursement
- UW will not reimburse airline change fees for personal convenience. Reimbursement for a flight change will be reimbursed only when accompanied by a written request by Doug Russell or Alice Doyle requesting that you change your flight to accommodate business related to the UNOLS event that you are attending.
- UW will reimburse baggage fees for one bag per flight only. UW will not reimburse for overweight baggage or any additional fees such as extra legroom.
- Receipts: Please keep receipts for travel expenses as noted below; you will be required to submit scanned receipts for most reimbursable expenses except for meals.
- Receipts are required for Airfare, rental cars, lodging, rail travel (except subway or other in-city rail), any miscellaneous expense (such as cabs) $75 or over
- Receipts are not required for meals, miscellaneous expenses under $75
- Per Diem: Per diem reimbursement will be for actual lodging expense (up to approved per diem rate) plus meals and incidentals at the per diem rate. One of the following must be submitted with your lodging claim:
- A scanned lodging receipt that shows the detail of daily charges, OR
- An emailed reservation from an online booking site that shows the actual (not averaged) daily room rate and associated tax/fee showing that payment was made, OR
- An emailed reservation from an online booking site showing the actual (not averaged) daily room rate and associated tax/fee QUOTE, accompanied by a credit card receipt or line item that matches exactly.
- Travel Claims/Receiving Reimbursement for Travel: Complete the UNOLS Travel Claim Form and submit it online. At this point, please email all receipt scans that are required as noted above to Su Tipple at travel@unols.org. When your claim is ready Su will email it to you. Check it over for completeness and then either e-sign or hand-sign it and email it back; she will submit it with the receipts, and within about 2 weeks UW Payables will mail a check to the home address you indicated on your claim form. (We use your home address for mailing as institutional addresses tend to be long and the space we're allowed for mailing address in the UW's online travel system is very limited.)
- International Travel: Contact Su Tipple at travel@unols.org for more information.
- Non-UW Travelers: Starting 1 July 2023 UW will now be complying with IRS regs as far as taxable reimbursements goes. For all non-UW reimbursees, travel reimbursements over $600 will be taxable. Travelers with taxable reimbursements will receive a 1099 from UW. This can be claimed as a business expense on the traveler's taxes.