NEWS HEADLINES:

Travel Services unveils Travel onLion, new online booking program

Training Opportunities and User Guides
Starting June 1, Penn State employees will be able to organize their trips with an enhanced online booking tool available through Penn State Travel Services.

Travel onLion will replace TravelPort, the present booking agent, and offer customers new features that will improve ease of booking, create new options for travelers, and make organizing trips easier than ever.

"It has the look and feel like Orbitz and other sites people are used to," Marguerite Gustkey, Travel Services manager, said. "It's different from what we have now and is so much more savvy."

A contest drawing featuring prizes, including a grand prize of two international tickets on United Airlines, and other incentives will be featured for first-time users during the program's preliminary release.

The new tool uses modern search capabilities to deliver a broad selection of travel at the lowest cost. Customers will be able to choose from a huge inventory of travel sources, including airlines, hotels, rental cars, and rail. Improved browser compatibilities and multi-passenger booking are some of the new features that will be available through Travel onLion.

New features include:

- Faster booking with fewer screens
- Comprehensive hotel searching capabilities
- Organizing trips for more than one passenger
- Wide selection of air, hotel, rental car, and rail inventory
- Saving frequently traveled trips
- New browser compatibilities
- Trip planning resources like maps and driving directions

Notice Regarding Travel to Mexico
April 27, 2009


The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens of the health risks of travel to Mexico at this time due to an outbreak of H1N1 "swine flu." The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an April 27 notice recommending that American citizens avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico at this time. CDC's notice also suggests precautions that travelers and U.S. citizen residents in Mexico can take to reduce their risk of infection while in Mexico. (More)

TRAVEL NEWS
Big Ten National Car Rental Agreement Renewal
We are pleased to announce that the Big Ten agreement with National Car Rental has been renewed through 31 July 2010 with no changes or rate increases to the contract. National has been a valued partner to the Big Ten and is provided continous quality service and the highest level of customer support.
Club Quarters, World Trade Center will open in September 2009
Finally, after six years of effort, Club Quarters will open a hotel at the World Trade Center across from Freedom Park and the World Trade Center Memorial and Reflecting Pools. It will have an unfettered view of the 1,776 foot high Freedom Tower. The World Trade Center hotel will have a year round indoor/outdoor Terrace Club on the 20th floor with spectacular views. Hotel rooms will feature the well received interior design in the 108 new rooms at Club Quarters, Central Loop. Fixed rates will be same as Club Quarters - Wall Street, and Club Quarters - Midtown in 2009.
A New Face in Travel Services
Travel Services is pleased to welcome Terri Barnerto the department.Terri comes to us with extensive experience in the travel industry. She can be reached at 814-865-0757 or tlb54@psu.edu
Update on the new Travel onLion Implementation
Transition from Travelport to Travel onLion has gone quite well, considering all that was involed and the number of users. If you experience any issues when you log in to Travel onLion for the first time, please contact Travel Services immediately at 814-865-0395 for assistance. We have received very positive feedback on the new features such as the ability to book up to four passengers on one reservation, the availability of rail, taxi and dinning reservations, the look and feel of other commercial booking sites and the improved ease of use. If you have not yet tried Travel onLion, please give it a try. The service fee reamins at $5.70. Travel onLion will eventually integrate with expense management, reducing the amount of time to file expense reports.
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