We are excited to announce that in January 2025, Lehigh will introduce Lightning, an online reservation booking tool that will be replacing Concur as the University wide travel booking tool through CTP.
Lightning is the first university online booking tool to replicate the consumer travel booking experience, driving greater efficiency and adoption than ever before. Exclusive to CTP and built on their proprietary technology framework, Lightning puts the user front and center of the booking experience to deliver greater savings, productivity, and compliance. Enjoy a new level of innovation, speed, and agility with Lightning.
Concur to Lightning Transition
If you travel for Lehigh business, booking your itinerary should be as easy and convenient as planning your family vacation on platforms like Expedia and Travelocity. We heard from the campus community that Concur has not provided that user-friendly experience. As a result, Purchasing Services assembled a group of faculty and staff, who were also frequent travelers, in 2023 to evaluate another booking platform called Lightning. The platform received favorable reviews from this group. After additional demonstration sessions, the project was selected as an Organization of the Future initiative this past summer. We then held additional stakeholder demonstration sessions this fall. At this point, and based on the positive and supportive feedback from over 100 people, we are pleased to announce that Lehigh plans to transition to Lightning, an online reservation booking tool to replace Concur, in January 2025.
Lightning is set to go live on January 16th.
If you already have a Concur profile, NO. Your Concur profile will transfer over to Lightning, the only thing that will need to be input into your Lightning profile is your OneCard information. If you have not already entered your personal preferences or travel rewards program numbers etc., please do so when adding your OneCard to your profile, as that will enhance your Lightning booking experience.
YES, all previously made travel arrangments made in Concur will populate into Lightning. However, you will not be able to make changes in Lightning if needed. You can view the reservation by clicking Manage Bookings at the top of your Lightning home page, then look in the Booking Status section at the lower left. A CTP agent will need to make any changes to the itinerary.
Yes. While Lightning is easy to navigate and use, training will be held by CTP (tbd) and training resources will be available on the Travel Website. In addition, you can contact Jon Sherman at jos222 or X83841 with questions.
- Book your trip in as little as 5 clicks
- Compare product features and amenities at a glance
- Saves recent searches for easy recall
- Search hotels by points of interest including university locations
- Single-sign-on into Lightning
- Book and manage every aspect of your travel (air, hotel, car rental, and rail) in policy
- Itinerary updates, such as delays and boarding information, keep you on time and productive
- Access destination information, including maps, weather, currency, and much more at your fingertips wherever and whenever you need it, saving time and hassle on the road
- Add custom events, such as meetings and social engagements, and connect to your calendar for complete trip management and support
- Sync your itinerary as events with Calendar Connect
All business travel should be booked using your OneCard. It is highly encouraged that employees traveling on Lehigh business request a OneCard.
If you have an unused ticket credit for a flight that was originally booked with Concur, you should make every effort to use it towards a new ticket purchase in Lightning.
Yes, for international travel. For domestic travel, while it is not required that you use Lightning to book business travel, there are many advantages to using Lightning, including contracted discount pricing. Additionally, if your travel plans change or you need immediate assistance, CTP provides 24/7 service for trips booked through the agency.
During the period that Concur is down (Jan 13-15th) before Lightning is up and live (Jan 16th), if you need to to make or edit any travel arrangements please reach out to CTP directly at 888-529-1015 or lehigh@ctptravelservices.com
About Lightning
YES, you can arrange travel for up to 9 profiles and/or guests in one transaction.
YES, you can enter your frequent flier and travel loyalty program numbers in your profile. Once entered, new bookings will be linked to your loyalty program numbers and you will accrue points and your loyalty status recognition at time of booking.
YES, if you want to add a personal leg to a business flight, extra personal days to a hotel reservation, or additional car rental days, the entire trip can be booked with Lightning. The business portion of the expense should be charged to your OneCard, and the personal portion of the expense should be charged to a personal credit card.
YES, CTP Mobile is the Lightning mobile app combined with a range of handy travel tools, enabling busy travelers and travel arrangers to book and manage their travel while on the move.
- Take control – Book domestic and international air, hotel, and car rentals on the go
- Get organized – No more emails or paper trails! Book travel on the go and access trip details at your fingertips.
- Stay informed – Intuitive and personalized trip notifications delivered when and where you need them, flight status updates, gate changes, directions, and more.
Unused ticket credits are automatically applied to your cart, saving you money, and a few clicks along the way.
Lightning displays carbon emissions estimates for air, hotel, and car rentals in search results, so people can instantly see their potential impact and make greener choices.
YES, unlike Concur, Lightning can save multiple recent searches. No more walking away from your computer or hopping on a meeting only to come back and notice Concur has timed out leaving you having to start your search all over again. With Lightning you can easily pick up right where you left off!
About CTP
YES, Lightning is their proprietary booking tool and they will remain our contracted travel agency.
- Lightning and CTP collect the university’s travel and spend data for leveraging future rates with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies
- Many of Lehigh's travel policies, rules, and procedures are built into the booking process with Lightning/CTP to alert travelers up front when they are not in compliance
- CTP provides enhanced services such as name changes to re-use unused flight tickets and an extended grace period time to cancel airline reservations without penalty.
- Duty of care capabilities to notify and account for travelers in emergency or urgent situations.
CTP will match a lower price from the airline’s direct website on the identical itinerary fare .
Matching does not apply to third party travel sites such as Expedia or Kayak.
To request price matching, promptly email a screenshot from the airline’s and Lightning’s website, including as much information about the itinerary as possible, to na.pricematch@ctptravelservices.com. They will communicate next steps.
CTP and the CTM Group are proud to have worked closely with IATA and industry partners to influence the NDC’s evolution and to deliver value to our customers first.
What this means for our customers:
- CTP’s technology is NDC-ready and already delivering NDC content and benefits to customers.
- CTP’s regional technology hubs can rapidly develop, test, and deploy the latest industry innovations into our proprietary technology tools, such as Lightning online booking tools, ensuring our customers enjoy the benefits at the earliest opportunity.
- CTP does not rely on the development processes and timelines of third-party technology providers.
- CTP’s technology aggregates travel content from multiple sources – NDC, GDS, APIs – within our Content Factory, enabling us to provide customers with travel content via the most cost-effective channel
- CTM controls the timing and prioritization of content delivery for new NDC elements, while also ensuring continued risk and reporting capabilities.
Traveler Tracker + GeoRisk:
Make informed, responsible travel decisions with CTP’s Traveler Tracker + GeoRisk. Traveler Tracker + GeoRisk provides central access to real-time global travel advice relating to COVID-19 travel restrictions, including border controls, quarantine requirements, travel permits, and destination health insights, via an interactive global map and itinerary-based trip search. Users can select a country via the interactive global map, or search based on their proposed travel itinerary, to view current travel restrictions and advice, health status, and access detailed downloadable country travel guides.
Traveler tracking:
CTP’s Traveler Tracker platform supports your duty of care program by tracking travelers’ locations via their travel itinerary, anywhere in the world. Updated in real-time and fully integrated with the individual’s travel itinerary, CTP’s interactive global mapping tool provides an instant picture of country-by-country risk levels via a color-coded map.
Travel risk alerts:
CTP Risk Alerts is a risk management dispatch solution keeping travelers abreast of developing travel risks as they happen.