Frequently Asked Questions

Split ticketing means booking two or more separate tickets for different legs of the same trip rather than one round-trip or multi-city ticket.
For example, you may have one ticket for Lehigh → Chicago and a separate ticket for Chicago → Denver.
This method often offers lower fares or more schedule options.

Yes. Because each ticket is issued separately, a service fee applies per ticket. This ensures transparent billing and supports the additional work required to manage multiple reservations.

Split ticketing can be beneficial when:

• It provides a lower total cost than a traditional fare.
• You need flexibility to change one segment without affecting the entire itinerary.
• Carriers offer better schedules when booked separately.

Your advisor will only recommend it when it is the best value and fit for your travel needs.

Split tickets act as independent reservations, so:

• If one flight is delayed or canceled, the other carrier is not obligated to rebook you.
• You may need to recheck bags between flights if traveling on different airlines.
• Minimum connection times may be longer since you are technically starting a new trip for each ticket.

Your advisor will always discuss these considerations and help you choose the safest option.

Absolutely. One advantage of split ticketing is flexibility:

• You can modify one leg without touching the others.
• Change fees and fare differences are handled by the airline that issued that specific ticket.

A CTP advisor can help you evaluate the best approach if plans shift.

Yes! In fact, many travelers find split ticketing easier at check-in:

• You check in with each airline directly.
• You can manage each segment independently.
• If one airline offers earlier check-in windows, you can take advantage without waiting on the other.

If the fare decreases within 24 hours of purchasing your ticket, you may cancel and rebook at the lower fare. This applies even to nonrefundable tickets.

No. When canceled within the 24-hour window, the original reservation is voided, and no unused ticket is created. You can then rebook the lower fare as a new reservation

After 24 hours, airline tickets can no longer be voided.
If you choose to cancel your itinerary after the 24-hour period:

• The ticket becomes an unused nonrefundable ticket associated with the traveler.
• Airline change rules and any applicable fare differences will apply when reusing the ticket for future travel.

If you believe your fare has dropped:

• Contact CTP for assistance, or
• Cancel and rebook directly only if still within the 24-hour void window.

Your travel advisor can confirm eligibility and help determine the best option.

Most major U.S. carriers offer a 24-hour void window for tickets booked outside of 7 days from departure. Some restrictions may apply based on airline policy, time of day, or fare type.  If you’re unsure, CTP can assist you in verifying your specific itinerary.

Yes. Rebooking at the lower fare will generate a new ticket, and a standard CTP service fee will apply.

If you encounter a booking error, system glitch, login issue, or any other technical difficulty in Lightning, your first step should be to contact CTP’s Online Support Desk.

They can assist with:

• Error messages
• Browser or compatibility issues
• Payment or profile problems
• System navigation questions
• General troubleshooting

Online Support Desk
📞 877-208-1396
✉️ na.online@travelctm.com
🕒 Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM ET

If your travel is time-sensitive and you are unable to complete your booking due to technical issues:

1. Contact a CTP travel agent immediately.
2. Let the agent know that you attempted to book your trip online but were unable to complete the reservation due to a technical error.
3. The agent will assist you with booking and will apply the online service fee, since the attempt began in the Online Booking Tool.

Lehigh University Travel Agent Team
📞 888-529-1015 or 303-228-1689
✉️ lehigh@ctptravelservices.com
🕒 Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM ET
🌙 After-Hours Support (7:00 PM – 8:00 AM ET, weekends & holidays) available for urgent needs

You may try:

• Refreshing the page
• Logging out and back in
• Switching browsers (Chrome is recommended)

If the error persists, please contact Online Support to ensure the issue is fully resolved and doesn’t impact future bookings.

If your booking could not be completed in Lightning due to a technical issue, CTP will apply the online service fee rather than the agent-assisted fee.
Just make sure to inform the agent that you experienced an error in the OBT and to assess the online service fee. 

For troubleshooting and OBT-related assistance, contact Online Support.

For travel planning, itinerary changes, or agent support needs, contact the Lehigh Travel Agent Team.

Per Lehigh University’s travel policy, travelers are eligible to book Premium Economy only when an individual flight segment exceeds 5 hours in duration.

If your flight leg is 5 hours or less, Premium Economy is not permitted and must not be selected.

If you are eligible based on flight length:

• Select the Premium Economy fare option displayed at booking.
• Lightning will show the eligible fare category when your itinerary qualifies.

If you select regular Economy, you will not have access to Premium Economy features or seats.

If you choose an Economy fare:

• You will see standard economy seats as well as any paid seat options (such as preferred or extra-legroom) on the seat map.
• You may select and purchase a paid seat if desired; however, paid seat upgrades are not reimbursable under Lehigh’s travel policy.

Please review your options carefully before selecting a seat to avoid any out-of-pocket expenses.

Lightning now displays all available seat types, including:

• Extra-legroom seats
• Preferred seats
• Exit-row seats with an upcharge
• Any seat requiring an additional fee

While these can be selected in Lightning, any paid seat upgrade is considered a personal expense and is not eligible for reimbursement per Lehigh University’s travel policy.

Travelers who wish to avoid personal charges should select from the no-cost standard economy seats displayed.

Yes. Lightning is programmed to follow Lehigh’s travel policy.

If your flight segment is under 5 hours, Premium Economy options will:

• Not be displayed, or
• Be restricted, depending on the airline

This ensures compliance and keeps your itinerary within policy.

You can always reach out for guidance:

Lehigh Travel Agent Team
📞 888-529-1015 / 303-228-1689
✉️ lehigh@ctptravelservices.com
🕒 Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM ET
🌙 After-Hours Support available for urgent changes

A lower-cost fare that:

• Rarely allows cash refunds unless the airline cancels or changes flights significantly.
• Allows reuse of the ticket value for future travel (subject to fare rules).
• Requires payment of a change fee (depending on airline).

Most institutional travel is booked using non-refundable fares due to their cost savings.

A fully flexible fare that:

• Allows changes or cancellations without penalty.
• Returns the value to the original form of payment.
• Typically costs more than non-refundable options.

Refundable fares are ideal for volatile travel situations.

A refundable fare is recommended when:

• Travel is highly likely to change (e.g., hiring candidates, VIP visits, leadership travel).
• Grant or funding rules require refunds rather than ticket credits.
• Multiple legs or international routings increase the chance of change.
• Traveler requires maximum flexibility or is unsure of dates.
• Policy requires refundable fares for certain groups (executive leadership, external candidates, etc.).

A non-refundable fare makes sense when:

• Travel dates are firm or unlikely to change.
• Departments seek to maximize cost savings.
• The traveler frequently flies the same carrier and can easily use credits.
• Airline corporate programs allow fee waivers or favorable reuse terms.
• Compliance with grant or departmental budgets requires the lowest logical fare.

Refundable fares prevent accumulation of unused credits; ideal for travelers who rarely fly or departments with low reuse volume.

Yes, Lightning:

• Clearly labels refundable fares
• Provides fare rules before purchase
• Is policy-configured to enforce refundable/non-refundable logic by traveler group

Absolutely. CTP offers:

• Traveler-level unused ticket reports
• Alerts for credits within 30/60/90 days of expiration
• Integrated unused-ticket prompts in the booking workflow

Yes — you still receive almost all airline credit-card perks. As long as your frequent flyer loyalty number associated with that airline credit card is in your reservation, you will still receive benefits like:

• Free checked bags (from credit-card membership)
• Priority or earlier boarding groups
• Preferred seating access
• Eligibility for upgrades

The only exception:

You will not earn the credit-card bonus miles/points for the airfare purchase, because your personal credit card was not used to pay for the ticket.

Because airline credit-card travel perks are linked to your loyalty account number, not the form of payment.

Example: If you have an airline’s co-branded credit card (United Explorer, Delta Gold, AA Citi Platinum, Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier, etc.), the perks are attached to your frequent flyer profile.

When that profile is added to your reservation, the airline recognizes you as a cardholder and automatically applies the benefits, regardless of which credit card was charged.

You will still get all loyalty-number–linked perks, including:

From your co-branded airline credit card:

• Free checked bags
• Priority boarding
• Preferred or extra-legroom seating access (varies by airline)
• Discounts on in-flight purchases
• More upgrade opportunities (some cards offer enhanced upgrade priority)
• Cardholder-only fare or seat promotions

From your elite status (if applicable):

• Additional free bags
• Complimentary upgrades
• Priority check-in/priority security
• Bonus flight miles/points
• Better seat selection options

None of these are impacted by the Lehigh OneCard being used for payment.

Credit-card purchase-based bonus miles/points will not be received. 

Example: Your personal airline credit card usually gives 3x, 5x, or more points when you use it to purchase airfare.

• Because the purchase is made with the Lehigh OneCard, those bonus points do not apply.

Additional payment-based items you may miss (depends on the card):

• Trip delay/cancellation/interruption insurance
• Lost baggage reimbursement
• Rental car insurance
• Purchase protection

These are tied to the form of payment, not the loyalty number.

Yes — absolutely. You earn frequent flyer miles/points based on:

• Fare class
• Distance or revenue (depending on the airline)
• Your loyalty program’s structure
• Any elite-status multipliers

These earnings are based on the flight taken, not the credit card used for payment.

Yes. Airlines provide credit-card free checked bags based on:

• Your loyalty account being linked to a qualifying co-branded credit card
  NOT the form of payment.

As long as your frequent flyer number is added to the reservation, the system identifies you as a cardholder and applies the benefit. If this is not automatically applied, you just need to show the check-in agent your airline credit-card. 

Yes. Priority boarding tied to holding the airline’s co-branded card is based on your loyalty profile, not on the card being used to pay for the ticket.

Reasons include:

• Audit requirements
• Funding and grant compliance
• Centralized reconciliation
• Avoiding personal benefit from institutional spend
• Tracking traveler safety and risk management
• Minimizing reimbursement processes

Using the OneCard does not affect your personal airline-loyalty benefits.

Make sure your frequent flyer numbers (United MileagePlus, Delta SkyMiles, AA AAdvantage, Southwest Rapid Rewards, etc.) are:

• Added to your CTP traveler profile
• Attached to any reservation made online or with an advisor

This ensures all credit-card and elite-status perks populate correctly.

• 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 Lehigh OneCard. It is highly encouraged that employees traveling on Lehigh business that do not have a OneCard, request a OneCard asap.

Yes, for all international travel. For domestic travel, while it is not required that you use Lightning/CTP 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.

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!

YES, Lightning is their proprietary booking tool and they will remain our contracted travel agency.

1. Lightning and CTP collect the university’s travel and spend data for leveraging future rates with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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.