Using the Central Travel Account (CTA) Card to Pay for Airline Tickets

Since the implementation of our new travel management provider, Finance has received frequent questions about paying for airline tickets.

The University has provided a Central Travel Account card (CTA) for the purchase of all airline tickets.  This is a virtual card (there is no physical card) that is automatically loaded on all employee profiles in Concur.  The CTA card provides the benefit of insurance coverage for any traveler, whether an OHIO employee, guest or student.  Because it is a virtual card, the CTA card can only be used through Concur Travel or by calling a Christopherson Business Travel agent at 1-866-266-8806. 

Individuals that have a PCard in their name, may use their PCard to purchase their own ticket and still have the benefit of the insurance coverage.  However, using your PCard to purchase an airline ticket in another person’s name does not provide the benefit of the insurance coverage. This is why it is highly recommended that you use the CTA card to purchase airfare.

When booking online in Concur, you will be asked to choose a credit card to pay for the airline ticket.  If speaking with a CBT agent, tell them you want the ticket(s) charged to the CTA card.  If booking through Concur, select the CTA card for payment in the drop-down box as shown below:

All tickets booked by you will route to you in Concur so that you can substantiate and apply the correct account number to the charge, along with the booking fee.  You will substantiate just as if you had used your PCard.  As always, transactions must be added to a report and substantiated within 15 days of the transaction posting to Concur.

For additional information on how to pay for travel, please see our Paying for Travel webpage.

For assistance with booking travel, please register for the Booking Individual Travel through the Pathways website and as an additional job aid, you can use the Travel Quick Reference Guides.

Questions?  Contact Finance Customer Care at financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 597-6446.