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Travel Program Price Audit

An independent third-party is conducting an ongoing formal audit of prices available through Pitt’s Travel Program on a quarterly basis. This audit compares the price for airfare and car rental searches to the top destinations for Pitt travel, through the following booking platforms:

  • Concur online booking tool that works in conjunction with Anthony Travel, Pitt’s contracted Travel Management Company 
  • Direct booking through the travel provider (i.e. airline or rental agency) 
  • Consolidator sites (i.e. Expedia, Orbitz, etc.) 

While the result of the audit illustrates the savings on the price of individual airfare/car rentals booked through Pitt’s Travel Program, it is important to understand the following factors in addition to price: 

About the audit: an “apples-to-apples” comparison 

There are often differences between fare types and options provided by consolidator or travel provider sites and those offered through Pitt’s Travel Program via Concur and Anthony Travel which can lead to invalid price comparisons. Therefore, the auditor included the following controls to achieve a valid comparison: 

  • The number of trip days were aligned for each city pair search. On average, trips were booked approximately 21 days in advance. In some cases, there were airline-specific contract benefits included for booking 7 days or less in advance  
  • Timeframe of search is aligned across airfares and car search is aligned with flight selected 
  • Each fare search is conducted simultaneously across sites to ensure the date/time of the actual search is consistent. 
  • Airfare and car rental class were consistent across platforms 
Additional benefits not included in audit 

There are many additional hard-to-quantify benefits provided through the Travel Program that were not considered in the price audit, including: 

  • Customer support – Four Anthony Travel agents, dedicated specifically to Pitt are available by email or phone to assist before and during your travel for bookings via Concur or Anthony Travel. Visit this page for contact information for Anthony Travel, including after business hours. 
  • Pitt’s negotiated agreements with preferred air carriers – provide various additional benefits to travelers for flights booked through the Travel Program such as free ticket changes, duty of care, and status matching. Visit this page for a full listing of additional negotiated benefits with preferred air carriers as well as information about status matching. 
  • Visit this page for a full listing of benefits for the Travel Program, including Concur, Anthony Travel and OneCard. 
The positive impact of increased volume through the Travel Program

We hope these results will encourage you to consider booking through our University Travel Program, either online or via Anthony Travel agents. By increasing the volume of travel booked through Pitt’s Travel Program, the University will benefit from greater discounts which reduce overall travel costs. Increased volume will also allow the University to negotiate with travel providers for additional benefits such as free baggage. Each department and traveler can contribute to and benefit from increased volume through the Travel Program.

Review the methodology and results of the latest audit below:

We will continue to conduct these quarterly audits to ensure the University has access to the best possible pricing.