The Controller’s Office is committed to continuously improving the tools that support our faculty and staff. In response to your feedback, we are excited to announce that FSU will be transitioning from Concur Travel booking to Lightning, a modern, user-first booking platform designed to simplify and elevate your travel booking experience. The anticipated go-live date for this transition is August 4th.
New Features
Lightning introduces several immediate upgrades built around FSU’s actual travel needs:
- Book up to 9 travelers at once: Easily book for a mix of faculty, staff, and guests in a single reservation, which means no more fragmented bookings.
- Flexible split payments: Assign different credit cards per traveler or group, making shared trips and guest travel easy to manage.
- Real-time frequent flyer perks: Your traveler status is recognized and applied automatically at booking, unlocking seat perks and upgrades instantly.
- Expanded seat selection: Purchase premium or extra legroom seats during checkout (including the option to use a personal card for non-reimbursable upgrades).
- Seamless unused ticket credits: Available credits automatically surface during the booking process, allowing you to apply them directly without extra steps or phone calls.
What Remains the Same
While the tool is changing, our foundational support and guidelines remain intact:
- FSU Travel Policies: All university travel policies and approval workflows remain unchanged.
- Concur: Concur will continue to be used to obtain all required travel request approvals in Lightning as well as to process expense reports after the trip is completed.
- Dedicated Support: You will continue to receive dedicated service from Collegiate Travel Planners (CTP), our trusted travel partner.
Next Steps
To facilitate this system upgrade and migrate all traveler profiles, online travel booking will be temporarily unavailable from July 24th through August 3rd. If you require immediate travel arrangements during this maintenance window, CTP will be fully available to assist you by phone.
We will share additional details and upcoming training opportunities in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can check out Lightning resources, FAQs, etc., on the Lightning transition website.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to travel@fsu.edu.
