Air, Car, and Hotel Information

Air Travel

 

 

State of California Discount Air Fare Program

 

The Laboratory is a participant in the State negotiated discount airfares (referred to as YCal) for several city-pairs for travel within California, Out of State and International for use while traveling on official business. For more information on city-pairs/allowable airfares, please contact the Travel Help Desk.

 

The current contract airlines are United Airlines and Virgin America. Discounts range from approximately 6% to 63% off the average airfares now paid by Lab travelers. The State of California also introduces a VCal and ECal fare to certain markets. These lower State of California fares follow the same rules as YCal fares, but are capacity controlled. LBNL travelers are expected to use a State of CA YCal fare if traveling on official business to a YCal market.

 

The United Airlines YCal fare continues to be the "Allowable Airfare" for LBNL employee business travel for contract year July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009.

 

The following rules apply to LBNL's use of the State of California YCal and new ECal airfares:

 

  • Reservations and ticketing must be done by Carlson Wagonlit (1-888 243-1125) or TravelPOWER-Cliqbook.
  • Tickets must be charged on the Lab's airline central billing account. (Travelers may not charge tickets to individual credit cards).
  • Fares are valid only on the YCal Carrier.
  • Fares are valid only between specific city pairs included in the program.
  • Fares can only be used for official travel.
  • There are no advance purchase requirements for State of California fares (Reservations may be made at any time, but tickets do not need to be issued until plans are certain).
  • YCal seats are not part of a special inventory or capacity controlled.
  • VCal and ECal seats are part of a special inventory and are capacity controlled.
  • Tickets are fully refundable and changeable with no penalties.
  • Fares listed in the downloads above are shown as State of California one-way fares and round-trip fares (including tax). These fares can be used round-trip or point-to-point. Fares can fluctuate a small amount due to added airline/airport surcharges.

 

United Airlines Discounts

 

United Airlines offers LBNL a 2%-10% discount agreement on selected Domestic and International airfares in the Published Airline Tariff.

This discount applies only to tickets issued through CarlsonWagonlit Travel/Cliqbook. Travelers who choose to purchase their tickets outside are responsible for knowing their allowable/maximum reimbursable airfare prior to ticketing. Click HERE for more information.