Air, Car, and Hotel Information

Air Travel

 

 

State of California Discount Air Fare Program (YCal, GCal, UCal, VCal)

 

The Laboratory is a participant in the State negotiated discount airfares (referred to as YCal) for over 140 city-pairs for travel within California, Out of State and International for use while traveling on official business. For more information on the city-pairs, please contact the Travel Help Desk.

 

The current contract airlines are United Airlines, American Airlines, US Airways and Jet Blue. Discounts range from approximately 6% to 63% off the average airfares now paid by Lab travelers. The State of California also introduces a new VCal, GCal, and UCal 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 YCal fare continues to be the "Allowable Airfare" for LBNL employee business travel.

 

The following rules apply to LBNL's use of the State of California YCal and new VCal 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, GCal and UCal 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.