Travel planning

All trips should be planned well in advance in order to benefit from the most reasonable prices. Your admin assistant must create a travel budget for all international travel, which bears the funding source etc and forseeable expenses. Therefore please inform by email the reason for travelling, and conference website link BEFORE ANY BOOKING.

- Register for conferences early enough to benefit from the early registration fee - check deadline.

- Permission to attend optional banquet evenings should be obtained by email from your professor prior to registering, otherwise it will not be reimbursed.

- Flights are in economic class and reflect the most reasonably priced. You can plan vacation days around the conference dates, but the overall flight price should not cost more. If is does, you should be prepared to pay the extra cost. Any connecting flights used for personal vacation are to be born by the traveller. Long haul flights should preferably be booked through the EPFL CWT (Carlson Wagonlit) office.

For travel booking through CWT, you are required to fill in a travel profile; nothing can be reserved before this is done: https://portal.carlsonwagonlit.com/

Simple european flights may be booked online, in which case the lab credit card and NOT your personal one, must be used. In this case, you are strongly advised to announce your travel to International SOS, see: https://securite.epfl.ch/travel

- Train tickets for journeys inside Switzerland, including those to and from the airport, should be booked beforehand through your lab secretary. European tickets should also be booked through CWT/admin assistant, or online using the lab credit card. Any changes should be done through CWT/admin assistant, and not individually.

- Travel by private car is not considered an economical option, unless 2 or 3 people are travelling together or the destination is complicated to reach by public transport. It is also possible to rent a Mobility car for professional travel. Consult the lab secretary.

- Only accommodation and meals during the established visit/conference and 1 night before and/or after will  be reimbursed. To make this clear; if the visit/conference is from Monday to Friday, accommodation and meals will be considered only from Sunday evening to Saturday morning. n.b. Expenses outside these limits used for personal vacation or travel must be paid for personally, so please bear this in mind when booking the flights.

- A *** category hotel is authorised (100-120€ per night is considered acceptable). A superior category may be permitted if duly motivated and accepted in advance by your professor. A credit card guarantee will be required to reserve the hotel, but in most cases you must be prepared to pay the bill yourself when you leave. If you are sharing a double room for personal reasons, you must pay the difference between a single and double room, plus the taxes and breakfast for this person. Ask the hotel reception when you arrive to prepare 2 bills: 1 for you and one for the remainder.

- Visa fees, if necessary for entry into a particular country, will be paid for, but the person travelling is responsible for obtaining it in time. Make visa applications well in advance. ESTA applications should be done through the official ESTA website: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/application.html?execution=e2s1

- Membership dues, if used to reduce conference registration fees, will be paid for if accepted in advance by your professor.

- Put your absences in the lab calendar. If you're taking personal leave and travelling outside the conference dates, this should be taken off your vacation days.

EPFL travel information can be found here: https://voyages.epfl.ch/welcome