Purpose
This document explains the steps for administrators to approve travel requests in the TravelBank platform.
Audience
This article is directed toward managers with a paid TravelBank travel management account. (If you’re a traveler with a paid TravelBank travel management account, review our documentation on requesting travel approval.)
Travel booking process
Review our “Corporate travel user guide” for information on the travel booking process.
Approve travel requests
Depending on your organization's travel settings, you may need to approve a travel request before the booking can be processed.
To approve a travel request, take the following steps:
From the TravelBank left navigation menu, select Manage > Approvals. The bookings that require approval appear in your approvals queue. Note that for select airlines (that is, United, American Airlines, and Lufthansa Group) you have a defined amount of time to approve or deny flight requests (Figure 1). There is not a defined amount of time to approve or deny hotel requests.
Select the travel request you want to approve. On the Flight Request/Hotel Request page (Figure 2 and Figure 3), you can review any comments that the requesting employee provided about their booking.
To approve the booking, select Approve in the bottom-right corner of the screen (Figure 2 and Figure 3). To decline the booking, select Decline and add a reason for the decline if desired.
Sometimes the cost of the flight may change between when the employee booked it and when you approve it. In that case, there may be an additional confirmation screen (Figure 4). Select Decline or Approve Updated Cost as applicable.
Once you have approved the booking, when the requesting employee navigates back to the Trips section of the Travel page, the approved trip appears in the Upcoming tab (Figure 5).
Figure 1. TravelBank Approvals page showing approval requests, including the approval deadline
Figure 2. Flight Request page, including the approval deadline and comments from requesting employee
Figure 3. Hotel Request page, including comments from requesting employee
Figure 4. Flight Cost Has Changed dialog
Figure 5. Booking employee upcoming flight and hotel bookings
Learn about flight holds* and approval deadlines for select airlines
*Note: Flight holds are available for select airlines (that is, United, American Airlines, and Lufthansa Group).
Once an employee has submitted a travel request that requires your approval, the trip is listed in the Pending tab of the Trips page for the booking employee, and the employee can still cancel their trip. Note that for flights (for select airlines; that is, United, American Airlines, and Lufthansa Group) that require approval, you have a defined amount of time to approve or deny the requests. The approval deadline for each flight is listed on your Manage > Approvals page (Figure 6).
If you approve the request, the trip booking is confirmed and it moves to the Upcoming tab for the booking employee.
If you decline the request, you can add a reason for the decline. TravelBank then sends the booking employee a notification about the decline, including any comments you provided.
If a flight request expires before you can take action on it (Figure 7), you no longer have the option to approve or decline the request. At this point, when you select the flight request from the Manage > Approvals page, the Flight Request page is now only informational for this booking. When the flight request expires, TravelBank notifies the booking employee of the expiration, and the employee will need to book a new travel request. The expired request appears in the employee’s Past trips tab, Requests section (Figure 8), and they can close the request if they’d like.
Figure 6. Pending flight bookings showing the request expiration date and time
Figure 7. Flight approval deadline has passed
Figure 8. Flight request expired
Get help with your trip
You can cancel your hotel through the TravelBank web app or modify or cancel your flight through the TravelBank mobile app.
If you have a complex/group booking you need help with, reach out to the travel team for support:
Email reservations@travelbank.com for help with hotel booking.
Call 866-682-8785, available 24/7/365.
From the mobile app:
Select the hamburger menu in the top-left of the screen and then Chat With Us.
From the Travel page, select the chat icon at the top-right of your screen.
From the web app:
Select the question icon (that is, the Help & Support button) at the top-right of the page and then Chat With Us.
From the Travel page, select the chat link beneath the booking section of the page.
Questions?
You can chat with TravelBank support in the app or by email at support@travelbank.com.
Publish date: April 11, 2024
Last update: May 21, 2025