# Managing Brex travel Get answers to all of your questions regarding Brex **URL Source:** https://www.brex.com/support/managing-brex-travel --- ## Overview Brex travel is your managed travel solution for individual and [group events](https://www.brex.com/brex-travel-group-events), integrated with Brex card and expense management. You can track company bookings, set policy rules, and manage travel-related expenses from your Brex dashboard or app. Once admins configure access and policies, employees can complete their traveler profile, request a travel spend limit, and book within policy. If you previously used unmanaged travel tools, consolidating into Brex travel streamlines control, visibility, and reconciliation. ## Eligibility and roles If you’d like an employee to manage travel for your organization, assign them the [Travel admin role](https://www.brex.com/brex-role-types-and-permissions) or a [custom role](https://www.brex.com/custom-roles) with Manage travel permissions. Employees, account admins, card admins, and travel admins can request travel spend limits, book travel, and enable other employees to book on their behalf (including designated managers with these roles). Users can access the _Trips_ tab in their dashboard after they’ve accepted their invitation to Brex. **Note: **You can only add users for business (non‑leisure) travel. All Brex travel users must be 18 years of age or older. ## Enabling travel To book and manage trips with Brex travel, you can use the _Trips _tab in your Brex dashboard or the _Trips _page in your app. Account and card admins can enable Brex travel in _Company settings_ > _Plan_ by clicking _Enable travel. _ Account and card admins can request that a Brex representative enable Brex travel for them by going to _Company settings_ > _Plan_ > and clicking _Talk to Sales_. ### Disabling travel Please reach out to Brex Support to have Brex travel disabled. ## Add and edit users If you have Brex travel enabled on your account, all employees will have access to book travel. If you have Brex travel enabled on your account, account admins, card admins, and any user with updated user access permissions can customize a user’s permissions by going to _Team_ > select a team member > _Roles & access_ > toggle Book trips on/off. ## Deactivated users ### Upcoming trips If a user's account is [deactivated](https://www.brex.com/manage-users), any upcoming bookings made under that account will remain valid unless canceled. Account and card admins can either generate a booking report or contact Brex travel support to view and manage these bookings. There are two options for handling these bookings: 1. Cancel the booking(s) and forfeit any payment made. 2. Cancel the booking(s) and request a refund or credit directly from the provider. ### Airline credits Depending on the circumstances, you might be able to transfer airline credits from a deactivated user account to a collective company pool of credits. Please reach out to Brex travel support to begin this process. ## Traveler profile To start booking with Brex travel, complete your traveler profile under _Trips _> _Manage profile _in your Brex dashboard, or tap the settings icon in the top right of your screen in your Brex app and go to _Travel _> _Traveler profile_. To make booking faster in the future, customize your profile with contact information, preferences, and loyalty programs. ### Contact information Add your general contact information, such as gender, date of birth, phone number, address, passport or travel documents, Known Traveler Number, passport information, emergency contacts, and more. ### Name Your name must exactly match the government-issued ID that you will use for your trip. This cannot be a nickname or preferred name. If you need to change the name used on your bookings, go to the _Traveller details _when booking a trip or in the _Personal _section of your traveler profile. If you need additional help, [contact Travel support.](https://www.brex.com/contact-and-support) ### Preferences Choose your flight preferences, preferred alliances, preferred airlines, cabin and seats, seat amenities, meal preferences, fare attributes, and alert notifications. ### Loyalty programs You can add your favorite loyalty program membership information across flights, hotels, and rental cars to earn loyalty points when booking on Brex travel. Follow the steps below to add this information, and we’ll store it for future relevant bookings. **Step 1:** From your _Traveler profile_, go to _Loyalty programs_. **Step 2: **Depending on whether you want to add airline, hotel, or rental car loyalty numbers, click on the airplane, hotel, or car logo. **Step 3:** Click _+ _to search for your loyalty program and enter your program number. Click _Save_. ### Known Traveler Number You can add your TSA PreCheck Known Traveler Number (KTN) into your traveler profile to have it automatically added to applicable bookings made through Brex travel. **Step 1: **In your Brex travel profile, click _Personal_. **Step 2: **Enter your KTN number in the _KTN/TSA-Pre_ field and save your changes. A KTN or Global Entry number can also be added post-booking, but it must be added before check-in for it to reflect on your ticket. **Note: **The traveler information in your traveler profile must match the government-issued ID that you used with the US Department of Homeland Security application for the KTN. If not, your booking won’t reflect your TSA PreCheck. ### Notifications settings You or your account copilot can enable or disable notifications related to trips and Brex travel by following these steps. **Step 1: **In your dashboard, go to _Trips _> _Manage profile _> _Preferences_. **Step 2: **In the _Alerts _section, check or uncheck the box beside the alerts you do or do not want to receive. Any alert toggled on will also go to your account copilot. **Note:** By default, confirmation emails and flight notifications will be turned on. ## Bookings ### Add a booking to an existing trip By consolidating related bookings into a trip, you only need to pay a single trip fee, rather than a trip fee per booking. You can do this on the _Trips_ page > _Add booking _and select your desired existing trip. ### View and manage bookings The _Bookings_ tab provides admins with a display of all employee travel arrangements. This table allows for the creation of custom views; for example, you can filter for out-of-policy bookings to streamline review and approval/decline decisions. ### Add booking to calendar You can add your bookings to Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Office 365, and Yahoo Calendar from the dashboard or app by following these steps: **Step 1: **Go to _Trips_ or, after you’ve booked a trip, click _Manage booking _in your confirmation email. **Step 2:** Click the booking. **Step 3: **Under the _Booked on_ date, click _Add to calendar._ ### Google Calendar integration You can integrate Brex travel with Google Calendar to auto-add your bookings. **Step 1: **In your dashboard, click your name in the top right and go to _Personal settings_. **Step 2: **Go to _Brex travel integrations_ > _Connect to Google Calendar_ and click _Connect_. **Note:** If applicable, please make sure you’ve whitelisted the Brex Travel calendar in your Google API permissions. ## Travel limits ### Choose a travel limit With Brex travel, every trip will be assigned to a limit that you designate prior to booking. Travel can be booked using the card tied to the travel spend limit or, if eligible, a personal credit card. If provisioned by an account or card admin, employees may also use their employee card limit. The designated limit must be able to accommodate the cost of the trip, or the booking will fail. A travel spend limit is often provided to you if you’re invited to an event but if there is no spend limit listed, you can request a new travel spend limit. In your travel spend limit request, you can provide a trip name, the purpose of the trip, means of travel, destination, proposed departure dates, and a spend limit. Once the requested spend limit has been approved, you can begin booking.  ### Create/request travel spend limit **Step 1: **Request a travel spend limit. **Note:** You won’t be able to modify the existing fields. **Step 2:** Under _How you are traveling_**, **select either** **round trip air, one-way air, or other. **Step 3: **Under _From_**, **enter in your departing airport. Under _To_**, **enter in your arrival airport. **Step 4:** Under _Depart on_, enter in your departing date. Under _Return on_, enter in your arrival date. **Step 5: **Under _Location of stay_, enter your city of stay. **Step 6: **Toggle _I don’t know my travel dates_** **to either on or off. - If you don’t know your travel dates or if your trip involves multiple cities, toggle the button on. - If you do know your travel dates or if your travel does not involve multiple cities, leave the toggle off**.** Whether the toggle is on or off, you can manually enter the spend limit amount you think you need to take your trip under _Spend limit to request_. If you’re not sure what limit to give your travel spend limit, your dashboard can generate a suggested dollar amount after you enter your trip details. ### Assign travel limit If enabled by your account admin, Brex will automatically apply the transaction to the appropriate limit if you also choose to enable this feature. You won’t be notified to take action. If you are not using [Automatic limit selection](https://www.brex.com/spending-on-spend-limits), you must assign your travel spend limit to your Brex card prior to your trip so that your current and future incurred travel expenses map correctly. Before your trip, we’ll send a push notification to your mobile device reminding you to switch your card to the correct travel spend limit. By tapping the notification and following the in-app instructions, you can select the right travel spend limit. You can also press and hold the notification directly to activate your travel spend limit. Travel spend limits generally aren’t relevant anymore after your trip ends, so we’ll send you another push notification after your trip to reassign your card to your original spend limit. You can tap the notification to follow the in-app instructions and select the right spend limit. You can also press and hold the notification directly to change your spend limit. ### Manage travel spend limit requests To manage and view travel spend limit requests, the spend limit approver will see approval requests in their dashboard. When a spend limit is given a soft limit, employees can spend above their limit threshold, but the transaction will be flagged for review. By default, account, card, and travel admins are set as approvers of these transactions, though they can either designate a different user to act as the final approver or add an additional approver. Adding an additional approver creates a chain of approvals that will go to the designated approver first and the admin second. Approvers — account, card, travel admin, or someone they’ve designated — can view, manage, and approve trip spend limit requests or flexible spend limit overages in their dashboard _Tasks_. ## Approvals and policy enforcement ### Configure approvals You can customize your approval settings by editing the policy and enabling Brex travel airline, lodging, or car policy categories. ### In your dashboard Follow the steps below to configure approvals in your dashboard once you have Brex travel enabled: **Step 1:** Go to Card and limits > Manage policies and select your policy. **Step 2: **Click Edit policy and click Continue. **Step 3:** (If not already added) Choose from any of the following, depending on the type of policy approval you want to implement: - Add airline expenses - Add car rental expenses - Add lodging expenses **Note:** We don’t yet support approvals for rail travel. **Step 4:** On the Brex travel category you want to add the rule to, click _Edit_. **Step 5:** Open the dropdown below _Booking policy enforcement_ and choose from _None_, _Notification_, or _Approval_. Once set, you can expect to see the following notifications: - Any employee booking travel will be notified whether their spend limit policy requires further approval when they make out-of-policy bookings. - Approvers will receive an email notification regarding the out-of-policy booking, which they can approve in their dashboard through Tasks or under the booking details in Travel. Admins can view the history for a particular booking at the bottom of its details window. If the traveler violated a travel policy(s), the booking will contain this information and show approvers how much time they have to approve the booking. ### Out-of-policy booking approvals Out-of-policy booking approvals let you determine how your employees’ out-of-policy bookings will be addressed so that your organization maintains travel compliance. You can either require that the booking be sent to you for approval or have the booking automatically confirmed. If the booking is automatically confirmed, you’ll receive a notification and can cancel the booking if you choose to. If you choose to require admin approval, bookings will be canceled automatically if not approved before the booking void window* expires. If you choose to receive notifications, you can cancel an employee’s travel booking before the void window expires at no charge. You won’t need to take any action if you choose to forgo out-of-policy booking approvals. *_The booking void window is the time period between the travel being booked and the payment being processed. The length of the void window depends on the travel vendor—some vendors may delay the charge while others process it shortly after booking._ ## Trip fees Brex may charge a single fee per trip, which can include an itinerary with multiple bookings. A trip is created by booking a flight, hotel, or rental car, with additional bookings added. You can add another booking to an existing trip without a charge, but every new trip created will incur a trip fee. ### Essentials You won’t be charged a trip fee. ### Premium+ Your invoice shows trip fees as a single total for the billing period, not an itemized list of trips. To view the total, go to _Company settings_ > _Billing_ > _Invoices_. To see which trips make up that total, use the per-trip breakdown described below. To see the individual trips included in an invoice, go to _Travel > Trips_ and apply the _Billable at_ filter, setting the date range to match your invoice statement period. This shows every trip billed in that period and totals them. To avoid excess trip fees, travelers may want to arrange transportation and accommodation under a single trip. For example, if you’re meeting with clients in New York and Boston, your single trip in Brex may include a roundtrip flight, hotel stays in both cities and a rental car between cities. For questions relating to the trip fee, please contact your customer success manager. ## Receipts If [enabled](https://www.brex.com/receipts-for-expenses), receipts are automatically generated and attached to bookings whenever we can match your booking details to the amount of the transaction on your Brex card for airfare, prepaid lodging, or prepaid car rental purchases. If we cannot automatically generate a receipt, but your travel expense requires one, you can provide documentation using one of the following methods: #### Option 1: Booking confirmation email You can download the original booking confirmation email in your inbox—which typically includes a PDF version of your booking—and upload it to the corresponding transaction. #### Option 2: Download itinerary via the Brex dashboard or mobile app To retrieve the itinerary from your Brex account: **Step 1:** From your Brex dashboard or mobile app, go to _Trips_. **Step 2: **Click or tap the relevant trip and, in the _Booking details _window, click or tap _View booking. _**Step 3: **Choose _Download _and attach the downloaded itinerary to the related expense in _Expenses. _For more information, please refer to this [help article](https://www.brex.com/receipts-for-expenses). #### Option 3: Hotel folio If a hotel folio isn’t automatically provided at the front desk or sent via email following your stay, you can ask the hotel for one upon checkout. For more information, please refer to this [help article](https://www.brex.com/brex-travel-hotel-bookings). ## Refunds ### Trip fee refunds Trip fees are generally nonrefundable. In the unlikely event of a ticketing failure, a refund will be issued for the trip fee. **Note: **Refunds cannot be provided in the form of Brex points. If the airline cancels the flight, we’ll refund the booking fee you incurred as part of your ticket purchase. This refund only applies when the airline initiates the cancellation, and not when you cancel your booking on your own. ### Booking refunds If the reservation you’re canceling is **refundable**, you may be eligible for a full or partial refund based on the terms and conditions of the reservation. Refunds are typically processed within 30 business days. Contact the travel website or the airline/hotel directly for the status of your refund request. You may need to provide documentation, such as a confirmation number, booking details, and payment information to process the refund. The refund process can take several days or weeks to complete, however, the US Department of Transportation advises that airlines issue refunds within [seven business days](https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/refunds). If your reservation is **nonrefundable**, you may not be entitled to a refund. Nonrefundable reservations are typically less expensive than refundable ones, but come with stricter cancellation policies. If you initiate the refund due to a change in plans, the refund policies depend on whether the booking was made as refundable or nonrefundable. If the airline cancels the flight, you are generally entitled to a full refund, regardless of the booking type. Please carefully review the terms and conditions of your booking before confirming your reservation, and contact the travel website or airline/hotel directly if you have any questions about their refund policies. ## Reports Travel admins can see Brex travel booking data through _Reports _> _Travel_ to evaluate how their travel program is performing, which they can customize to see the insights most relevant to their company. These default stock reports can include widgets like top booking policy violations, top booked flights/airlines, top hotels, top destinations, top departments booking travel, top travelers, domestic and international booking, and unused credit reports that can be customized. Travel admins can even create custom filters or download the booking table, which contains all fields available across all types of bookings, i.e., flights, lodging, car rental, and rail. To create the reports, you can add additional widgets by clicking _Add Widget_ in the top right corner. ## Rewards and payments ### Credit card authorization When you book a trip or select a paid seat, our systems verify your payment method by requesting authorization for the total amount of your booking, which can result in multiple charges appearing on your card. This authorization is a temporary hold on your funds that ensures your payment method is valid and has sufficient funds to cover the transaction. These authorizations are temporary holds and won’t result in multiple charges to your account. Typically, the authorizations will automatically expire within a few business days. **Note: **Authorizations may fail due to insufficient funds, an expired card, or other issues. If this happens, we’ll reattempt to authorize the payment method. This can result in multiple authorizations being placed on your account until we get a successful authorization. ### Currencies Your search results will be visible in the currency of the limit used for your booking. Once you select a booking option, you will see the currency of the transaction based on your assigned entity and the local currency of the inventory. ### Non-admins using points Non-admin roles in Brex cannot book travel rewards for themselves or others in the company. However, an existing admin can book travel rewards on their behalf the same way they’d book for a guest. ### Payment methods You can pay with: - Your Brex card (earn 4 points per $1 spent on Brex travel flights and prepaid hotels only). - Points will be granted after the trip is completed. - [Brex reward points](https://www.brex.com/travel-rewards) (admins only via dashboard for flights or prepaid hotels only) **Note: **Only one payment type can be used per reservation. You must have enough points to pay for the entire reservation to use points. ### Airline miles While airline loyalty points/miles cannot be used to book inside Brex travel, you can transfer Brex rewards points to airline miles. **Note: **You can earn loyalty points/miles on flights booked through Brex travel if you enter your loyalty program information into your travel profile. The points are applied to the booking at checkout. ## Troubleshooting/FAQs ### Brex travel trip IDs A Brex travel trip ID is generated whenever you make a booking for a new trip via Brex. This 10-digit number can be found on the Trips page in both the Brex app and dashboard, or in the booking confirmation email. You’ll need to provide this ID when contacting Brex travel support. To copy the number, click or tap on the ID. ### Copilot If you have [copilots enabled,](https://www.brex.com/account-copilots) they can enter copilot mode and book on behalf of others. When Person A (the copilot) books on behalf of Person B (the delegator), Person B’s limit will be used for the booking, and both A & B will receive the booking confirmation. ### New Distribution Capability (NDC) For more information on how Brex travel supports NDC integrations or what an NDC is, please see these articles: - [What is NDC (New Distribution Capability)](https://www.spotnana.com/what-is-ndc-new-distribution-capability/) - [How Brex travel supports NDC](https://www.spotnana.com/how-spotnana-supports-ndc/) ### Travel insurance Please review [World Elite Mastercard benefits](https://www.brex.com/brex-cardholder-perks) to learn more about the coverage options available with your Brex card.