Flight Changes - Through SATO Not Airlines

The need to adjust your flights, dates, routings or points is not an uncommon occurence.  However, DAS Travel has given us particular guidelines to follow.  To stray from this direction could create problems when the traveler expenses the trip.  One major impact could be that the traveler will NOT be reimbursed for additional expenses (i.e. fees, differences in fare, hotel costs, etc.) that accrued because the traveler did not go through SATO.  Please become familiar with how changes should be handled.   The link is also attached to lead you to the direct source.  DTT has provided the following:

Airlines are becoming more stringent in their policies for changes to reservations. Travelers used to be allowed to switch to an earlier flight, usually at no charge. Now most airlines are charging additional amounts for making changes, including a change fee and a possible increase in fare.


The Issue. You will be charged a change fee to take an earlier flight, unless you have a government contract fare. In addition, many airlines will issue you a new ticket at the current rate. This can result in an increase in fare, even for those travelling on government fares. For example, if you have a capacity controlled government fare on your old flight, there may be an increase to the full YCA fare, if the capacity has been exceeded on the new flight.

The Solution. Call Sato first! If you want to change to an earlier flight, contact SATO first so that any changes and add-collect fees/increases in fare will be charged to the Centrally Billed Account (CBA), if that was the original form of payment. Then you don’t have to do anything else.

If you deal directly with the airlines instead of calling Sato, you will need to charge the new ticket to your Individually Billed Travel Credit Card Account (IBA) or a personal credit card. While you can be reimbursed for the increased fare up to the amount of the full contract fare with DAS approval, you cannot be reimbursed for change fees.

To obtain DAS approval for the reimbursement, you must send an e-mail with the specifics, such as the traveler’s name, the departure and destination cities, the date, and the amount of the fare increase to the Outlook alias ‘DAS Travel Team’ and we will send the approval.

To claim reimbursement for the higher fare, include a copy of the approval, the receipt for your new ticket, and a fare quote when you fax your Expense Report.