If you’re planning to make a business trip abroad, you need prior permission from your manager. Request this at least eight weeks in advance. Once you have this permission, you can book your trips through DGI. To do so, you will need an authorising booker’s once-only permission to gain access to the portal. If you want to travel to a high-risk area with an orange or red advisory code, you will need prior permission from the university.

You should consider the following aspects:

• Sustainability: You are encouraged to travel by train. If this is not possible, choose a direct flight. In principle, you should only book flights if travelling by train would take more than six hours or be more than 500 kilometres. To calculate this, see our Europe Travel Map.
• Safety: Check the colour code for your destination on Travel to high-risk areas.
• Expenses: For the rates you can claim for travel and subsistence expenses, see the list specified in the university regulations on business trips.
• Vaccinations: Check your destination for health risks and request travel advice from the VGM Occupational Health & Safety Service.
• Business travel insurance: You can use the university’s collective business travel insurance.
• Duration of your trip: If you’re going abroad for your work for more than a month, check the rules on working abroad. Also check local requirements, such as a work or residence permit, and whether there are consequences for your health insurance and social security.

The rule at the university is that you book trips abroad through a travel organisation rather than directly with an airline. You must therefore book flights through the university’s travel agent. The university’s contract with Uniglobe has expired, and we have been working with DGI since 20 July 2026, so you must now book your trips through them, preferably through the portal. This makes it easier to monitor bookings. We review annually how many flights have been booked.

By booking through DGI, the university complies with its obligation to track its carbon emissions and fulfils its duty of care for staff, for example in emergencies. We would also urge you to book train travel, hotels and other forms of transport through DGI, but this is not compulsory.

To log in to the DGI portal, click on the tile in BAS InSite. If you prefer not to book online, you can contact DGI by email or telephone and ask the full-service team to search and make the booking on your behalf.

Using the travel agent (in the portal) has the following advantages:

• Quicker, more direct invoicing, rather than paying in advance and submitting expense claims
• Immediate cover of your trip through the university’s travel insurance
• Assistance with compensation claims
• Sustainable choices and carbon offsetting (carbon tax is charged directly)
• Alerts when booking trips to high-risk countries
• Interactive map with the latest passport and visa requirements
• Emergency service available 24/7
• Offline team for booking assistance
• Duty of care for staff in emergencies
• Compliance with our sustainable travel policy, such as:
  • rail travel for business trips up to 500 km or with a travel time up to six hours rather than flights
  • economy-class air travel and second-class train travel
  • where possible, direct flights instead of flights with a transfer.

To support our sustainability goals, we ask you to consider carefully whether the trip is really necessary before making the booking. Could the meeting be held online? Do you actually need to travel? If you do, choose the most sustainable option. The university has rules on flying and travelling by train. You should travel by train for business trips at a distance of up to 500 km or with a travel time of up to six hours. This means you may only book flights if train travel to the destination would take more than six hours. See our Europe Travel Map to see which cities are covered. If it is not possible to travel by train, use direct flights whenever available.

We agreed in 2021 that air emissions from flights will be offset with a carbon tax of 20 euros per tonne of CO2. This is charged by DGI to the traveller and paid to Leiden University on a quarterly basis.

DGI offers a lowest-price ticket guarantee. It may seem as though tickets through DGI are more expensive, but this is because they often include additional services, such as baggage, more flexible options to change or cancel your booking, and assistance with booking. DGI also charges a small fee for its services: €2 per ‘line’ per person for online bookings and €7 per ‘line’ per person for offline bookings. A line might be a flight or hotel booking; if a booking comprises both a flight and a hotel booking, this counts as two lines. Finally, carbon offsetting costs are included. We agreed in 2021 that air emissions from flights will be offset with a carbon tax of 20 euros per tonne of CO2. This is charged by DGI to the traveller and paid to Leiden University on a quarterly basis.

You can save your personal details and travel preferences in a traveller profile, reducing the amount of information you need to fill in each time you book a trip. Although traveller profiles are not compulsory, they mean that your personal data is secure and cannot be accessed by other colleagues.

If you are an authorised booker, but a colleague will book your trip, you can create a traveller profile and share this through the booking tool.

If you are not an authorised booker and a colleague regularly books your trips, they can create a traveller profile for you or enter your details while completing a booking.

Please note: if you don’t use a traveller profile, make sure to enter your name as it appears on your passport when booking trips. Never send your passport details to a colleague. If you want to travel with an ID card, please contact DGI.

You will enter your name, sex and date of birth as they appear in your passport. You will also need to enter a telephone number and an email address to which confirmation of your booking will be sent.

You can also add extra information such as an emergency contact, passport details, travel preferences and the numbers of airline loyalty programmes.

You can also enable a notification when your passport is nearing its expiry date. If your passport details change for any reason, you will need to update these manually. Always check that your details are correct when booking a trip.

You log in through BAS InSite, using single sign-on (SSO). If the tile is not visible in the procurement portal, ask the authorised person in your department, institute or faculty to assign you rights via a request in BAS InSite. If you don’t know who is authorised, ask your manager.

You can use DGI to book:

• Flights from the Netherlands
• Flights abroad
• International train travel
• Hotel accommodation
• Other transport options, such as car rental, taxis, buses or ferries (ask DGI about the possibilities)

When searching for a destination, try to use the local language or English, so Den Haag or The Hague.

There are some things that DGI cannot arrange, such as conference hotels, small hotels that can only be booked locally and train and public transport tickets that you have to buy locally. It may also be that local transport companies offer other transport options. You can submit an expense claim for these travel costs.

The university would urge you to book train travel, hotel accommodation and other forms of transport through DGI, but this is not compulsory. See the rate list for the maximum subsistence costs that can be claimed for business trips abroad.

The university wants to familiarise you with our travel policy each time you book a business trip. You must follow this policy when booking business trips abroad.

A booker can only book travel for themself or for others. If you are not only a booker but also an authorising booker, you can use BAS InSite to give other colleagues in your department access rights to the business trips tile / DGI portal. The authorising booker determines who may make bookings in the portal and may book their own and others’ travel. Authorising bookers have an extra tile in BAS InSite, in addition to the DGI login tile. They can assign these rights to colleagues by completing a form in this tile. Colleagues can only receive these rights through an authorising booker.

No, that is not possible. It is advisable to send booking confirmations to a shared mailbox.

An account will automatically be created in the DGI portal for authorised bookers in Uniglobe. You will need to create traveller profiles.

If you booked a trip through Uniglobe before 20 July 2026 and it will take place after 20 July, Uniglobe will still be your point of contact. Their service will continue until the last trips have been processed. Any new trips that you book from 20 July 2026 must be booked through DGI.

The Uniglobe system will remain open for viewing booked trips; if you have questions or want to make a change or cancellation, you can contact Uniglobe by telephone (088 202 30 80) or by sending an email to ultravel@uniglobeat.nl.

DGI processes your personal data as required by law.

You log in to the DGI platform via the tile in BAS InSite. This is through a secure single sign-on (SSO) link.

When logging in to the DGI platform, you will be asked by default to enter your name; your email address will have been pre-filled. You can enter additional information by creating a traveller profile. This is not compulsory but is convenient if you frequently book trips. Passport details are required by some airlines. For trips within Europe, you can travel with an ID card.

After you have returned from a trip, DGI is obliged by law to delete personal data that is no longer required. However, booked trips are retained for seven years, in accordance wtih archiving legislation.

In the event of an emergency, you can contact DGI 24/7 via WhatsApp at  +44 161 884 5388 or by calling +44 161 884 5395. 

You can also contact our Security Affairs department 24/7 at +31 71 5 27 66 66 or +31 320 33 13 43.

The university needs to know where its employees are staying when abroad, so that it can notify them in case of emergency.

Yes, your partner or family can travel with you. This must be booked through the DGI team. You will have to arrange payments for your partner or family directly with DGI, not via Leiden University.

You can book group trips for up to nine people through the standard process in the DGI portal or by contacting the DGI team. Trips for nine or more people can only be booked through DGI team.

Market fares are the standard prices offered by airlines. These tickets usually need to be confirmed immediately and are subject to the regular change and cancellation conditions. Academic fares are offered on the basis of exclusive contracts with academic institutions. They often provide greater flexibility, such as lower change fees, extra baggage and the option of holding reservations longer before they are confirmed.

If you’re sure that your travel plans won’t change, then a market fare can be a good choice. However, if you need more flexibility, for example because the travel dates may still change, then an academic fare is often more attractive.

You can be reimbursed for the costs of accommodation, meals, minor costs and transport. The amounts you can claim depend on the country to which you travel. These amounts are specified in the rate list for accommodation expenses for business trips abroad. Travel costs by train (second-class) or air, travel-related costs (such as surcharges, baggage and visas) and accommodation costs (hotel room, breakfast, lunch and dinner) will be reimbursed in accordance with the university regulations on travel and accommodation expenses for business trips.

Selected bookings remain in the shopping cart for at least 48 hours. If the price changes in the meantime, you will be notified when completing the booking. You will need to accept the new price before proceeding with the booking.

Once you have selected a trip, you can add this to an offer, which you can share with a colleague or other traveller

First check that the cost centre number is not a collective cost centre. If a cost centre number or project code has been created recently, it can take two to four weeks for it to appear in the list. If the number is still missing after that, please contact the Procurement Service.

You can claim expenses for your accommodation, meals, incidental expenses and transport. How much you can claim depends on the country you are travelling to. The rates can be found in the list of rates for subsistence expenses during business trips abroad (in Dutch). Travel by train (second class) or aeroplane, travel-related expenses (such as surcharges, luggage and visas) and accommodation expenses (accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner) are reimbursed in accordance with the Leiden University Regulations on Travel and Accommodation Expenses for Business Trips. 

Use your Shuttel card to travel to destinations within the Netherlands. This includes travel to the airport or departure point of international trains.

This depends on the provider; some offer the option of reserving a seat online, but others don’t. There is no central tool for booking train travel, as there is with flights. Ask the DGI team about the possibilities.

If your trip qualifies for a KLM discount deal, this price will be processed directly by DGI.

The DGI website compares all possible airlines, and therefore processes much more data than when you search flights for one airline. Additionally, our travel policy is applied to the search results, which means that warnings may be displayed if your trip does not comply.

You reserve a seat through the DGI team; we expect that this will also be possible online by the end of 2026.

In the portal, use the ‘baggage’ filter to add baggage to the flight. After applying this filter, you will only be shown the options with baggage. Some flights have ‘standard baggage’. This is indicated by the number after the suitcase symbol. If you have special baggage, for instance with non-standard dimensions, contact the DGI team.

You will be notified by both the airline and DGI so that your flight can be rescheduled. DGI processes changes according to departure time, so this may take longer than the airline’s notification.

There is no reflection period. Once tickets have been booked, any changes are subject to the conditions of that booking. You can submit a change request through the portal. To do so, see the DGI guide.

Use the local name or English name of towns and cities: for example, Den Haag or The Hague. When you’re searching for a hotel, provide a specific location rather than just a town or city. In other words, not Amsterdam but street name + city, postcode + city or a building in the neighbourhood, such as Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

In the list of hotels, you will only see hotels that have rooms available.

You will find more information on the following pages:

• Business trips abroad
• Booking a trip with DGI (guide)
• Travelling safely
• Health advice and vaccinations
• Business travel insurance
• Rate list for accommodation expenses for business trips abroad
• Regulations on travel and accommodation expenses for business trips