If you’re planning to make a business trip abroad, you need prior permission from your manager. You should ask for this at least 8 weeks in advance. Once you have this permission, you can book your trips via DGI. To be able to book via DGI, you will need an authorising booker’s once-only permission to obtain the rights to access the online environment. If you want to travel for your work to a high-risk area with colour code orange and/or red, you also need prior permission from the university. 

You should consider the following aspects:

• Sustainability: Train travel is the preferred mode. If the train is not possible, you should choose a direct flight. In principle, you should only book flights if the trip by train takes longer than 6 hours or is more than 500 kilometres. For this, please see the Travelmap Europe.
• Safety: Check the colour code of your destination at Travel to high-risk areas.
• Reimbursements: You can find the amounts for your travel and accommodation expenses in the rate list specified in the university’s regulations on business trips.
• Required vaccinations: Check your destination for health risks and ask for travel advice from the nurses at 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, you should check the agreements relating to working abroad. You should also ask about local requirements, such as a work or residence permit, and the consequences for your health insurance and social security.

Within the university, we have the agreement that you book your trips abroad through a travel organisation and not directly with an airline. It is therefore compulsory to book your flights through the university’s travel agent. Since 20 July 2026, the university has worked with DGI, because the contract with Uniglobe had expired. You will now book your trips through DGI, preferably via the online environment. This makes it possible to monitor the bookings more effectively. Each year we will look at whether expense claims are submitted for flights.

In addition, booking through DGI means that the university complies with the obligation to provide insight into carbon emissions and fulfils its duty of care for employees, for example in emergencies. There is also a strong preference that you book train travel, hotels and other forms of transport through DGI, but this is not compulsory.

You can log in to DGI’s online environment via the tile in BAS InSite. If you prefer not to use the online environment, you can also 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 online environment) has the following advantages:

• Direct and faster invoicing, instead of paying in advance yourself and submitting separate expense claims
• Immediate cover of your trip with the university’s travel insurance
• Assistance if you need to submit a compensation claim
• Sustainable choices and carbon offset (carbon tax is charged directly)
• You receive an alert if you book a trip to a high-risk country
• Interactive map with up-to-date passport and visa requirements
• Emergency service can be contacted 24/7
• Offline full-service team for help with booking
• Duty of care for employees in emergencies
• Guaranteed compliance with our policy agreements in the area of sustainable travel, such as:
  • the train is used for business trips up to 500 km or with a travel time up to 6 hours, instead of flying
  • economy-class air travel and second-class train travel are the norm
  • direct flights are booked as far as possible, instead of flights with a transfer

To support our sustainability goals, we ask you to reflect carefully on whether the business trip is really necessary before you make the booking. Is there a possibility that a meeting or discussion could take place online? Do you actually need to travel? If you do, then you should choose the most sustainable option. For this, the university has made agreements about travelling by train and air. You should use the train for business trips with a distance up to 500 km or travel time up to 6 hours, instead of flying. You are therefore (in principle) only permitted to book flights if it would take more than 6 hours to travel to the destination by train. You can look at the Travelmap Europe to see which cities are covered by this rule. If travelling by train is not possible, you should use direct flights whenever available.

It was agreed in 2021 that the emissions due to air travel will be offset with a carbon tax of 20 euros per tonne of CO2. This amount 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 sometimes seem that tickets via DGI are more expensive, but this is because they often include additional services, such as baggage, more flexible change or cancellation conditions, and assistance with booking. In addition, DGI 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 is, for example, a flight ticket or hotel booking; if a booking consists of both a flight ticket and a hotel, this counts as two lines. Finally, carbon offset costs are included. It was agreed in 2021 that the emissions due to air travel will be offset with a carbon tax of 20 euros per tonne of CO2. This amount 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, which reduces the amount of information you need to fill in each time you book a trip. It is not compulsory to use a traveller profile. Creating a traveller profile means that your personal data are secure and locked against access by other colleagues. If a colleague is going to make a booking for you, you can give this booker permission via the booking tool.

Please note: if you don’t use a traveller profile, make sure that you always enter your name as shown in your passport when booking a trip. Never send your passport details to a colleague. If you want to travel using an ID card, please contact the full-service team.

You log in via BAS InSite, using single sign-on (SSO). If the tile is not visible to you in the ordering environment, you can ask the authorised person in your unit, institute or faculty to give you rights via a request in BAS InSite. If you don’t know who is authorised for this, please ask your manager.

You can use DGI for booking:

• Flights from the Netherlands
• Flights in other countries
• International train travel
• Hotel accommodation
• Other transport options, such as car rental, taxi, bus or ferry (ask the full-service team about the possibilities)

When searching the destination, you should use – as far as possible – the local language or English; that is to say, for example: Den Haag or The Hague.

There are some things that DGI can’t arrange for you; examples could be hotels that are provided for conferences, small hotels that can only be booked locally, train and public transport tickets that you have to buy locally. In addition, local transport companies sometimes have more possibilities for other transport options. An expense claim can be submitted for these travel costs.

There is a strong preference that you also book train travel, hotels and other forms of transport via DGI, but this is not compulsory. See the rate list for the maximum amounts that are reimbursed for accommodation costs during your business trip abroad.

This is how Leiden University makes bookers aware of the policy agreements on travel each time they book a trip. It is important to take account of these agreements when booking a business trip 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 access rights to the ‘business trips tile’ / ‘DGI online environment’ to other colleagues in your unit. The authorising booker determines who is permitted to make bookings in the online environment and to book their own and others’ travel. As an authorising booker, an extra tile is added to your portal in BAS InSite, in addition to the tile for logging in to DGI. You will give your colleagues these rights by filling in a form in this tile. Colleagues who don’t have these rights will not be able to facilitate this for themselves; it must always be done through an authorising booker. If you don’t have booking rights, then your authorising booker can request them for you.

Bookers who are currently recognised in Uniglobe will immediately be given an account in DGI’s online environment.

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 will handle your personal data as required by laws and regulations.

You will log in to DGI’s online environment via the tile in BAS InSite. Logging in to DGI will then take place via a secure single sign-on (SSO) link.

When logging in to DGI’s online environment, you will be asked by default to enter your name; your email address will have been pre-filled. Further information can be entered using the traveller profile; this is not compulsory but is very convenient if you frequently book trips. Passport details are required for 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 are no longer required. However, booked trips are retained for 7 years, pursuant to archiving legislation.

Yes, in case of emergency DGI can be contacted 24/7 on an emergency number. If you encounter an emergency during a trip, you can send a WhatsApp message to +44 161 884 5388 or call +44 161 884 5395.

In case of emergency you can also contact our Security Affairs department 24/7 on +31 71 5 27 66 66 or +31 320 33 13 43. The university needs to be kept informed of 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 full-service team. You will have to organise payments for your partner or family directly with DGI, not via Leiden University.

You can book a group trip for up to 9 people using the standard process in DGI’s online environment or through the full-service team. A group trip for 9 or more people can only be booked through the full-service 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 costs, extra baggage exemption and the option of holding a reservation for longer before it is definitively 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.

When you travel to a destination within the Netherlands, you use your Shuttel card. Therefore, when you travel to the airport or departure point of an international train within the Netherlands, you also use your Shuttel card

This depends on the provider; some offer the option of reserving a seat online, but others don’t. As yet, there is unfortunately no central tool for booking train travel, as there is with flights. Please ask the DGI full-service 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 the possible airlines, which means that it processes much more data than when you only search in one airline. Additionally, the policy agreements on travel are applied to the search results. This means that, where possible, warnings are displayed if your trip does not comply with the policy agreements.

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

In the online environment, you can use the ‘baggage’ filter if you want to add baggage to the flight. After applying this filter, you will only be shown the options with baggage. Some flights have ‘standard baggage’, and this is shown by the number after the suitcase symbol. If you have special baggage, for instance with non-standard dimensions, you should contact the DGI full-service team.

You will be notified by both the airline and DGI, to facilitate the rebooking. DGI processes the changes in the order of departure time, so this may take longer than the airline’s notification.

There is no reflection period. Once the ticket has been booked, any changes are subject to the conditions of the specific ticket. You can submit a change request via the online environment; for this, please see the DGI guide.

When searching in the online environment, you should 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, give 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 currently have rooms available.

• 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