Personal travel during business travel

Personal travel (also referred to as private travel) that occurs during, before or after University business travel is only permitted when it is incidental to the business need and meets all of the below requirements:

• Must be added to a bona fide trip on University business.
• The traveller must fly into and out of the business location (no exceptions). Any side trips for personal travel must be noted in the travel approval request and be paid for by the traveller. 
• Is only permitted where the private travel time component is 40% or less of the total travel time.
  Example:  Five business days permits two personal/private days
• The traveller must personally pay all direct or incremental travel costs attributable to private days. The University will not cover any costs incurred on private days including, but not limited to, flights, accommodation, meals, car hire, other transport and incidentals.
• A traveller undertaking private travel must ensure that they are appropriately insured for all aspects of their private travel (refer section 2.3 of this document). 

Any private travel days must meet all the following requirements:

1. Entered into the travel approval request form and reviewed and approved by the supervisor and the delegate.
2. Private travel days that fall on a usual workday must be entered into the HR system as annual leave and reviewed and approved by the supervisor. 
3. Recorded in the travel diary to ensure FBT requirements are reported correctly by the University.  Please refer section 6.1 for detailed information.

Note. In the event you wish to combine personal and university travel outside of the 40% threshold, the University will pay for the associated travel expenditure for the business days only, however long-haul flights will be the responsibility of the traveller.  
Example.  A three-week holiday in Los Angeles and a five-day conference in Dallas. Traveller would need to self-fund the flights from Australia to the USA, complete a Travel Approval form departing Los Angeles to Dallas and return to Los Angeles.  The internal USA flights and associated expenses for the five business days will be covered by the University for the dates of the business travel listed in the approval request form.
Please note.  In the above scenario, the traveller will be required to self-insure the entire trip.

Definition of Business Day

Business days whilst travelling are defined as a day on which official University business is undertaken for a period exceeding three hours of the day, not including meals or rest breaks.  Examples of official University business activities include but are not limited to:

• Attending a business-related conference, workshop, forum or similar.
• Undertaking approved research, fieldwork, teaching or study.
• Attending business meetings. 

Business days also include:

• A day on which a University traveller travels to a business location. 
• A recovery day - the day following the traveller’s arrival in a business location, provided the traveller was required to complete an economy class flight of seven or more continuous hours to arrive at that business location.
• A business weekend – the Saturday/Sunday in the business location where the traveller undertakes official University business on the preceding Friday and the following Monday.
• A public holiday recognised in the business location, where the preceding day and the following day are business days. A public holiday recognised at the traveller’s home campus (e.g. Canberra) but not recognised in the business location does not meet the definition of a business day. 

Definition of Private Day

Private days whilst on travelling are defined as any day that is not a business day, including:

• Days of booked annual leave, other personal leave, long service leave, days of time-off-in-lieu or flexi-days.
• Personal weekends – categorised when either the preceding Friday or following Monday are not used to conduct University business. 
• Workdays gifted to university staff (e.g. university shut-down periods in Australia) if not worked in the business location.
• The non-workdays of part-time, casual and sessional staff.

Definition of a Travel Day

Travel days are defined as the following:

• Travel between your home/workplace and the business location

Travel days will incorporate any airport transit time necessary based on airline scheduling.

Travel days do not include elected stopovers, as these days are classified as private days unless business is being conducted in the stopover location.