Durham, NC - In support of Duke's expanding global presence and travel needs, a new partnership has been established with American Express Travel to provide a broad array of services for Duke community members.

Among the unique advantages for Duke travelers is the added benefit of American Express Travel being integrated seamlessly with Duke's International Travel Registry, a database that identifies where faculty, staff or students are around the world.

"When people book travel their information is now automatically captured in the travel registry," said Jane Pleasants, assistant vice president for Procurement and Supply Chain Management. "This becomes invaluable during international conflicts or catastrophes such as the tsunami in Japan when we had to quickly determine where people were to provide assistance."

Similar to other online reservation platforms, American Express Travel offers 24/7 access to an online booking tool called AXIOM that allows travelers to coordinate booking discounted flights, car reservations and hotels worldwide.

The new online booking tool, which replaces Ovation as one of two preferred agencies for Duke's international and domestic travel, allows travelers to download reservation details into calendars and receive notifications by phone, email or text message when flights are delayed or canceled.

Duke community members like Liz Lindsey, a faculty assistant at Fuqua, will now be able to use the tool to arrange travel on behalf of others.

"One of the best benefits of using AXIOM for assistants like myself is that we can keep track of professors traveling whether we book the trip or they book it," said Lindsey, who helps manage domestic and international travel for up to 12 faculty members. "It helps with accounting, and it helps when they are somewhere internationally and need our assistance. We have a lot more information at our fingertips to be able to help."

Along with special national and international hotel and airfare rates that American Express negotiates through its volume purchasing, any special Duke contract pricing negotiated directly with airlines for frequently traveled city pairs will be available to travelers through American Express Travel.

Frequent travelers and those who arrange travel are encouraged to create a travel profile through American Express Travel for faster, more efficient booking later.

More information about the new service, including online tutorials and registration details for two live web-based training sessions, is available on the Preferred Travel Agencies web page of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management site.

For more information or questions regarding the travel program, contact Charlene Canteen in Procurement Services at (919) 684-8324 or Charlene.canteen@duke.edu. For online reservations support, call Travelink at 1-800-336-0265 and select prompt #1.