Travel to Conferences

Please make sure you have your supervisor’s approval prior to making arrangement to attend a conference if you plan on submitting receipts to have your travel reimbursed. When planning your travel, please endeavor to make economical yet practical arrangements. The following guidelines may assist you when making arrangements.

Conference Registration

Most conferences have an “early bird” registration fee.  We will reimburse only the “early bird” registration fee, unless you have been asked to attend the conference by your supervisor at the last minute.

Flights

RLAI can only reimburse ECONOMY flights.  When in doubt, please send an email to balaski@ualberta.ca to get approval prior to booking. You must save your boarding passes and ticket and submit them both to be reimbursed.

Accommodations

If you are traveling to a conference and you know of others who may be attending, you should plan on sharing accommodations with at least one other person to reduce the cost.  If others are attending and you decide to stay by yourself, RLAI will reimburse only half of the accommodation costs.  If the event you are unable to find a roomate, your economy accommodation costs will be covered.  You will need to obtain a hotel bill in order to be reimbursed for it.

Food

RLAI will reimburse your food costs through a daily per dium. The idea of the per dium is to pay you for the actual food costs that you incurred. Please save your total food/restaurant receipts and add them up at the end of your trip.  The total amount you spent on food will then be reimbursed via per dium.

• For any travel in Canada or the USA, the standard per dium is $60 per day. It is broken down as follows: $15 breakfast, $15 lunch, $30 dinner.
• For travel outside North America the per dium is $85 per day. It is broken down as follows: $20 breakfast, $20 lunch, $45 dinner.

If you attend a conference where some meals are provided you should subtract that from your per dium claim. Please note on the travel claim you submit the meals that are provided from the conference or hotel.

Reimbursement for Travel

In order to be reimbursed for any travel expenses, you must submit a completed, signed Travel Reimbursement FORM.

Please attach all receipts for which you would like to be reimbursed for.

• If the receipt is small, such as a taxi receipt, ensure you STAPLE it to a 8 x 11″ sheet of paper.
• If the receipt is in any currency other than Canadian dollars, you will need to convert the receipt into CDN dollars or you can attach your credit card statement showing the charge and the amount in CDN dollars.
  • In order to convert the receipt please go here: http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/.
  • STAPLE the receipt to the conversion sheet.