Before booking any flights please ensure that you have the proper visas in place.
When your accommodation booking is confirmed, you may want to communicate the dates and address with your manager.
Below is some more information to help you get set up with your Navan account.
Flights
All flights need to be booked through Navan (Business related flights), the costs will be added to the GitLab invoice and no credit card is needed. Please note that all business related flights will not have the option to pay with a personal credit card. Also to note that while it is possible to find a cheaper flight outside of Navan, we get overall better rates in the aggregate with the buying power of the whole company. Flights should not exceed $1K USD (or local currency equivalent) per team member per month for economy class, with a booking lead time of 7 days to be within policy. The exception is for the Sales teams, in which flights should not exceed $3K (or local currency equivalent) per team member per month. Please note that anything booked outside of Navan will flag as “Out of Policy”, and will need to be reviewed by your manager and the AP team. If booked within Navan and is flagged as “Out of Policy”, please also refer to the "Booking shows Out of Policy" section below.
Hotels and Cars
If you book Hotels and/or Cars through Navan Travel, the costs will need to be charged to a personal credit card. For business related bookings, you can submit the costs for reimbursement via the Navan Expense reimbursement tool. Hotel stays are reimbursable up to $300 USD (or equivalent local currency) inclusive of tax per night for standard rooms, with a 7 day booking lead time. Always choose the refundable room booking unless the only available option is a non refundable room. The exception is the Corporate Events hotel room blocks organized by the internal team or if the conference hotel room block has better pricing than Navan. The hotel room block's pricing is generally withn the boundds of the $300USD/night and in the event it is over that amount, please contact the AP team for an exception to be granted. Conference hotel room blocks or Corporate Events organized blocks will still need to be charged to a personal credit card and then submitted for reimbursement via Navan Expense. Rental Cars are reimbursable for the intermediate car class, with a 7 day booking lead time. Please note that anything booked outside of Navan will flag as “Out of Policy”, and will need to be reviewed by your manager and the AP team. If booked within Navan and is flagged as “Out of Policy”, please also refer to the "Booking shows Out of Policy" section below.
Additional Car Rental Guidelines
A. Third Party Liability
Purchase the liability insurance that is excess of the standard inclusion of State minimum coverage in the rental agreement at the rental agency. GitLab’s insurance policy provides liability insurance for rental cars while conducting company business, but it may be excess over any underlying liability coverage through the driver or credit card company used to purchase the rental.
Purchase the liability offered at the rental counter if there are foreign employees renting autos in the US or Canada. While workers' compensation would protect an injured US employee, other passengers may have the right to sue. To ensure that GitLab has protection when a foreign employee invites another person into the car we recommend the purchase of this insurance when offered at the rental counter.
B. Physical Damage - Collision Damage Waiver
Do Not purchase the Collision Damage Waiver offered at the rental counter. GitLab purchases coverage for damage to rented vehicles. If travel to Mexico is required, purchase the liability insurance for Mexico offered at the rental counter. You should verify that the rental agreement clearly states that the vehicle may be driven into Mexico and liability coverage will apply.
Countries other than the US and Canada
Third Party Liability
Purchase the liability insurance offered at the rental counter when traveling outside the US and Canada. Automobile Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability insurance are required by law in almost every country. Please verify this coverage is included with the rental agreement.
Physical Damage - Collision Damage Waiver
Purchase the Collision Damage Waiver or Physical Damage Coverage offered by the rental agency when traveling outside the US and Canada.
In the event of an accident resulting in damage to the rental car, the foreign rental agency will charge the credit card used to make the reservation with an estimated amount of repair costs if insurance is not purchased. If this happens, GitLab does not purchase Foreign Corporate Hired Auto Physical Damage Coverage to reimburse for damages.
Additional Hotel Guidelines
Dry cleaning is allowable if the stay is over 3 days. Room service is allowable as a meal for ex. breakfast/lunch/dinner. Meals are to be segregated from the hotel bill and tagged under “Meals Company Provided” Category. Parking must be segregated and tagged under “Transportation”. Movies, mini bars are not allowed as a claim.
Trains
If you book Trains through Navan, business related bookings should be, upon receipt of manager's approval, paid upfront and expensed through Navan Expense reimbursement tool. Train rides are reimbursable up to $100 USD (or equivalent local currency) per ride for standard cabin class, with a 7 day booking lead time. Please note that anything booked outside of Navan will flag as “Out of Policy”, and will need to be reviewed by your manager and the AP team. If booked within Navan and is flagged as “Out of Policy”, please also refer to the "Booking shows Out of Policy" section below.
Personal Bookings
In Navan, you have the ability to book Personal trips. Note that when selecting this option, a personal credit card will be required at time of booking. Personal trips will not have the option to be added to the GitLab invoice.
Many airlines offer basic economy fares by default. This can create confusion and stress on the traveler if the conditions of their airline ticket aren't known.
To ensure a trouble-free experience with air travel booked through Navan:
CONFIRMATION field in a TripActions trip entry, look up your flights with the airline's own website to ensure times and conditions are what you expect.Note: Once a flight is booked, re-routing is at the person’s own cost unless requested by the company or force majeure (in the latter case often the airline will cover the difference).
Please read through these FAQ entirely.
193.6cm or 6'4" in height (i.e. you exceed the 95th percentile height distribution for a male human) you may:
We base eligibility on the 95 percentile because it is a practical figure for capturing outliers without being overly prescriptive and applicable to all travel if we care to flesh out guidance around other forms of transit in the future.
It is common for manufacturers to design seating that comfortably accommodates only a certain percentage of the population. For example, see how Herman Miller designs their chairs to accomodate the 95th percentile.
If you are nursing while traveling on GitLab approved business, you can reimburse costs in order to travel with breast milk or ship your breast milk back home. You can expense:
Check with your health plan to see if you are eligible for reimbursement for the cost of a breast pump or any other supplies.
If you decide to stay with friends or family instead of a hotel / Airbnb for a business trip, the company will pay you 50% of what would have been the cost of a reasonable hotel. A reasonable hotel would be the negotiated hotel rate a conference provides. This is in keeping with our values of frugality and freedom, and intended to reward you for saving company money on accommodation expenses. Contractors should take a screenshot of a hotel search from the same location in TripActions and submit this along with your expense report or invoice. Team Members Employed through a GitLab Entity should submit the screenshot for approval via Navan Expense.
GitLab offers travel insurance for business travel. Full details of GitLab's Business Travel Accident Policy can be found in the benefits section.
Emergency Medical, Safety, and Security Assistance is available to all GitLab team members when traveling abroad for work. All GitLab team members can access AIG's Travel Guard program for emergency assistance while traveling. Prior to traveling:
Working remotely while being abroad can be quite different. For example it can be harder to arrange good working internet and you may need extra tools to have a similar level of comfort to be able to work effectively.
Learn more about optimizing comfort and efficiency when taking your office with you while traveling.
Planning flights far in advance can help you get cheaper fares when booking. For example you can set alerts when there is a significant drop in price for your travel destination.
What if you find a cheaper flight outside TripActions? If you are able to find a better price elsewhere, feel free to contact support@tripactions.com or call +1-(888)-505-TRIP (8747) for help. Please note, TripActions cannot match flight pricing found on “discount websites” or “flash sales” that are sometimes advertised as part of an airline sale. They are bound to the prices set by the airlines.
Offline navigation content is key when you are not certain of an internet connection.
When you have an internet connection, it can save you quite a bit of money to be able to communicate just using data.
Applications which are all around wonderful to have when traveling.
The following tools make paying someone back in their own currency a lot easier.
Traveling together or letting someone else pay something for you? This makes it easier to see how costs add up or should be split up.
VPNs can help you reach services or sites that are blocked, get contents that are not available abroad or let you browse the internet as if you were home (with your own language preselected).
Note that a VPN may not always work as intended. For example both Netflix and China have blocked certain VPNs, limiting their usefulness.
The following services provide offline functionality for their content if you have a paid membership.
Electricity is a requirement on your journey abroad. Be it to power your phone or your laptop.
During your working travel your restricted data could be exposed. If you feel that your travel frequency may expose your data please keep in mind the following points to ensure that sensitive data contained in your devices will not be compromised:
When traveling, there is the possibility that customs, border control, or other law enforcement agents demand that you provide the password to your laptop or mobile device. If this happens to you in regards to a company-owned account or device, GitLab recommends that you comply with any such requests without protesting. If you do end up providing a password to any device or account that has access to GitLab resources (including your personal devices), you should follow the process to engage Security on-call as soon as you can safely do so. Even if you do not provide a password, if any of your devices are permanently seized or even temporarily removed from sight, you should also engage the Security on-call.
For additional security specifically when traveling through an airport, the following advice is provided:
#security-department Slack channel.Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members.
The COVID-19 Travel Working Group is on hold and will be re-activited if Covid-19 or another significant public health risk arises. If you have a question or feedback, please post in the slack channel: #covid19-response-committee.
Where can GitLab Team Members Travel? While some areas of the world have decreased cases of Covid-19, some are increasing. Team Members must refer to the CDC website) to ensure that both locations (traveling from and to) are safe locations in which to travel.
This section has been updated as of 2023-05-01
Due to the consistent decline in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, GitLab continues to highly recommend but will no longer require the Covid-19 vaccination for team members who need to travel or attend in-person gatherings. However, we are still asking team members who gather to follow our Covid-19 testing requirements. Continuing our testing program helps protect team members and their families at higher risk of Covid-19. These requirements include that team members test for Covid-19 three days before in-person gatherings and each morning before getting together while in attendance.
All business travel still requires pre-approval by your manager per the expense policy. Business travel requests should be made for any mode of travel (including personal vehicles for local travel and local public transportation) where team members will be meeting co-workers, customers and/or partners in person.
All international travelers must follow each country's guidelines governing entry and re-entry. If Covid-19 testing is required to travel, GitLab will reimburse team members for required testing costs.
If a meeting/meet-up includes 5 or more GitLab Team Members meeting in person, please follow these protocols:
All GitLab attendees must test negative for COVID-19, three days prior to travel, and again each day of the event prior to meeting with team members.
The cost of the test kits are often covered by medical insurance. In the event that the tests aren't covered by your insurance plan, you may expense the cost of the Antigen tests required during business travel. If you are attending a large event, please check with your event facilitator who may have tests available at discounted/bulk prices.
If a team member is not feeling well, regardeless of COVID-19 test results, team members are asked not to attend in person events or activities. Team members should seek medical advise from their healthcare provider to determine when it is safe to be around others.
If a Team Member tests positive for Covid-19, they are to refrain from meeting with others and must contact the facilitator of the meeting, and/or the venue contact, and notify teammemberrelations@gitlab.com via email. The team member may be required to quarantine until testing negative for Covid-19 which could take 7-10+ days. Quarantine and isolation rules differ by country and that's where Team Member Relations can help determine next steps.
If the team member is required to quarantine based on their location, and the team member is local to the event and traveled to the event by car, they may return and quarantine from home. If they are not local and traveled to the event via plane or other public transportation, they will be required to follow applicable laws regarding quarantining, which may include being required to quarantine at the venue or location and may not be allowed to return home until testing negative. For additional context and information about quarantining and isolating, please see the CDC Website Quarantine and Isolating
If you are the facilitator or coordinator of an in-person event, and if a participant at the event tests positive for Covid-19, please notify teammemberrelations@gitlab.com via email. The transmission period runs from 2 days before the person felt sick (or, if not showing symptoms, 2 days before testing) until the time the person is isolated. Please provide the name of the event, the dates, the location, and attendees. We prefer for the team member who tested positive to report the test result to teammemberrelations@gitlab.com directly. If you are aware of someone who has tested positive, you too can report that you aware of a positive test to teammemberrelations@gitlab.com. We will work to determine attendees and notification requirements based on local regulations, and to ensure that team members are alerted to the potential exposure to Covid-19. However, if multiple positive Covid-19 cases are detected at the same event, the notification may be limited to the first occurrence only. You should take any precautions you feel comfortable taking (for example, continue testing after the event for several days, isolate, watch for symptoms and if symptoms develop, follow your doctors orders, etc.)
General recommendations/precautions:
You must make your own decision about what is right for you regarding travel. Please be aware that any risk of potential exposure to Covid-19 may subject you to potential restrictions from GitLab or third parties (ex. customers, vendors, conferences, etc.) on your ability to attend in-person meetings or events for some period of time, even after the removal of general travel restrictions. Consult authoritative agencies at both departure and arrival locations before embarking on international travel. If you choose to travel internationally, please note the resources provided by agencies such as the CDC (in the USA) and your local government, and we ask that you notify your manager with your travel dates so we can help set expectations for timing to return to possible in-person meetings in the future. Always consider ways to get the business results remotely before requesting travel approval.
Even as an all-remote company, GitLab recognizes that some travel is necessary. These considerations aim to reduce the environmental impact of travel: