Fill in the booking form
To request travel for your students, supervisors and their family members use the ABSTUDY Travel Authorisation Booking Form. This form is an Excel spreadsheet with 3 tabs. As you fill out the sheets, you either select an option from a drop down menu or type a response.
The ABSTUDY Travel Authorisation Booking Form User Guide will guide you through the form. This video will also give you a quick overview.
If you need help you can also call the National Business Gateway line and select the ABSTUDY option. You’ll be able to talk to an ABSTUDY travel officer.
Main details to provide
The booking form asks for:
- the reason for travel
- the school or hostel contact details
- the name and date of birth of the person travelling
- the Customer Reference Number (CRN) of the person travelling
- the type of traveller - such as student or supervisor
- 2 emergency contact details for each student
- preferred travel dates.
It also asks for:
- destinations
- the student’s Safe Travel Plan
- if the person will be travelling with anyone else, known as a ‘linked traveller’
- the travel mode - such as air or bus.
Make sure student names match the photo ID they’ll be carrying on the trip.
Extra information
You can use the comments section of the booking form to give more information about the trip. For example, we need to know if the traveller:
- will have excess baggage
- needs accommodation
- declines to use a certain mode of transport, like a small plane
- requires transfers.
Linked travellers
Linked travellers are people with ABSTUDY travel bookings who are travelling together. For example, if a supervisor will travel with several students, you need to link each student booking with the supervisor’s booking.
It’s important to fill in the linked travellers sheet on the booking form so we know to book their journeys together.
Helpful tips
Make sure you:
- enter all phone numbers using 10 digits with no spaces or brackets
- enter all dates in the format DD/MM/YYYY
- don’t copy or paste information into the form
- don’t delete or insert rows.
Submit the booking form
When you’ve filled in all the details in the booking form, email it to ABSTUDY.travel@servicesaustralia.gov.au.
To request travel for a group of students, you should send us the form about 7 weeks before the travel date.
To request travel for an individual student, you should send us the form at least 10 days before the travel date.
If the travel request is urgent, call the National Business Gateway line and choose the ABSTUDY option. We’ll book travel as quickly as possible. How quickly may depend on seats being available.
Prepare for the trip
When we’ve booked the travel, we’ll send you a copy of the itinerary. We’ll also send it to the student’s family.
You then need to:
- check the itinerary is correct
- make sure the student and their family have the itinerary
- contact us on the National Business Gateway line immediately if there are any problems with the dates or times.
- make sure students know their travel details and don’t forget about a trip
- let them know there might be penalties if they miss travel.