How Navan’s Travel Policy Upgrade Delivers Increased Control

Dynamic “Price to Beat”: You can already set caps based on a percentage above median market prices. Now we’ve added a fixed dollar amount option for ultimate budget flexibility.

Due to a major conference in Las Vegas, the median airfare from New York spikes to $650. While a percentage buffer could allow travelers to book a $800 ticket, finance locks in a $50 max cap over the median. Travelers choose flights under $700; the company saves money.

Refined logic for Lowest Logical Fare (LLF): Our system automatically filters out “illogical flights” (outliers on price or duration) and low-cost carriers (LCCs) from fair market calculations, keeping your baselines realistic.

A $39 fare from San Francisco to Los Angeles sounds great, but the 4 a.m. departure and $60 carry-on fee makes it an outlier that’s filtered out so it doesn’t artificially drag down the fair market price baseline.

Customizable durations: Managing cabin-class eligibility has never been easier. You can now define the thresholds for short-, medium-, and long-haul flights by miles traveled instead of just hours.

Flying the 3,600 miles from New York to Paris takes 7 hours, while the return takes 8. Switching the policy to a mileage-based threshold means the traveler gets the same cabin eligibility regardless of headwinds and tailwinds.

Flexible red-eye allowances: Allow certain cabin classes specifically for red-eye flights, to protect traveler wellness without blowing the budget.

An employee needs to take a 5-hour overnight flight to London for a 9 a.m. meeting. While 5-hour daytime flights may be restricted to economy, the admin can allow the employee to book premium economy for the overnight leg so they can sleep.

Airlines content control: Block specific airlines. In-UI notifications steer your users toward approved alternatives, keeping them safely on-platform.

Labor strikes at a regional airline cause 40% of their flights to be canceled weekly. To prevent delays, the travel manager blocks that carrier. If an employee searches for it, an in-app banner explains why they need to pick an approved partner instead.

Country-level settings: Set an overarching, country-wide cap (like a blanket rule for the UK) to replace tedious, city-by-city manual entry.

A company expands operations across Germany. Instead of spending hours researching average hotel rates for each individual city, the admin sets a single, blanket €180 max night cap for all of Germany in under 30 seconds.

Dual-layer controls: The ultimate hybrid approach — set broad, country-level baselines, but easily drop in specific city-level overrides where needed.

Employees from the same company in Germany want to attend a popular trade show in Munich that has caused hotel prices to spike. The travel manager keeps the country-wide €180 cap active but drops in a specific Munich-only override of €270 for that month, keeping the system flexible without wiping out the global rule.

Tiered, person-centric caps (expected soon): Say goodbye to rigid, static hotel limits. Soon, you’ll be able to set dynamic, role-based budgets tailored by traveler seniority (e.g., premium caps for executives, budget-conscious caps for contractors).

A company hires a team of short-term IT contractors to work alongside their leadership team. The admin configures the policy so that a contractor sees a standard budget hotel tier capped at $150 per night, while executives booking in the same city are automatically shown premium options up to $350 per night.

Expanded class mapping: We’ve moved from two static classes to four distinct categories (Lowest, Low, High, and Highest) to accurately mirror modern rail offerings.

An employee is booking a high-speed Eurostar trip from Paris to London. Instead of the system having to choose between “First” and “Coach,” the four-tier mapping allows the admin to explicitly allow “Low” (Standard Premier) for mid-level managers, while restricting “Highest” (Business Premier) to the executive team.

Duration-based allowances: You can now restrict premium cabins on short-haul commutes, while automatically opening up premium choices for long-haul journeys.

Employees frequently take the 1.5-hour train from Philadelphia to New York, as well as the 4.5-hour train from New York to Boston. The travel policy can allow only economy for the 1.5-hour commute, but automatically unlock first-class options for the longer trip so employees can comfortably work on their laptops.

Trip-level compliance: If even a single leg of a multi-segment rail journey violates your rules, the entire trip is flagged as out-of-policy, closing tricky compliance loopholes instantly.

A traveler books a multi-stop rail journey across Europe. The first three regional legs are fully compliant economy tickets, but for the final leg, they sneak in a luxury first-class ticket. The system flags the entire multi-segment booking as out-of-policy, preventing the expense from slipping through undetected.