Executive Travel : A Newsletter Boomlet for Road Warriors

Business travel used to be as simple as getting on a plane. But today, with the proliferation of mileage programs, airline discounts and promotional tie-ins from rental car companies, hotels, restaurants, credit card issuers and phone companies, it can be a full-time job to keep tabs on what’s new in travel.

Along with the multiplication of programs, however, has come a mini-boom in travel newsletters geared toward helping weary road warriors sort it all out.

Magellan’s, the Santa Barbara-based catalogue company that sells travel-related products, recently launched its first mini-catalogue, a compendium of travel newsletters (Magellan’s, [800] 962-4943).

The catalogue features 14 newsletters, and response has been so great that the fall issue will be double the size, Magellan spokeswoman Sharon Greene said. Many of the current offerings are place-specific, such as the locally produced Paris Notes, which concentrates exclusively on the latest trends, books, fashions, restaurants, hotels and art in Paris (10 issues per year, $39; write to Paris Notes, P.O. Box 3668-M, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266), or the Affordable Caribbean, which features tips on how to find affordable hotels, restaurants and other attractions in the area (12 issues per year, $39.95; write to The Affordable Caribbean, Department MTG, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834).

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Some of the newsletters are oriented more toward business travelers, however. There is, for example, International Travel News, a publication for the high-frequency overseas traveler, featuring reader experiences, evaluations, tips and travel advisories (12 issues per year, $16; write to International Travel News, P.O. Box 189490, Department M, Sacramento, CA 95818). Or Travel Alert Bulletin, a newsletter that warns readers about trouble spots, ranging from airport construction to pending airline strikes to security issues (10 issues for 5 months, $39; write to Travel Alert Bulletin, Nationwide Network Inc., P.O. Box 1922-M, Saginaw, MI 48605).

Still others are geared to specific audiences. Travelin’ Woman, published by Nancy Mills, features insider travel tips from a woman’s perspective for both the corporate and leisure traveler (12 issues per year, $38; write to Travelin’ Woman, Nancy Mills Communications, 855 Moraga Drive, No. 14, Department M, Los Angeles, CA 90049).

But Magellan’s has only a sampling of such publications.

Besides Travel Alert Bulletin, Nationwide Network Inc. also issues a Fax Travel Bulletin about once a week, with updates on everything from air fare wars to short-term airline or hotel discounts that could affect your travel plans. It also publishes Airline, Airport & City Briefings, featuring maps, diagrams, data and recommendations that are updated monthly, and a monthly Personal Travel Report, which is geared more to leisure travelers, with “10 best” lists of resorts, city hotels, airline critiques and a summary of featured stories in major consumer travel magazines. A package that includes all the company’s publications for one year is $350.

For aggressive frequent fliers who want to get from one city to another as cheaply as possible--even if that means flying to alternate airports and taking ground transportation, or engaging in ticketing games such as “back-to-back ticketing” or “hidden-city ticketing”--check out the Airfare Report.

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This newsletter gives specific prices between cities, as well as airline regulations so travelers know what the rules are and what the consequences are if they get caught breaking them. The company began publishing a Los Angeles edition of the report this month. It now offers Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and New York editions and plans to add two cities a month (52 issues per year, $48; write to Airfare Report, 7964 Brooklyn Blvd., No. 300, Minneapolis, MN 55445).

Similar fare information for many parts of the country is available in Best Fares, a monthly magazine on discount travel. It also tracks the latest travel promotions, some of them little-advertised. Editor and Publisher Tom Parsons is a popular talk show guest who manages to round up even the most obscure ways to save money on air fares (12 issues per year, $78 for corporate edition, $58 for consumer edition; write to Best Fares Inc., 1111 W. Arkansas Lane, Suite C, Arlington, TX 76013).

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Business travelers who frequently fly Delta may be interested in Ticket, published by Chris McGinnis, author of “202 Tips Even the Best Business Travelers May Not Know” and founder of Travel Skills Group in Atlanta.

Ticket attempts to condense the latest news from the travel industry into a short, quick format for travelers who don’t have a lot of time, McGinnis said. Because he is based in Atlanta, the information is geared toward people who travel frequently to or from the Southeast (12 issues per year, $34; write to Ticket, P.O. Box 52927, Atlanta, GA 30355).

Then there is businessflyer bulletin, a fax bulletin with weekly updates on airline news and frequent-flier promotions that was formerly published as Business Flyer, a monthly newsletter (50 issues per year, $50; write to Business Flyer, P.O. Box 616, New Haven, CT 06503).

InsideFlyer, published by Randy Petersen, who is widely regarded as the guru of frequent-flier points, provides exhaustive information on mileage programs as well as news and analyses of events affecting the travel industry, especially news affecting frequent-flier points (12 issues per year, $33; write to InsideFlyer 4715-C Town Center Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80916-4709).

Frequent Flyer magazine, published by Official Airline Guides, contains news and features of interest to frequent travelers (12 issues per year, $24; write to OAG Travel Magazines, 2000 Clearwater Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60521).

Another newsletter, Out & About, takes the perspective of gay and lesbian business and leisure travelers while reviewing national and international cities and also discusses hotel, airline and car rental policies regarding the inclusion of a second person (10 issues per year, $49; write to Out & About Inc., P.O. Box 1792, New York, NY 10114).

A major Consumers Union publication, the Consumer Reports Travel Letter (12 issues per year, $39; call [800] 234-1970), includes information useful for business travelers even though its primary focus is the leisure traveler.