The Federal Travel Brief by Travel Advisory
FTR changes. City Pair awards. GO.gov migration updates. Know before the memo lands.
Weekly intelligence for federal agency travel managers, TMC account teams, and military DTS administrators. Plain-English regulation analysis, City Pair data across 400+ localities, and GO.gov migration intelligence GSA has not published yet.
What arrives in your inbox every week
Intelligence sourced from the agencies you already report to
The system you manage every day
You manage federal travel policy in a system designed to frustrate everyone who touches it.
DTS earned the nickname “Don’t Travel Service.” Soldiers wait 493 days for $779 reimbursements. Travelers describe the voucher process as a “lottery” where identical submissions get wildly different payments. God help you if someone lost a receipt.
The Pentagon spent $374 million on a MyTravel replacement and abandoned it with no explanation. GO.gov is coming, but GSA has not published a complete migration timeline. The regulations are labyrinthine and arcane. There is no real training. You just have to know.
Meanwhile, DOGE is making decisions that affect travel policy across the federal workforce. Supervisors are in the dark. Travel managers are the last to know about changes that hit their desk as a crisis on Monday morning.
You are not under-qualified. You are under-informed. The intelligence exists. It is scattered across GSA bulletins, Federal Register notices, DTMO directives, and GAO reports that nobody has organized for someone doing your specific job.
REGULATION TRACKING
FTR and JTR changes in plain English, with what it means for your program.
Every Federal Travel Regulation and Joint Travel Regulation change decoded the week it publishes. Not the Federal Register text. Not a legal brief. A plain-English analysis of what changed, who it affects, and what you need to do before the next audit cycle. The brief your agency counsel should be writing but is not.
CITY PAIR AND PER DIEM INTELLIGENCE
Data analysis across 400+ CONUS localities. Not just the rate tables.
GSA publishes the numbers. We analyze the patterns. Which City Pair routes saw the largest fare increases. Which per diem localities are under-reimbursing relative to actual lodging costs. Where your agency is leaving money on the table and where travelers are eating the difference out of pocket.
GO.GOV MIGRATION PLAYBOOK
Timeline, readiness checklists, and what GSA is not telling you.
GO.gov is replacing multiple legacy travel systems. GSA has not published a complete migration timeline. We are tracking every published milestone, every internal directive, and every slipped deadline. Readiness checklists by agency type. The information your CIO needs to plan and your travel office needs to execute.
Built for the person who runs a federal travel program
The intelligence you need to go from last to know to first to know.
FTR/JTR decoder
Every regulation change translated into plain English. What changed, who it affects, and what action your office needs to take before the next IG audit.
City Pair award tracker
Award cycle analysis across 16,000+ routes. Which carriers won, which routes changed, and where your agency has new negotiation leverage.
Per diem rate analysis
Rate changes across 400+ CONUS localities with gap analysis. Where published per diem is falling short of actual lodging costs and what your travelers are absorbing.
DTS and GO.gov system intelligence
Migration timelines, system outage tracking, and readiness checklists. The operational intelligence your agency needs to plan around systems that change without warning.
DOGE travel policy watch
Executive actions and organizational changes that affect federal travel programs. Tracked as they happen, analyzed for impact on your agency before the all-hands email.
Audit preparation briefs
GAO findings, IG audit patterns, and compliance checklists organized by common audit triggers. Walk into the review already knowing the questions.
Three steps. One less fire drill per week.
Subscribe with your .gov or .mil email
Free tier available for .gov and .mil addresses. Paid tiers for full analysis and team access. All pricing under the micro-purchase threshold.
Intelligence brief arrives weekly
FTR/JTR analysis, City Pair changes, per diem updates, GO.gov migration status, and DOGE policy watch. Organized for a five-minute scan before your first meeting.
Walk into IG audits already knowing the questions
When the Inspector General asks about FTR compliance or your supervisor needs a GO.gov readiness update, you already have the data. No scrambling. No searching through Federal Register archives.