Given your druthers, would you rather pay $800 or $200 for an airplane seat? Incredible travel deals are out there--it just takes a bit of knowledge and planning to find them. Accessing these savings can fund an extra few weeks of vacation or bring a family holiday from the realm of the pipe dream to the land of affordable options. They also keep you from feeling like the ripped-off oaf. Who wants to be the dolt on the cruise who paid top dollar when all one"s tablemates are swimming in the same pool and dining on the same delicacies for 50 percent less? Ed Perkins and the editors of Consumer Reports Travel Letter delineate hundreds of ways to save money while traveling, while red-flagging high-cost pitfalls. They discuss travel-agent selection and travel clubs, discounts for seniors and surcharges for singles, package tours and discount dining. There are pages and pages full of tips for getting low airline fares, covering everything from charters and twofers to discount tickets and Internet offers. They delve into the details of frequent-flyer programs and consolidators, compare airline-seat comfort, and explain the various status fares available for the old, the young, and the bereaved. There are chapters on train passes and car-rental deals, hotels at half-off and hotels through hotel brokers. Advice is offered on whether it makes more sense to tour Europe by car or by train, and an entire chapter is devoted to flying overseas. They even discuss how to assert your travel rights with airlines, travel agencies, and tour operators. Savvy and straightforward, Best Travel Deals draws on years of travel-market experience to bring you the sort of information that can help you save an extraordinary amount of money. The insights into the travel business are most interesting and the advice is practical, making it an unparalleled travel investment.