[.ca] The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Service and ... (ISBN 0812973801)

From Amazon.co.uk:
The Travel Detective is the guide-to-end-all-guides on how to get to your destination and have a good time, explaining how to beat the airlines, hotels, cruise lines and car rental agencies at their own games. Peter Greenberg is hands-down the right man for the job. Here is a guy who checked in a double porcelain sink as a carry-on, just for laughs, crisscrossed the country on six different airlines over two days to see if the flights would be on time, and tested credit card company claims for global assistance in an emergency by getting stuck in a ghost town in Death Valley. Not only that, he's travelled to 120 countries around. A tourist, says Greenberg, is a victim waiting to happen. The travel world is full of ridiculous and draconian rules, but there are no shortages of ways to finesse them. You just have to know what to avoid and how to ask the right questions. Greenberg explains how to get the cheapest fares and beat the Saturday night stay requirement. He tells you the truth about frequent-flyer programs, where the secret flights and even secret seats are, and how to avoid being a PAWOB (passenger without bags). He's got tips for travelling with kids and pets, and the truth about the safety of infants flying on laps (as well as that infamous first-class flying pig). Once you've made it to your destination, he'll fill you in on the best time to call to get the lowest hotel rates, the right question to ask to get a room with good water pressure and how to avoid hotel and rental car rip-offs. He's even got advice for finding a cruise that lives up to its seductive description. This is a useful, fun and readable guide. --Lesley Reed, Amazon.com

95% worthless:
Given the massive changes in airline policies and security since 9/11, the vast majority of the advice in this book is no longer applicable. Greenberg focuses so much on flying - almost 240 of the book's 375 or so pages of content - that you'd think there was nothing more to travel than the flight. There's also a bizarre jump from an abbreviated pet-friendly lodging section (a whopping two paragraphs) smack into the middle of a discussion on how to get the best deal on a hotel room. Clearly, whoever edited this cut a big chunk out, and deprived the reader of who-knows-how-much information. There are some useful tips and hints in here, but not enough to justify owning it.

Waste of time for anyone with travel experience:
If you have very little travel experience you may be able to get something out of this book but for the rest of the world it is a waste of time.

Too Much Schtick:
If you would like to read Peter Greenberg's stand up act, get this book. If you are looking for clear, concise travel tips, keep looking. Reading this book, it feels like jokes outnumber useful tips 10 to 1. The first 10 pages are Jay Leno's take on traveling!?!? That's not what I call useful travel tips.

Stop Complaining:
There are quite a few good tips in the book, but all of them could have been combined into two chapters. The author seems to ramble on about all of his travel problems, things that have happened to him. That's great if you show us an example, but not a third of each chapter. Also, there is a lot of redundent info. For instance, the chapter about crusie lines buying used boats and renaming them and saying "New to our fleet" as to inply that the ship is brand new not an old ship. He goes through about 30 examples of this.. One would have been enough.

Great Basic Advice !!:
What a great book of secrets, tricks and advice!! Now more than ever it is important to be mentally prepared before taking that next trip to Grandma's, the board meeting or dream trip to Fiji. In conversational laymen's terms, Peter Greenberg spells out the ins and outs of traveling less stressfully and how to speak to those we deal with in the travel industry! Bravo Mr. Greenberg!