Planning a Trip: Visit a local AAA or travel agent and various airline Web sites. Determine which airlines offers more for the money.

Figure the total miles for your family vacation round trip.

For example, Dallas to Chicago = 803 miles round trip. Airline "A" cost is $219 per ticket RT. Take the total price for the ticket and divide it by total miles = price per mile.

$219/803 =$0.27 price per mile.

Repeat these steps using the round trip cost for the same trip on other all airlines to determine which is the better value.

EXTENSION: If driving for vacation, figure approximate cost for gasoline Ex: 803 miles RT and our car gets approx 18 miles per gallon.

So, 803 miles /18 miles per gallon = 44.6 gallons of gas needed for the trip.

Gas is approximately $2.85 per gallon.

Therefore $2.85 x 44.6 =$127.11 for gas cost.