Despite the new fees and fares, rules and rip-offs being piled on travelers today, you can still survive a business trip — or a vacation — without tearing out your hair.

On a recent journey to Spokane, Wash., I didn't have to worry about getting trapped in morning rush-hour traffic or pay $25 a day for airport parking. Nor did I shell out $25 to check my garment bag for the flight, $2 for a diet Coke or a dime extra for an aisle seat in the emergency row.

What's more, I didn’t have to endure an understandably grumpy flight attendant who took yet another pay and benefit cut and was sweating a layoff while her airline's CEO and his cronies pocketed yet another hefty bonus.

Instead, I booked a clean, good-sized room at the La Quinta Inn near Oakland Airport for $169 a night, which included parking my car free for two weeks on the premises, not in some faraway lot. Plus, La Quinta tossed in the basic budget hotel fix-it-yourself, all-you-can-eat breakfast gratis and the shuttle bus was on time. And it has a pool if you want to swim a few laps before a long haul.

I also flew Southwest Airlines and had an empty middle seat for spreading out files and limbs.

Granted, paying $303 roundtrip on Southwest for a two-hour flight booked 14 days in advance would have ruffled my feathers a year or so ago. Not today. Considering how the Big Six are pummeling their passengers, even their elite-level frequent fliers, I was grateful for the seat, the fare, the laptop-computer friendly 32-inch seat pitch, the smiling cabin crew and the no-charge OJ.

It was a no-brainer. In shopping for fares, United quoted a minimum $643 roundtrip with a plane change in Denver and some long layovers — a total waste of time and money. Alaska Air wanted $283 roundtrip but with a stop in Seattle. So if you have time to burn, you could save a $20 bill. Southwest to Spokane was nonstop.

(As this is written, Dallas-based Southwest and Toronto-headquartered WestJet Airlines Ltd., announced a code-share agreement that essentially lets the two low-cost airlines fly to each other's home country. Both fly Boeing 737s and WestJet has said it modeled itself after Southwest. No information was disclosed on routes or fares at this point).

Meanwhile, unless you're lucky or powerful enough to be a member of the limo and first-class club, or "fly private" (as the moguls call it), you're at the mercy today of an army of revenue managers and corporate cost-cutters. And it's getting tougher to beat them at their own game unless you're able to snag special promotional prices.

The car-rental outfits are a good example. With gasoline well over $4 a gallon, the economy and compact cars are often the priciest, sometimes higher than the sports utility vehicles and on a par with the full-size cars.

After shopping the rent-a-car companies' own websites and taking a fling at Expedia, I found the best deal with Hotwire. This is the so-called "opaque" website (www.hotwire.com) where you don't know what company is renting you the car until you book it with a credit card. Hotwire quotes car classes and daily rates but not the rental company, which is fine with me.

Car rental outfits, like airlines and hotels, use Hotwire without identifying the auto brands, when their yield-management computer programs show they won't sell out that day at a particular location. And rent-a-car companies will discount their rates because they hate to disclose to their competitors or customers that they have to dump excess inventory. You're buying blind but unless you prize brand loyalty and reward points over cash saved, why worry?

I opted for a compact at $26.99 a day with all taxes and fees included and Hotwire, in a split second, told me National Car Rental would fill my request. Bingo, I'm booked yet I don't know what I'll be driving. But I'll haggle when I get there.

When I landed — on time — I found the car rental counters are inside Spokane's clean, compact airport terminal, not a shuttle ride away. The staff was friendly but there was a minor hassle. I asked the agent for a Toyota Corolla which gets 30 mpg minimum on the road and is, in my view, a great compact car. I was told a new 2008 model was available and it was mine.

Oops, she said a minute later, it's been rented so how about the new retro 1950 Chevy station wagon or a spiffy, new PT Cruiser? But when I checked their fleet book with photos and statistics, it showed neither car gets the Corolla's mileage. Sorry, no dice.

Some tenacity and three or four phone calls later, the National agent just happen to find a Corolla, cleaned, gassed and ready to go. It had 28,279 miles but these cars are workhorses so that was no problem. I took it the full-tank fuel option ($4.01, a 43 cent a gallon savings over gas stations in the U.S. and a $1.48 a gallon savings over gasoline in British Columbia three hours to the north.

Bottom line: Southwest, National Car Rental and La Quinta Inn all performed and Hotwire worked.

Chris Barnett writes on business travel strategies that save time, money and hassles. To find out more about Chris Barnett and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.