Sound silly? It’s not. Some of the best airline deals overseas can be found right at your local newsstand.

In your neighborhood, look for a newsstand that carries foreign-particularly British- newspapers. Buy any two of them. Take them home, and turn to the travel section. You will see numerous advertisements for great discount fares to virtually anywhere in the world. It’s a safe bet that many of the fares will never be offered in the US; some of the destinations aren’t even marketed here-especially for discount fares.

As an example, let’s say you want to fly from New York to the Canary Islands, or from Chicago to Nairobi. Looking for a discount fare? Good luck. You won’t find one.

But you’d have to be dead not to be able to find a great discount fare to London. American, United, Northwest, Continental, and US Airways fly there. So do British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, El Al, Kuwait Airways, and Air India – and I’ve probably forgotten a few others. With that much capacity over the North Atlantic, London remains an intense discount route.

So getting to London is easy. You can often fly for as little as $298 round-trip – sometimes, for even less. And that’s where the newspapers come in.

Go ahead. Price out the New York – Tenerife (Canary Islands) flight, and you’ll be hit – even in coach – with fares that can exceed $1,800.

London is a major international hub. Not only do all the big and small airlines fly to there, but virtually every foreign country flies from there!

Begin with a cheap fare from New York to London. Now check the newspapers. I recently found the round-trip airfare from London to Tenerife for £89 (that’s about $162)!

This theory works on just about any itinerary you could imagine. In fact, it is sometimes cheaper to fly from Los Angeles to London, and then take a cheap flight to Hong Kong or Bangkok, than to take a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.

Excerpt from Peter’s book, The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Service and the Best Deals from Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Ships, and Car Rental Agencies.

Pick up The Travel Detective from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or an independent retailer near you: