A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament , a worldwide pheno menon to be played in the United States for the first time beginning June 17 , i s available in a set of three home videos . Each of the three volumes by PolyGra m Video lists for $ 14.95 and has a running time of about 60 minutes . The three volumes : `` World Cup USA '94 : The Official Preview , '' which includes a tou rnament history with footage all the way back to the first World Cup held in 193 0 . There 's a look at the training of the 1994 U.S. team and a profile of Brazi l 's Pele , just 17 when he took the 1958 event by storm , repeating in 1962 and 1970 . `` Top 50 Great World Cup Goals , '' highlighting exciting moments from competition beginning in 1966 with favorites such as Pele , Johan Cruyff , Diego Maradona , Roberto Baggio , Salvatore `` Toto '' Schillaci and Franz Beckenbaue r . `` Great World Cup Superstars , '' focusing on the top names in the game , f eatured in the `` Goals '' cassette , and adding some interviews that offer an i nsight into what makes these stars shine . Three new basketball videos available : `` Sir Charles '' takes a look at the on-court intensity and dynamic skills o f Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns as well as his entertaining off-court pers ona. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` NBA Superstars 3 '' follows up on two previous hit videos meshing the moves of the NBA 's elite with today 's h it music . This one includes Kenny Anderson , Steve Smith , Derrick Coleman , La rry Johnson , Dan Majerle , Alonzo Mourning , Hakeem Olajuwon , Mark Price , Sha wn Kemp , Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars . Their play is matched with the music of Erick Sermon , M People , LL Cool J , Celine Dion , Domino , Soulhat , Soul Asyl um , Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis , Pearl Jam and Rozella. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` Hog Wild : The Official 1994 NCAA Championship V ideo '' recaptures the excitement of the latest edition of March Madness and Ark ansas 's march to the title with rousing victories over Michigan , Arizona and D uke in the three final games. $ 19.98 , 45 minutes , 1-800-747-7999 . Canadian River Expeditions offers a change from the usual theme-park vacation : five 11-day float trips from July 1 to Aug. 31 that take families through some o f British Columbia 's most scenic territory . Travel for these Chilcotin-Fraser tours is by yacht , seaplane and raft through deep fjords where bald eagles whee l through the sky and the water is filled with seals , whales and some of the bi ggest salmon in the world . Highlights include winging on a seaplane over icefie lds , hiking trips and fishing expeditions . The raft rides are not white knuckl e adventures it 's mostly gentle floating . A few hours a day are spent on the w ater , with the rest of the time devoted to guided sightseeing and nature walks . Price is $ 2,325 , including round-trip airfare to Vancouver , meals and accom modations , as well as camping gear . Call your travel agent or ( 604 ) 738-4449 . Trafalgar Tours is offering 16 `` Best of ... '' trips to Europe for 1994 . ` ` Best of Britain , '' for example , takes in all of England and Scotland in 15 days for $ 1,099 . A 14-day `` Best of France '' trip for $ 1,260 covers the cou ntry from north to south , including Monaco , and a `` Best of Switzerland '' it inerary combines Zurich , St. Moritz , Zermatt , Geneva , Interlaken and Lucerne in 9 nine days for $ 799 . Other packages are available for Spain , Italy , Ger many , Austria , Holland , Norway , Sweden and Denmark , Belgium and Holland , a mong others . Prices exclude airfare . Call your travel agent or ( 800 ) 457-689 1 . Airlines are offering , or continuing , special price packages for travelers flying to Europe , the Mideast and the Far East . IPI World Travel and Delta Ai rlines , for example , are rolling back prices for a `` China Highlights '' tour 14 days , departing in November and December , to Bejing , Shanghai , Xian Guil in and Hong Kong for $ 2,650 , including airfare from the East Coast . Delta als o runs several package tours to European cities : a `` Parisien Spree '' of 6 si x nights , breakfasts and a Seine River cruise , for $ 1,199 per person , double occupancy , round-trip from New York , and a `` Romantic Rome '' trip , with si milar features , for just $ 1,289 . El Al meanwhile sponsors a spring vacation p ackage that includes five nights ' accommodations in Tel Aviv , daily breakfasts and free rental car , for just $ 1,049 round-trip from New York City . Call you r travel agent or IPI at ( 212 ) 953-6010 or El Al Israeli Airlines at ( 800 ) E L AL SUN . Take a long weekend this summer and enjoy one of several two- to four -day walking tours of New York 's historic Hudson Valley from High Land Flings F ootloose Holidays . Their `` Dutch Treat '' trip , June 3-5 , follows in the foo tsteps of colonial settlers through three National Historic landmark villages wh ere stone houses built by Dutch and Huguenot builders in the 17th century still stand . You 'll walk America 's oldest street in New Paltz , Main Street in Hurl ey and the Stockade area of Kingston , where the state 's constitution was writt en and adopted , and also visit the 1676 Senate House . Other walks cover the ar ea of Lake Minnewaska , Overlook Mountain near Woodstock and the northeastern Ca tskills . Prices range from $ 350 per person , double occupancy , for two-day wa lks to $ 699 for a four-day trip . Call ( 800 ) 453-6665 . Are frequent-flier awards worth all the trouble travelers sometimes go through t o rack up enough miles for a free trip ? Not according to a lengthy piece in the May issue of Worth magazine , which concludes that the programs are vastly over -rated . Then why do so many banks , rental-car companies , long-distance phone services and hotels reward their frequent customers with airline miles rather th an cash discounts or other perks ? Simple , says Worth contributing editor Jeff Blyskal , in the article entitled `` The Frequent-Flier Fallacy . '' Companies w ant to give premiums that combine the greatest perceived value with the lowest p ossible outlay , and frequent-flier miles are the perfect solution . Each freebi e ticket costs an airline only $ 11 to $ 42 , Blyskal calculates . The average d iscount to passengers amounts to 3.3 percent almost 2 percent less than you get by being a valued customer of Sears , he writes . His data showed the cost to a traveler for each award ranges from $ 929 with Southwest Airlines to $ 7,527 wit h Delta , which requires higher-than-average mileage minimums to collect a freeb ie . The dollar value of the freebies ranges from $ 56 with Southwest to $ 208 w ith United . The effective discounts passengers reap range from 1.5 percent ( US Air ) to 6 percent ( Southwest ) . Hotel frequent-guest programs typically provi de a 5 percent discount , as do numerous retailers ' programs , including Sears Best Customer , Blyskal found . The number of dollars spent to earn a domestic f reebie usually available after flying 20,000 miles typically ranges from $ 3,626 to $ 6,555 , he said . ( On Southwest Airlines , the average passenger gets a f ree trip after 7,104 miles because freebies are awarded by that carrier after ei ght round trips rather than a mileage minimum . ) Blyskal says his accounting sy stem gives airlines the benefit of the doubt in every aspect and was based on th e programs as they stand now before the program devaluations most airlines plan starting next year . The payback is even worse from affinity credit cards , he s ays , which generally award one frequent-flier mile per dollar charged . This tr anslates to an effective discount of just 0.7 percent on $ 20,000 in credit card spending needed to earn the $ 152 in value of the average free ticket , Blyskal figures . All in all , he says , to earn these paltry awards , travelers spend more on air travel in the first place than they have to because they often shun low-cost airlines that do not participate in frequent-flier programs . For examp le , he says , to earn 20,000 miles on United , a traveler would have to make 14 Newark-Chicago round trips at a cost of $ 12,348 . Fourteen round trips would c ost just a quarter of that $ 2,912 on upstart Kiwi International Airlines , whic h offers consistently low rates but no frequent-flier perks , he says . You say you do n't care about the price because your boss pays for a lot of your flights and lets you rake in the resulting frequent-flier perks ? Do n't let the compan y bean-counters get wind of the fact that you could be sent on 45 more Newark-Ch icago business trips for what it 's costing to ensure that you get your perk , B lyskal cautions . Add on the annual fees charged for some affinity cards , not t o mention high interest on purchases and maybe a computer program to help you ma nage your miles . And , of course , most travelers who earn a freebie purchase a ticket for their spouse or companion to accompany them which often is n't avail able at any discount whatsoever . Plus the hardest cost to quantify which may be the biggest cost of all , Blyskal says : the time many fliers spend obsessing o ver maximizing mileage for minimum payback .