With an estimated 180 million members of frequent-flier programs and 10 trillion unused frequent-flier miles in circulation, what are the best airline rewards to spend your miles on? If you've done the right thing and accumulated most of your miles with one airline to maximize your redemption power, here's how how you can reap the benefits (or at least try):

Seats. Actual flights are the most popular use of airline rewards, but are also some of the toughest to redeem. Remember the first time you naively tried to redeem miles for a flight and found out that all dates were blacked out, sold out or would cost you triple the miles you expected?

Expiration is another problem with this particular airline reward. In fact, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) recently requested a review of frequent-flier programs for "deceptive business practices" for not giving customers a heads up that they are going to lose accounts or miles. Assuming Sen. Schumer's probe gets nowhere with solving this frustrating airline rewards problem, you need to call way, way, way ahead of your desired days of travel to get seats for the "advertised" miles. And don't neglect to research and manage your mileage program (most airlines allow three years of inactivity before miles expire, though JetBlue, AirTran and ATA only allow one year; Continental allows only 18 months; and Southwest allows 24 months).

Partners. This is where the bigger airlines rewards programs have an advantage. Continental and United; Delta and Northwest, etc., allow you to redeem miles with their partners, which increases flexibility and opportunities to get the flight you want.

The Thanksgiving rush isn't just today -- it's been going on for several days now.

That's the assessment of The New York Times: "The long lines and frayed nerves actually started last week, as many penny-pinching travelers booked earlier, and less, expensive, flights. As a result, what used to be a quick holiday trip home is now stretching to a week or more."

I completely agree. Last month, I was fortunate enough to take a long overdue vacation with my wife and two daughters. When we initially planned the trip, it was going to be a mini-vacation of sorts -- a long, four-day weekend, which is all I felt we could afford -- but we wound up leaving Ohio for Florida for a week.

I didn't plan on taking our daughters out of school for four days, nor did I want to miss four days of work. But leaving on a jet plane on a Wednesday and coming back the following Tuesday turned out to be about $800 cheaper than it would have been if we had flown on a Friday and returned on a Monday.

Just as swine flu activity is slowing, health officials are worried about another increase as people travel for Thanksgiving. And a few weeks after Thanksgiving, more people will be preparing to travel for Christmas, making now a good time to review government recommendations on travel during swine flu season.

Nobody wants another travel scene like last spring in Mexico, when thousands of travelers canceled trips to Mexico after a swine flu outbreak there.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a whole list of interim guidelines for flight crews regarding the swine flu, and probably the best among them for travelers is that "People with symptoms of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection should not leave home or travel."

It's definitely cruise ship season. Royal Caribbean just made a major splash by launching the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas. That made headlines, but there have been other news stories in the industry. Last week, the huge Carnival line also had an unveiling of its own in New York City. Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden was the godmother for its new ship, the Dream.

WalletPop was invited to take a two-night ride on the ship, which is impressive but no record-breaker, as a guest of Carnival. Since the ship was packed with die-hard cruisers and travel writers eager to get their first peek at Carnival's newest vessel, it was the perfect opportunity to ask experienced cruise travelers for their favorite money-saving tips for taking a cruise.

Once you've paid your fare, your room is taken care of. So are your meals, provided you stick to the few on-board restaurants that are included in your ticket price. But after that, the costs start mounting. WalletPop's Jason Cochran, who has taken quite a few cruises himself as a travel writer, asked passengers on the sparkling new Dream for their best money-saving tips.

So here I am, writing this from off the coast of Florida as part of the first two-day preview cruise of the magnificent Oasis of the Seas. Royal Caribbean has launched the largest cruise ship in the world, a towering dagwood of action-packed decks and over-the top superlatives: longest cruise ship, widest cruise ship, tallest cruise ship, heaviest cruise ship.

And as of today, the coolest cruise ship. Rihanna was on here yesterday, and I'm told Richard Branson has come and gone, too. By now, most of America has seen the particulars of this gargantuan, billion-dollar chunk of devil-be-damned engineering. Here on board, one of the stateroom TV channels plays, on a loop, the segments of yesterday's Good Morning America in which Sam Champion and his crew romped around the Aqua Theatre, the Solarium, the cocktail bar that rises and falls between three decks (pictured above), the huge Central Park and Boardwalk atriums (atria?) that carve an airy middle into the ship.



The ship is, simply put, astounding. I have never seen anything like it in my years of cruising. It took me about six hours to explore fully from Deck 3 (the Studio B ice rink) to Deck 17 (the stunning, and ridiculously expensive, duplex loft suites with two-story sea views). There's nearly no way to take in the enormity of the endeavor. If you could pack a small shopping mall together with a 2,400-room resort and send it off to sea, you might start coming close (one cynic described it as "a hotel on a barge," which omits the considerable frills and dazzle), but you'd still have trouble wrapping your head around it all.

It is so big as to be humbling, and sometimes, that makes it a little frightening. As we left Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, a police boat rushed a smaller craft that was approaching us and warned its captain to back off, as it was entering "restricted waters." Something this big and this audacious would be an obvious target, and local police are clearly taking no chances.

Royal Caribbean, ever adept at cleverly harnessing social media (remember that unfortunate recent case in which it was nabbed giving freebies to people likely to populate user-review boards with praise?), has invited large numbers of journalists, travel agents, and VIPs to take part on two, back-to-back, two-night cruises. Attending for WalletPop, I'm on the first one. For this run only, alcohol is free.



There were some early reports this week that the line would be, in effect, bribing the press for good stories by plying them with booze and by giving them stuff that will actually cost passengers on "real" sailings. Although alcohol is free, I can't say I've seen this accusation to be the case, and the crowd is a lot less drunk than it was for a paid sailing on the Carnival Dream a week ago. Not everything is handed out: I've had to pay for things such as a $2.50 coffee on the Royal Promenade or $2.50 for a hyper-sweet cupcake from its on-board cupcake shop. Whenever anything is offered to us, I ask what the price will be for paying customers.

Again and again, the answer I get tells me that many of the things we're getting are included in the fare anyway. That includes midnight pizza at Sorrento's, afternoon burgers at Johnny Rocket's, and twilight doughnuts on the Boardwalk (where there's a working carousel), and even rides on one of the twin FlowRider sheet wave machines, provided you can score a time slot. So although Royal Caribbean is pioneering obnoxious fees such as surcharges for late-night room service and hefty upcharges for the privilege of eating better food than its main dining regularly serves, I can't say it's using the launch of the Oasis to foist a lot of new ones on us.

There are some issues, of course. The first is lines. Royal Caribbean was wise enough to only pack this ship about half-full, which means we're all likely to get into the shows we want to see and we won't write reviews complaining about crowds. When it's full of paying guests, though, you'll have to make many of your reservations online or in a queue, adding another layer of hassle to what's supposed to be your break from it all. I also suspect the main pool area, on Deck 15, will not be able accommodate everyone who wants to swim. On balance, though, this is a pretty dazzling achievement, and diversion is around every corner.

When I see a ship as marvelously bloated as this one, I have to separate my sense of travel snobbery from my admiration for what Royal Caribbean has done here. I can't deny that passengers who immerse themselves in this floating circus might as well not be at sea at all. It's less a ship than a floating resort, and most of the passengers seem to be hanging out below decks than enjoying the sun and the sea.

Today, while I was having lunch in the Windjammer Marketplace buffet on Deck 16, I looked down at the smooth blue water to see dolphins playing alongside the ship. While I was admiring that sight, the couple behind me was engaged in a lively debate about the quality of this buffet compared to those on other ships. They were oblivious to their surroundings. It's typical of the attitude on board the Oasis, which is so loathe to share any glory with the oceans than most of its vantage points over the seas are sheathed in glass.

That's all right. This ship is a product, and whether you're a theatre reviewer or a travel writer, you have to remember the audience for whom you're reviewing the product. This audience is agog. I myself can't help but be impressed. For the next year or so, until its sister ship the Allure of the Seas matches her feats, this will be the ship to book, and rates are likely to be at around $150 a night or more (I wrote about upcoming deals to be had that were even better). I can't say that if I paid that price, high for the industry right now, that I would ever find that I was feeling ripped off.



Now that I've seen this ship, though, I might consider any other vessel that dared to charge me so much would be a rip. In this way alone, the Oasis may have changed the industry: It will be difficult for less exuberant ships to charge the same price, and if they do, they'll have to find some other hook, be it a boast about smaller crowds, better food (Royal Caribbean's food is not widely considered its strong point), Mickey Mouse appearances, or larger cabins. The sheer magnitude of the Oasis, its biggest selling point, will also be the very thing that convinces some customers to choose a sailing with more modesty.

And more importantly, remember that traveling is not always the same thing as vacationing. Not everyone wants to engage with other cultures; for many people, the floating fishtank of a cruise ship is all the exploration they need. The Oasis is a fabulous vacation machine, but it's about the universe it has created for itself, not about its place in the outside world. In that, it's a home run.

Just in time for the Thanksgiving drive to grandmas! Download a free 24-page road trip activity book that has word games, math facts, and brain busters for kids aged 8 and up.

The free download is courtesy of RadRoadTrips.com, a site devoted to ensuring your drive is entertaining. Thanks, Freebie Blogger!

If you happen to be bringing baby over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house for Thanksgiving, you're not alone. Despite the fact The Air Transport Authority is reporting a 4% decline in air travelers, Gail Weinholzer, director of public affairs for AAA said the auto club still expects 40 million people to travel this holiday. Thirty-five million of them will be driving their own cars.

If you're traveling with kids, you not only have to pack your patience, but also a whole lot of gear. It can be tempting to stay home, lock the doors and order-in Chinese.

But tradition calls. In an attempt to actually see out the windows of our SUV, my family recently invested in one of those soft-sided, roof-top storage thingies that strap to the roof rails on top of the car. It definitely helps, but it also transforms our ride into a cross between Vacation, the not-so-funny sequel and Grapes of Wrath.

If you'd rather not go the Sherpa route or are looking to avoid outrageous fees for checking items under the plane, baby equipment rentals seek to offer the solution. Stocked with the kind of sanity saving amenities to which baby has become accustomed (high-chair, Exersaucer, baby gates, infant swing, jogger, double jogger, Boppy ring, etc.) instead of schlepping a frazzled parent might consider renting --and it's not too late to make reservations for those must-have items.

Travel may be down in this economy, but there's one area where business is booming: discount booking sites. With travel providers desperate to unload unused rooms and tickets, it seems like the only sectors of the travel industry that are exploding are the ones previously seen as a last resort by the industry.

Priceline.com reported that bookings through its site, which offers steep discounts on hotel rooms and other travel products, are at their best levels in nine years. Hotwire.com, which is owned by Expedia, reports a similar boost in revenue. The Hotwire Group's sales over 12 months have exceeded $250 million for the first time, and reps told WalletPop that compared to last year, hotel bookings in the biggest markets (meaning the most popular travelers' cities) are up between 20% and 30%.

More companies are looking for ways to demonstrate that they're environmentally conscious, and one way they're doing so is seeking out eco-friendly hotels for their employees to stay in when traveling for business, according to this USA Today article.

If all other factors, such as cost and amenities, are identical, corporations today seem more willing to choose eco-friendly lodgings for their employees. More than one in five now ask about hotel environmental policies before signing contracts with them, according to a survey taken this summer by the National Business Travel Association cited by the article.

Google wants you to stay connected while you are doing your holiday traveling this year, so it has teamed up with Boingo Wireless to provide travelers with free WiFi at 47 airports across the U.S. until January 15. In addition to offering free WiFi access in the airports, Google is also working with GoGo, an in-flight WiFi provider, to provide free Internet access on Virgin America flights for the holidays.

Nelson George, executive producer of Chris Rock's controversial documentary now out in theaters, "Good Hair," talks about how the film exposes the global business and religious resources behind popular black hairstyles. Watch the video interview with George, an esteemed cultural critic, to find out why Beyonce has a religious ceremony in India to thank for her hair extensions.

George is also busy launching BlackAtlas.com, a new site funded by American Airlines that provides tips and personal insight about touring the world, from an African-American perspective. BlackAtlas highlights the hottest destinations in the world, pointing out stores, hangouts, beauty salons (for the good hair) that black tourists should be aware of in planning their trips.

After the peso crisis of 2001, Argentina became the destination célèbre for Americans, who flocked to South America to revel in the astonishing buys that a devalued currency can yield. Time has passed, and now we're slogging through our own economic turmoil. So is a trip to Buenos Aires still a great buy, or have the locals caught on to the influx and jacked up rates to milk tourist dollars?

Michael Luongo, author of Frommer's Buenos Aires, visits WalletPop's studios to tell us that the answer is a little bit of both. He lets us know what the situation is in the storied colonial capital of Argentina, and he fills us in on how a first-time visitor there can still find deals without losing the authenticity of the local culture. Sure, you've seem washed-up reality stars do the tango on Dancing with the Stars, but is it feasible to dance it in the real Argentine milongueros?

As part of our ongoing series, WalletPop tells you how to go for less:

Milan and Florence weighed in at over $1.6 million for a home, on average; Rome just under $1.3 million. And that's dollars, not lira (which, of course, don't even exist anymore).

Also out of reach for many Americans these days are the pink sands of Hamilton, Bermuda, Bucaresti, Romania and Shanghai, all averaging above $1.3 million, not to mention Vancouver and Dublin at $1.1 million -- and Dubai trailing not far behind.

The most expensive market is not in Italy, however. It's in Singapore, where homes average nearly $1.9 million. Coldwell Banker points out that is "10% lower than La Jolla" but fails to mention it is also 10 times the average home value in everyday places like Phoenix, Mobile, Ala, Lexington, KY, and Syracuse, NY.

Time was when the sage advice was to "go west young man" in search of fame, fortune and nifty real estate deals. But in 2009, heading east may be a better idea. At least if you are starting out in the U.S. And, when I say east, I mean like all the way to Poland! Now hold on to your Polish zlotys while I explain this one:

Seems Poland, Krakow in particular, is a darn good place to not only indulge in a sausage or two, but also to buy up chunks of real estate at prices that are down anywhere from 9% to 17%.

Here are some serious stocking stuffers -- if you can get them: Always wanted to spend a Christmas in Washington D.C.? Your dream might come true, especially if you can score some free tickets to the 2009 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Free tickets for this event will be distributed via lottery system for the first time this year. The lottery system opened just after midnight on Wednesday November 4 and will remain open until 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, November 6.

The National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will be held Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 at 5 p.m.

To participate, visit the event's website here, or call (877) 444-6777. The ticket lottery will include 2,800 ticketed seats and an additional 7,000 standing room tickets, which significantly increases capacity, and your likelihood of getting in on the event.

You'll be notified by email or U.S. mail (if you entered the lottery by phone) if you're a lucky ticket-holder. Tickets will be mailed by November 15.

What are you waiting for? Enter and get yourself in the holiday spirit.