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“ I won’t lie to you: the only truly easy way to get the best seat on a plane, every time is to buy it…

No, I don’t mean showing up at the gate lugging your own personal La-Z-Boy (complete with cup-holder armrests!) — I’m talking about flying first class, or your own fancy jet…

But those options aren’t available to everyone, so let’s lower our sights a bit and talk about getting the best seats available in steerage – you know, the holding pen that the airlines wittily refer to as “economy class.”…

Even economy has “good” seats: windows and aisles — with aisles leading ever so slightly –

and the best of best are located in the exit rows or bulkheads.

Unfortunately, someone has to fill all those middle seats; let’s try to make sure it’s not you.

Ten Strategies for Getting the Best Seats Available

1. Obvious Approach: Select your seat when you purchase your ticket. That sounds like a no-brainer, I know, but you’d be surprised how many travelers don’t do this and simply accept the seat they’re assigned without ever looking at it. Days (or weeks) later, they are horrified to discover they’ve been shunted into a middle seat. Pick your place as soon as you can.

2. Pay for Premium Seats: These are generally roomier exit rows or seats with a

little more leg room, but hold off before paying the fee for these seats. I’ve noticed that when the plane isn’t filling up, the fees for these seats can drop dramatically. Maybe you wouldn’t want to pay an extra $35 each way for a “good” seat, but how about an extra $10?

3. Promptness Pays: Some airlines don’t release seats until precisely 24 hours before departure, so you must be ready for seat selection then — at that very moment. In other words, if you’re on a 6 a.m. flight, set an alarm clock for 5:45 a.m. the day before, so you can fire up the computer and make your selection the instant seats are available. If you delay this by even a couple of minutes, all those wonderful windows and aisles can disappear.

4. Southwest Method: If you’re traveling on this no-frills carrier, check-in early. This won’t necessarily get you a seat, but it will get you a good place in line to claim a seat. Alternate action: consider paying the $10 charge for EarlyBird check-in, which lets you board the plane ahead of the masses.

5. Don’t Be Shy about Aches/Pains: Some airlines set aside sections that include “good” seats so families can sit together, or people with disabilities can be more comfortable. Do you have a legitimate medical problem? If so, contact reservations to inquire about your options and be prepared with a doctor’s note.

Do not, however, wait until you’re onboard to request a special treatment: one fellow who’d recently been in an accident tried that on a US Airways flight and became so demanding that the airline eventually diverted its flight to London to dump Mr. Injured off in Boston.” (via  abcnews.go.com) by Rick Seaney

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read thr rest of Ten Strategies for Getting the Best Airplane Seats Available

“Your phone runs apps. Cool apps. Fun apps. Free apps. Even if it isn’t an iPhone…

The popularity of Apple’s App Store vaulted mobile apps to prominence, but techies know that mobile phones have been tiny PCs for years now…

The difference today is the buzz and visibility around apps. The idea that you can add to your phone’s powers has gone mainstream…

With 100,000 apps, the iPhone certainly has the most apps available, but there’s no lack of choice on other platforms… Google’s Android phones have more than 10,000. There are thousands for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian phones, and a couple of hundred for the Palm Pre and Pixi.

Even simple phones like the Motorola RAZR can get into the app game.

We’ve sifted through a huge stack of apps to find the best free ones for almost every phone. The only folks left out are owners of Verizon and T-Mobile non-smartphones like the LG enV3 and Nokia 5310. Those carriers forbid you from installing free, third-party apps, although they make a limited selection of paid apps available.

Our list totals 100 apps: 40 for the iPhone, 20 each for BlackBerry and Android, 10 for Windows Mobile, and 10 combined for Palm WebOS, Symbian, and non-smartphones. The iPhone, of course, has more apps than anyone else. BlackBerry is the USA’s dominant smartphone platform. Android is gaining market share while Windows Mobile is losing it. And while Symbian may be popular overseas, those phones are seldom seen on American shores.

• The Top 40 Free Apps for iPhone

• The Top 20 Free Apps for BlackBerry

• The Top 20 Free Apps for Android

• The Top 10 Free Apps for Windows Mobile

• The Top 10 Free Apps For Other Phones ” (via  PCMag.com) by PCMag.com Staff

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read all of The Top 100 Free Apps For Your Phone

BREAKING NEWS! This is one of the articles that broke the story…

“Christmas is coming, so it won’t be long before you’re walking barefoot at a security checkpoint in some godforsaken airport…

Fortunately, the TSA has leaked a sensitive document explaining how to avoid all that…

Well, not quite… But the Transportation Security Administration has placed its standard operating procedure manual for screening supervisors online—the document is marked “Sensitive Security Information” and is supposed to be distributed on a “need to know” basis, but what the hell, right? Transparency!…

The TSA did have the good sense to redact all the stuff they though terrorists might use to game the screening system and get through with weapons, but because they are stupid federal bureaucrats they simply drew little boxes over the secret stuff in the pdf files. So “hackers,” by which we mean “people with Acrobat Professional,” simply removed the boxes and looked at what was underneath. (The stuff the TSA tried to redact is outlined in red below.)

You can read the whole thing at Cryptome. But we’ve distilled the unredacted manual with an eye toward whatever tricks we could find to avoid getting pulled aside for special screening and missing your flight. With that in mind, here are Gawker’s rules to infiltrating our nation’s airports on your way home this Christmas:

1. Don’t Be From Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, or Algeria

If your passport has any of those countries’ names on it, you’ll get pulled aside as a “selectee” for special one-on-one screening. So if you are from Pakistan, move right on ahead!

2. Pack Your Ammo Carefully

If it’s in your checked luggage, feel free to bring along any ammunition up to .50 caliber, as long as it’s inside a box.

3. If the Airline Ticket Agent Wrote “SSSS” on Your Ticket, Just Turn Around and Go Home

The industry lingo for people who get pulled aside and questioned at airport security checkpoints is “SSSS,” for “Secondary Security Screening Selection.” We figured that airlines would use some sort of secret code to communicate to the TSA that a given ticketholder was due for the third degree, but nope—it looks like they literally just write four S’s on your ticket. So now you know.

4. Be a Minor, Member of Congress, Uniformed Military Member, or All Three

If you’re unlucky enough to have been tagged with the dreaded “SSSS” code, all is not lost: Members of Congress, children under 12, and uniformed military servicemembers are exempted from special screening even if they’re marked for it. Which is great, because we know that, say, Army officers can’t present a special security threat that might merit scrutiny. The manual also helpfully shows TSA supervisors what a congressional ID looks like, so you might want to forge one before you head to the airport, just in case.

5. Better Yet, Be a Foreign Dignitary in CIA Custody

One of the best bits that the TSA tried, and failed, to redact from the manual reveals the existence of the CIA’s Worldwide Operational Meet and Assist Program (WOMAP), whereby the Agency will apparently dispatch a CIA agent to ferry foreign assets to the U.S. When they do, the subjects are fully exempt from screening—no magnetometer, no bag search, no nothing. So if you know anyone at Langley, they may be able to hook you up. Again, the TSA has helpfully presented an example of a CIA ID card—doesn’t carrying one of these defeat the purpose of being a CIA agent?—so you should set yourself up with a fake before you try the WOMAP route.

Oh, and if you get caught, just run: TSA officers are instructed not to “detain or delay” anybody they suspect has presented them a fraudulent ID if they’ve already gotten past security.
But if you travel at peak times, the chances they’ll spot the fake will go down to 25%, because regulations permit the TSA to examine IDs with a black light or loupe on only one in four passengers if traffic backs up.

” (via gawker.com )

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for rest of The Gawker Guide to Getting Past Airport Security This Holiday Travel Season

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“If you’re like most people, you cough up way too much for a monthly cable subscription and you barely watch half the channels you pay for…

The good news is that in this era of fast and abundant broadband, there are plenty of ways to see your favorite television shows and movies without paying Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner—or any other cable provider…

Look hard enough, and you can probably find any TV show episode or movie under the sun—even those that are still in theaters—with a BitTorrent client…

The quality can be hit or miss, though, and, well, the legality is questionable, to say the least…

Or you could tune in over-the-air television, even in HD, with a PC that’s equipped with a TV tuner. Also game consoles like PS3 and Xbox offer video content you can rent or buy. You can even watch many of your favorite shows right on the networks’ Web sites. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Read on and you’ll find ways to watch shows and movies on a variety of devices including computers, handheld PMPs, and cell phones. In almost all cases, you don’t even need to own a television. So if you’re ready to kick your cable company to the curb, read on.

Amazon Video On Demand
The Numbers Approximately 50,000 titles (TV shows and movies), 2,000 in HD.

The Upside Pay-as-you-rent-or-buy model with no monthly fees. No software required; content can be viewed in any Flash-enabled browser. Movies and TV shows you rent or buy are placed in your Video Library, which can be accessed later from any Web-connected computer. The Sales and Special Offers section features $5.00 movies and some free content. Pre-order feature lets you access movies on DVD release day.

The Downside Interface isn’t as simple to navigate as other services like Netflix or iTunes. HD movies aren’t available for purchase on a computer. Unbox Video Player lets you watch offline, but isn’t compatible with Mac or Linux computers. Downloaded videos cannot be transferred to Apple portable devices.

How Much? No subscription plans. TV shows to buy: $1.99 (SD) $2.99 (HD); discounts when you buy a TV Pass (a show’s entire season). Movies to buy: $9.99 to $14.99. Movies to rent: $2.99 to $3.99 (SD); $3.99 to $4.99 (HD).

————

Apple iTunes Store
The Numbers No subscription plans. Approximately 8,000 movie titles, 2,000 in HD; 50,000 TV episodes.

The Upside A recent revamp makes the interface even slicker and easier to navigate. Very solid content selection. Pay-as-yo

u-rent-or-buy model with no monthly fees. Quick SD and HD downloads, and you can start watching almost immediately. Easy to transfer to iPods or iPhones. Every HD movie purchase comes with an SD version formatted for portable devices. Weekly

discounts on selected titles.

The Downside Requires iTunes software for purchase and viewing. Some titles are only available in HD on Apple TV

. Can’t transfer video content to non-Apple portable devices.

How Much? No subscription plans. TV shows to buy: $1.99 (SD) $2.99 (HD); discounts when you buy TV Pass (a show’s

entire season). Movies to buy: $4.99 to $19.99 (SD and HD). Movies to rent: $1.99 to $4.99 (SD and HD).

—————-

Blockbuster On DemandThe Numbers Approximately 10,000 on-demand titles (TV shows and movies).

The Upside If you want to avoid the monthly fee that comes with Netflix, you could give Blockbuster a whirl, but the select

ion isn’t great, and forget about HD.

The Downside Unlike with Netflix’s Watch Instantly, On Demand service isn’t part of the Blockbuster by Mail subscript

ion plan. No HD content. TV selection is fairly dismal with the exception of some popular Showtime series like Dexter, Weeds, and The Tudors. But if you’re a Punky Brewster or CHiPs fan, you’ll be pleased. No Mac support. Only works with Interne

t Explorer or Firefox with IE Tab Extension. Requires Blockbuster Movielink Manager software.

How Much? No subscription plans. TV shows to buy: $1.99. Movies to buy typically range from $7.99 to $19.99. (Thou

gh G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is $21.99, and that’s in SD.) Movies to rent: $2.99 to $3.99.

—————

Boxee

The Upside Free, open source software works with Apple and Windows Media Center remote controls. Streams your own

content (including music) from your hard drive, network storage, or RSS feeds. Supports HD. Robust file-type support. Integrates content from Digg, Flickr, Hulu, Last.fm, MLB, Netflix, Pandora, and YouTube, to name a few. Facebook, Twitter, and

Friendfeed integration. Automatically downloads related artwork, reviews, and lyrics. Expandable with apps.

The Downside Not terribly user-friendly. Getting around the UI isn’t easy, and many features aren’t readily apparent. But

the next iteration, Boxee Beta, is launching in December and promises a revamped user interface and improved navigation. Also, Boxee plans to release a set-top box so you can stream the site’s content to your TV without a computer.

How Much? Free

—————-
Hulu

The Numbers More than 1,700 current primetime TV programs; movie selection is slim and on the obscure side.

The Upside Content can be viewed in most flash-enabled browsers; no software needed. Programming includes popular shows like Family Guy, Glee, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Office. Easy-to-navigate interface. Channels are grouped by genre, such as Food and Leisure, Comedy, or Drama. Downloadable Hulu Desktop software is available for PC, Mac, or Linux and lets you navigate with an Apple or Windows Media Center remote.

The Downside It’s free, but you’ll have to watch commercials—though it’s typically fewer than you’ll see on network television. Hulu is all about TV: The movie selection is thin. (But you’ll find some fun titles like The Blob and Revenge of the Pink Panther.) No HD; resolution tops out at 480p. Hulu may start charging for content as soon as next year.

How Much? Free (for now)” (via pcmag.com ) by Wendy Sheehan Donnell

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read all of 8 Ways to Watch TV and Movies Without Cable

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“As outbreaks of the H1N1 virus inject more frazzle into already-frayed travelers, airlines and their approach to sick passengers are being scrutinized…

The airlines say they are listening to fliers’ concerns and, in several cases, reacting. Some are even specifically looking for swine flu…

Earlier this month, a woman traveling home to Hawaii was ordered by flight attendants to leave a United Airlines plane set to depart Tampa, Fla… The passenger, Mitra Mostoufi, had become suddenly nauseous after taking restless-leg medicine and requested an airsickness bag…

According to Mostoufi, one flight attendant responded: “You’re a health risk,” while another told Mostoufi she might have swine flu and, therefore, had to exit… Although United Airlines suspected Mostoufi carried H1N1, still another United employee tried to rebook Mostoufi on an American Airlines flight, Mostoufi said. She reached Honolulu the next day aboard a United plane.

Flight crews are responsible for determining when passengers are visibly too ill to fly — to protect the “safety and health of all travelers onboard” — and the airline was within its rights to bump Mostoufi, according to United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson.

Should flight attendants, however, have the authority — or be expected — to diagnose swine flu?

‘From H1N1 to heart attacks’
At US Airways, “all employees have information on how to help passengers displaying symptoms of any medical issue, from H1N1 to heart attacks,” said spokesperson Valerie Wunder. “We follow the procedures and protocols as advised by the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], who lists the symptoms of H1N1.”

Problem is, six of the 10 swine flu symptoms listed by the CDC are outwardly silent: sore throat, fever, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. (The other symptoms may include a cough, runny nose and, sometimes, diarrhea and vomiting). Will flight attendants start feeling passengers’ foreheads as they simultaneously scan their ticket stubs?

.Affordability trumps social responsibility
“Ideally, sick people should stay off planes,” said organizational behavior consultant Mary Federico, a New Yorker who has “suffered the consequences” of jetting with contagious seatmates. “But it’s unrealistic to expect that to happen … There is little or no flexibility with flights. Availability and cost and penalties are issues.”

According to an early November poll conducted by the Consumer Travel Alliance, almost 73 percent of the passengers questioned said they would fly with swine flu rather than pay airline rebooking fees (which can cost as much as $250). TripAdvisor.com posed the same query in late October and, according to the Web site, 51 percent of its respondents said they, too, would lug their bags and their H1N1 germs onto scheduled flights rather than pony up change fees.

What’s more, most passengers check in online or at an airport kiosk and “gate agents barely look at a passenger — they only grab your boarding pass,” said JoAnne Kochneff, who owns Travel by Gagnon in Grand Rapids, Mich. “Their job is to board the aircraft as quickly as possible … When would it come to the attention of the airline that someone might be suffering from H1N1?”

Fees waived — with a note from your doctor
To keep sick travelers from flying, United, Continental, Northwest and AirTran Airways all have opted to waive change fees for passengers who postpone their trips due to illness. In most cases, the customers must fax the airline a doctor’s note to dodge the change fee.

“If a passenger has H1N1, we don’t want them to travel any more than they don’t want to travel,” said AirTran spokesman Christopher White. “It’s best for them and best for us that they don’t fly.”

For people who possess non-refundable American Airlines or US Airways tickets, however, change and cancellation fees will still be applied if those customers reschedule their trips due to swine flu, according to spokespersons at both airlines.

“I can understand that the airlines are concerned about bogus medical excuses — they may worry some of the flying public will try to take advantage of the H1N1 scare and use their ‘flu’ as a way to circumvent an airline change or cancellation fee,” said Ann Lombardi, a travel agent at Atlanta’s “The Trip Chicks.” “I know, too, that the airlines are struggling financially and may be reluctant to initiate laxer rules … But something has got to give. And the ball is in the airline’s court.”” ( via msnbc.msn.com) by Bill Briggs

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the rest of Swine flu puts airlines, travelers in tough spot

“Emmy-award winning actress Susan Lucci served as Grand Marshal of The Hollywood Christmas Parade on Nov. 29… The event airs on MyNetworkTV on Dec. 10 and 24…

The All My Children star will soon spend more time on the West Coast when production on the soap opera shifts from New York to Los Angeles in January…

But first she travels to Tampa, to launch Susan Lucci by Fila, her new sportswear line, on the Home Shopping Network, Dec. 9-10… She shares her travel tips and highlights with Kelly Carter for USA TODAY…

Q: Where have you been recently and what did you like about it?

A: We were in Rome recently for the first time. Rome has been on my wish list for a long time. There was so much to love about it. It surprised me how accessible its beauty is. It’s everywhere and all around you. The Colosseum is right there. Michelangelo’s Moses is right in a church that you walk in and there’s nobody else and you get to see the sculpture close up. The Borghese Gardens were the biggest surprise. If I lived in Rome I would be there all the time. I hadn’t seen Berninibefore and I fell in love with the Bernini sculptures in the Borghese Villa.

Q: What’s the best place you’ve ever visited?

A: I used to tell my husband if I’m ever missing check La Rèserve de Beaulieu in the south of France and you might find me there. It’s beautiful, on the Mediterranean and the croissants in the morning are fantastic.

But ultimately I remember so clearly standing on the balcony of our room at Pebble Beach (in California) and seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time. My husband looked out at the Pacific Ocean and Pebble Beach and said, “God surely made this place on a Monday when he was well rested.”

And we spent several wonderful and memorable days and nights at the Amanpuri resort in Phuket, Thailand. Everything there was meant for your senses. Every time we would leave they would put on fresh linens and put orchids on the pillows and towels. Everything was done with a beautiful artistic hand.

Q: What’s your favorite vacation spot?

A: For a vacation, for being pampered, wonderful restaurants and free as a breeze, I really like Palm Beach. We stay at The Breakers and I think some of the finest hotels in Europe could take a refresher course from the staff there. It is so well maintained and so beautiful. They spa offers Guerlain products and there’s some of the most wonderful golf courses around. You’re right on the ocean so it’s warm usually and beautiful. To sit outside at lunch is absolutely gorgeous and there are sailboats early in the morning.

Q: Can you offer an insider tip or recommendation for your favorite vacation place?

A: Some of our favorite restaurants in the country are in Palm Beach. Café L’Europe, especially sitting in the bar, is such a beautiful place. There’s a fabulous jazz combo. Chez Jean-Pierre is a wonderful French restaurant. They have Dover sole to write home about and Café L’Europe does as well. None of these places are stuffy. ” (via usatoday.com) by Kelly Carter

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“Miami is a place of many guises…

There is the hyperreal Miami of Miami Vice, of alligator attacks and Elián González…

There are splashy art galleries and celebrity hotels…

There are also lots and lots of strip malls… But this collective weirdness happens to sit on one terrific piece of real estate. Miami has turquoise waters and white-sand beaches. It also has gleaming Modernist architecture and impossibly beautiful people. Joan Didion once described the city as having a “kind of perilous attraction.” And it does.

You can lose yourself here, among supermodels, nostalgic Cubans and the countless figures who live on the fringes - and remind us that until a few decades ago, this was all still frontier.

Like most modern American metropolises, greater Miami is composed of several smaller cities. Here the cookie-cutter developments all tend to blend into one indistinguishable mass of peach stucco and Spanish tile.

For the purposes of navigation, however, the city is essentially divided in two: Miami, the mainland city, which is businesslike in demeanor, with offices, malls, arts districts and residential subdivisions; and, connected to the mainland by causeways to the east, Miami Beach (a.k.a. South Beach, a.k.a. SoBe), the slim, glamorous barrier island that is draped in Deco hotels and where life is lived as if it were one big party.

If you have only a few hours to spare, choose one side of town and stick with it — or you may end up spending all your time sitting in traffic. ” (via time.com) by CAROLINA A. MIRANDA

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read more of Miami: 10 Things to Do in 24 Hours

then click the word  next  at bottom of paragraph to go to the 10 things

“When Lulis Leal’s family gets together for Christmas, she is usually sunning herself on a beach surrounded by palm trees and turquoise waters, with not one extended relative in sight…

For more than 10 years, Leal has been spending the holiday season in exotic locales like the Bahamas or Hawaii — anywhere warm, the Cedar Grove, New Jersey, resident said…

She finds it the perfect time to get away with her husband and son.

“It’s like everybody’s home with their family so we’ve got the whole beach to ourselves. It’s like our own little private paradise,” Leal said, adding that her mother sometimes gently teased her about going away instead of visiting her for the holidays…

Hotel bargains

You may love your family, but if you’re yearning to escape the annual ritual of eating turkey with relatives you barely know or spending Christmas elbowing for room with other houseguests, lots of bargains and tempting destinations await.

“My favorites during Thanksgiving are to go to places in the Caribbean because the Caribbean, even during Thanksgiving, is off, off, off season,” said consumer adviser and HLN money expert Clark Howard.

“At Christmastime through New Year’s, it’s a different drill. The best deals are to Europe, starting on Christmas Day. If you can wait and go on Christmas Day or later, you’re going to get fantastic bargains to Europe.”

Travelers often focus on air fares as the barometer of whether to splurge on a vacation, but the big bargain story this year may be hotel prices, especially in big cities or convention destinations decimated by the bad economy.

The trick is to book a room anywhere but at those most in-demand locations, so check out hotels around the airport or the center of a big metropolis.

This may be your perfect opportunity to explore Washington, New York or San Francisco, California, during the period from Christmas to New Year’s, Howard said.

Where to get away for Thanksgiving

The United States may pause on turkey day, but for the rest of the world it’s just another day in November. You’ll find great deals outside the country, in places like Mexico, Canada and South America, said Pauline Frommer, creator of Pauline Frommer’s guidebooks.

St. Lucia may be a good bet if you’re thinking about the Caribbean, because the low-cost airline Jet Blue recently added a nonstop service to the island, she said. (Keep in mind the Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t officially end until the end of the month, though late November storms are rare.)

Escaping for Christmas

“Prices usually skyrocket pretty much everywhere in the world,” Frommer said.

If you heed Howard’s advice about flying to Europe on Christmas Day, check transportation options at your destination. Savings on air fare can be cancelled out by an expensive cab ride in cities where public transportation shuts down during the holiday.

Closer to home, Mexico is still a good value, Brown said.” (via  cnn.com ) by A. Pawlowski, CNN

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read all of Escape your family for the holidays

“WeatherUnderground.com has just launched a new mashup of Goggle Maps with their weather information…

The directions will now include weather-related information as well as directions…

After inserting the date and time of your trip together with the request for directions, within the directions portion of Google Maps, the temperature along the route is listed as well as possible rainstorms, snowstorms, icing, etc…

The roadtrip section on WeatherUnderground.com can be found at wunderground.com/roadtrip ” (via consumertraveler.com) by CHARLIE LEOCHA

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for the rest of WeatherUnderground and Google maps mashup provides directions and weather for roadtrips