In light of the souring economy and the ever-growing number of people being laid off, a new trend has developed: airlines, cruises and even resorts have just announced that they have created new job-loss protection plans and policies to help people who must cancel their trip because of employment loss. Under these policies, people will see a full refund, with varying degrees of restrictions applied.

For example:

JetBlue: The airline's new "JetBlue Promise Program" allows a traveler to receive a full refund if they lose their job between the time they purchase their tickets and are scheduled to fly.

I called home the other night and my mom asked me, “Have you seen Slumdog Slimebag yet? It’s so good!” If my completely out-of-it parents saw Slumdog Millionaire, it’s official: the whole world has seen it. Let’s just hope they’re better than my mom at remembering the name of the movie.

With so many teary Oscar acceptance speeches this week, I thought I’d examine another emotional spectacle: Crying at 30,000 feet. For some people, it just comes easier. It’s even an expected part of the sounds of take-off: engines roar, wheels retract, bins shuffle, and babies cry. And cry and cry and cry. It’s the ear pressure, the strange environment, and probably a little of mommy or daddy’s nervousness, but, for the most part, when babies cry most passengers accept the noise without too much aggravation.

But, as you might have noticed, babies aren’t the only ones crying on the plane.

Whenever someone asks me how I keep costs down while traveling, a lot of my answers (much like my life) revolve around food: book a hotel where breakfast is included, treat lunch as your main meal of the day, pack a picnic, ask a local shopkeeper or taxi driver for his favorite restaurant. And since this economic downtown began, I’ve been hearing more and more that travelers are choosing to eat at BYOB restaurants.

Bringing your own bottle to dinner is certainly a great way to save cash, and it affords you the added pleasure of exploring local groceries and shopping for local wines. And if you’ve already picked up a bottle or two on your trip, drinking them at a restaurant guarantees you’ll have zero chance of them being confiscated when you try to smuggle them home.

Free. Yes, really. Go ahead...get excited!

Ski resorts across the country are feeling the crunch of the bad economy, and travelers are reaping the benefits. In our latest data report, Travelocity found that airfare to many top ski destinations is down, including Denver (down 7 percent) and Salt Lake City (down 21 percent).

But the freebies that ski resorts are offering travelers are perhaps even more enticing than the declining airfares and hotel rates. Yes, I said that word again. Free.

If you’re contemplating a ski escape this spring, don’t settle for anything less than a killer deal. And when you hear the word free, don’t think it’s one of those too good to be true gimmicks.

Score big with these Ski Resort Freebies

Beginning on March 1, US Airways will no longer charge for non-alcoholic beverages on its flights, a charge that was imposed by the airline and met with anger by its customers.

With spring break around the corner, upcoming travel plans can be the biggest threat to your waistline.  Even with your best intentions to be health conscious, your eating regime goes on vacation the minute you leave home.  The long wait times at the airport, delays, and solitude (if you're traveling alone) sometimes allows us to submit to the gauntlet of grease, cinnamon, sugar, and buttery goodness at the airport terminals or train stations.

I've learned several helpful tips to stay healthy and fight the battle of the buldge while traveling:

Keep Hydrated

Buy a bottle of water once you've cleared security.  Water will keep you hydrated while you're on the plane and help fight the high-calorie soda temptations.

Brown-Bag It

Have you heard the one about the woman who thought she was going to Costa Rica and ended up in Puerto Rico?

Nope, it's not a joke, sadly. It really happened. Samantha Lazzaris, a 33-year-old English woman from Bristol, bought a ticket to Costa Rica, planning to spend three weeks there on vacation. She ended up 1300 miles away in Puerto Rico.

The kicker? SHE DIDN'T KNOW IT UNTIL SHE TRIED TO GET A TAXI TO HER HOTEL.

The mistake, it turns out, was the fault of British high street travel agent Thomas Cook---a reputable, well-established, and long-standing company, it should be noted---who booked her ticket using the airport code SJU (for San Juan in Puerto Rico) instead of SJO (for San Jose in Costa Rica.) That's the official party line, of course.

That's the question posed by an Associated Press article that appears on USAToday.com. I give my two cents, citing destinations that have increased in popularity compared to the same time last year. But what the reporter didn't ask me -- and why I am so lucky to have a place like The Window Seat to talk about myself -- is how I personally am changing the way I travel in light of this economic mess.

Well, for the past two winters, my husband and I have taken a ski trip in the Alps. This year, we're skipping it. Normally by now, we'd have made our plans for this year's "big trip." That past few big trips were to places like Croatia and Thailand. This year we really haven't discussed it. It just doesn't seem to be in the cards.

Since I’m the self-elected travel-gadget guru on the Window Seat, I’d like to take a moment to offer up my latest techno-savvy travel tip: buy an e-book. I recently got a Sony Reader as a gift and it has revolutionized my life. Plus, Amazon is releasing the Kindle 2 next Tuesday.

From YouTube, via Gadling. A woman misses her Cathay Pacific flight and goes absolutely nuts in the terminal.

Click here to see the video.

When I was in my mid-20s, my then-boyfriend and I decided to pack up our few belongings and hit the road: California or bust. I grew up in Maryland, and California always held a mystique to me. It represented this far-away fantasyland where surfers rode endlessly into blazing sunsets, artichokes and olives grew plump and rampant, and giant trees with rich, red wood scraped the lower corners of the sky. We were going to drive there, and we gave ourselves two timeless weeks for the journey.

Spring break airfare is down 9 percent over last year, and hotel rates are down as much as 32 percent. Sounds like a buyers market. Or…is it a catch-22?

Considering the current economic situation, many of you are probably torn between taking advantage of the great travel deals that are popping up or padding your savings with some extra cash, but I’m here to offer another solution: compromise with your bank account. A vacation this spring break is well within reach for many, but you should be on the lookout for ways to maximize every dollar. Here are five cost savings strategies that will work:

Search for high value destinations. Travelocity’s spring break data report revealed handfuls of destinations where both airfare and hotel rates have declined, and we identified the top eight hot spots where travelers can save more than $100 per person over last year’s prices.

After digging through our spring break data report, we learned that the cost of many trips is more affordable this year than in 2008. Travelers can expect to pay an average of $338 for a domestic roundtrip ticket and $655 for international airfare.

We also saw a bit of a shift in top booked destinations (see below) with Washington D.C. inching its way into the top 10. Could spring breakers be eager to get a peek of Barack? Or maybe they're just taking advantage of the cheaper hotel rates and 7 percent drop in airfare to the nation's capital?

To help travelers maximize every vacation dollar in this economy, we identified the top eight value destinations for spring break, where the average airfare from U.S. departure cities and average daily rate (ADR) for hotels decreased from 2008 and the savings added up to more than $100 per person. 

Top Value Destinations

“Are you all by yourself”?
“Is it just you”?
“Only one tonight”?

If you’ve ever traveled by yourself, then you’ve probably faced one of the questions above, all of which seem to imply that you’re somehow, shall we say, lacking, for being unaccompanied. But the truth is, many solo travelers, like myself, are perfectly happy to be alone. Who doesn’t want free reign over an entire hotel room, or the chance to do everything on your list and nothing you don’t want to do, or the power to set the pace of each day?

Based on a recent trip to wonderful Waikiki, here are some of my tips for solo travelers:

Yesterday Jenn filled us in on US Airways' decision to charge $7 for a pillow-and-blanket combo rather than hand out the free, ambiguously clean kind in flight. The consensus among travelers seems to be that the charge is acceptable because it’s better to pay up than to get sick from communal-blanket germs.

I'm generally of the it-probably-won't-kill-me mind when it comes to deciding whether to use an iffy airline blanket or eat a snack I dropped on the floor, so I can't see myself coughing up any extra cash for the new blanket set. I'll have to stick to a carry-on alternative. And that brings me to my question of the day: I've been hearing anecdotal evidence that Snuggies are being advertised, and worn (!), on airplanes recently. Is it really OK to wear a Snuggie on a plane?

The headline: US Airways to Charge for Pillows.
My first thought: More airline fees?!

Then I began to rationalize this charge and concluded that $7 is a small price to pay to stay healthy. From a wellness perspective, who wants a snotty blanket and pillow that some other passenger has drooled (or worse) all over during the previous flight?

Not me. On a recent flight from DEN to SFO, I sat next to a mother and her daughter, who was probably 2-years-old. The child proceeded to eat cheesy Doritos during the flight, and then upchucked down the window of the plane, and yes, onto the airline-provided blanket. The next passenger was in for a surprise.

On Saturday morning, I appeared on WCBS here in New York to share some ideas for last-minute Valentine's Day getaways for New Yorkers. Yes, I realize many of our readers don't live in New York, so these suggestions might not apply to you. The overall point of the piece though, is that with Valentine's Day falling on a Saturday this year and also coinciding with Presidents' Day (read: extra day off from work) weekend AND the amazing hotel deals out there -- well, it's a perfect recipe for a weekend getaway. You can watch the video here.

On that note, Travelocity recently named 12 top amazing hotels for romance based on member feedback. You can see the complete list here.

But back to New York. Here's my list -- please chime in with great ideas for weekend getaways from your city.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

The Chinese New Year welcomes the Year of the Ox, and according to the Chinese zodiac, the ox represents economic prosperity (let's hope so).  Like all big holidays, celebrating Chinese New Year is right up there with Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah, honoring tradition with family, cultural ceremonies and, best of all, food.

My fiance and I are in the middle of planning our honeymoon. Actually, that's not really accurate: we're more at the beginning of planning our honeymoon, and the reason is this: we just can't decide where to go.

Say the word---go on, say it out loud, I'll wait---and it immediately conjures up images of deserted white sand beaches and hammocks strung up between palm trees, right? At least, that's what I picture when I picture a honeymoon. And at first I thought that would be pretty great: two long weeks of lying on the beach in the middle of nowhere, occasionally rolling over to rub in a little more sunscreen or order another margarita. Perfect, right?

Call me crazy, but I’m a big proponent of airlines raising their prices a teensy bit to eliminate all these baggage fees. Wait, wait. Hear me out. It’s not that I enjoy paying more. It’s that I like to comparison shop. With extra costs that vary from airline to airline, it’s impossible to compare the prices of flights at a glance. (Though sites like Airfare Watchdog do try to help.) This is the same strategy mattress stores use. They rename their mattresses so you can’t compare them to those carried by competitors. Their Sleep-O-Matic might be called the Snooze Xpress across town and you’d be none the wiser if the prices were different.

With all the excitement surrounding the inauguration of the 44^th president, travelers looking for ways to keep the momentum going should visit one of the President’s favorite spots. With Presidents’ Day weekend (February 14-16) fast approaching, we've come up with five destinations near and dear to the President that are worth visiting.