Speaking of airport security (which I was in my previous post), you can snag a free one-year membership to the Verified Identity Pass CLEAR program through March 31st - if you’re willing to jump through some hoops and stay at a Hyatt before June 30th. See link below for details. Here’s a list of airports in the CLEAR program.

Of course, as many frequent travelers and travel blog readers know all too well, there’s a lot of debate about whether the CLEAR line actually improves the airport security experience enough to warrant handing the government your finger prints and retina scan. But the super-curious (and squeaky clean) among us may view this as a way to test the new procedure out without handing over the hundo usually required for the privilege.

Free Membership to TSA Registered Traveler

Yo, New Yorkers. Need a last minute getaway? There is still a week left to take advantage of the New York State Tourism department’s weekend getaway promotion good at a plethora of the state’s independent inns. Through March 7th, over 160 participating inns are offering travelers a free Sunday night stay when they book Friday and Saturday night accommodations, and many are offering the same deal (stay two nights, get the third night free ) for mid-week stays, as well. You can search for deals at participating inns using the web site’s interactive map.

Book a Winter Getaway and Get 1 Night Free!

Hooray for February 29! Only once every four years, folks. Now that’s special (unless you’re talking about your love life). And as with any holiday, travel deals celebrating the day’s rarity abound. Problem is, most of ‘em are only good for travel taking place today. Not so with the Frontier Leap Year Sale, which is advertising reduced fares for travel on off-peak days for destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica. You have until March 3rd to purchase and May 20th to complete your travel. Some sample roundtrip fares:

Chicago Midway to Denver - $138

Denver to Las Vegas - $138

Sacramento to Oklahoma City - $160

Milwaukee to Phoenix - $178

El Paso to Los Angeles - $198

Whatever you do, we hope you have a nice Friday, Feb. 29th. You won’t see another one of those until 2036.

If you’re going to be in New York this weekend and you love travel, consider checking out the New York Times Travel Show, a veritable smorgasbord of travel information from resorts, hotels, spas, cruise lines, tour operators, tourist agencies and adventure travel companies from around the world. Along with vendor booths and live entertainment performances representing a vast array of cultures, the show features a Taste of the World Pavilion filled with international cuisine and cooking demonstrations, a Spa Pavilion offering sample treatments and discounted packages at spa resorts, travel author appearances and special travel deals offered to folks brave enough to book their next vacation on the spot. And with travel experts Rick Steves, Arthur Frommer, Ian Wright and Stephanie Abrams - among many others - leading seminars, the show offers a rare chance for face-to-face learning from leading peeps in the industry. Cost: $15.

Downtown Boston’s Seaport District now has its very own Renaissance property. The 471-room Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel has adopted a maritime theme: an exterior designed to look reminiscent of a ship’s wind-filled sails, seagulls flocking above the front desk, blue hues in the rooms and wave-like structural features incorporated throughout.

While the hotel hopes to attract leisure travelers thanks to a location within walking distance of Fanueil Hall, the Boston Harbor Walk and the New England Aquarium, it is wooing business travelers with amenities like a DS-3 line Internet connection (28x faster than a T-1), rooms outfitted with flat panel televisions and connectivity panels that power multiple electronic devices at one time.

Travelers who stay at the hotel for two nights or more by Sept. 3, 2008 will receive a $100 Savvy Savings Certificate good toward a two-night stay at any Renaissance property in the U.S. or Canada. To score the savings, you’ll have to book through the site or call the hotel’s reservation number (1-800-834-7282) and use promo code PX3. Nightly rates at the hotel start at $169.

And while we’re talking travel mags….Fancy yourself a travel writer, photographer or magazine editor? Budget Travel’s 10th anniversary issue will be written and photographed by readers. They’re in the home stretch, but are still looking for:

- Foodies in the Southwestern United States who can recommend great spots to refuel

- Pet travel photographs (you know you’re hoarding some cute ones)

- Someone traveling abroad in the next two weeks who’ll pick up some items from a foreign supermarket

- Your best family travel tips (e.g. how to usher get ankle-biters through airport security)

- Feedback on any trips you’ve taken after reading about them in the magazine’s 40 Best Deals section

Last Chance! Our All-Reader 10th Anniversary Issue Needs Your Help!

Avis is offering up to 10 free tracks from eMusic when you rent a car from one of its U.S. locations. I took advantage of a similar offer from Avis a while back - the songs came from iTunes - and while it doesn’t make much sense to rent a car from the company just to get this deal if you can find lower rates elsewhere, it is a nice perk of renting directly through the company if you’re already planning to do so.

To receive your free music, you have to register for an Avis Wizard number in advance, then use that number when you make a rental reservation. Rent a car for one to four days, and Avis will email you a code - good for 30 days only - to download five free eMusic songs. Rent a car for five to 10 days, and you’ll get 10 free songs.

eMusic tracks work on the iPod and Zune. Really the only catch is that eMusic exclusively carries independent labels - and that may be an added bonus for many of you. Just don’t go in thinking you’re going to get the latest JT track.

Rent on Avis and Get Free Music

Yup, you heard right. A mere three weeks remain before the deadline for Burton’s Poach for Freedom Contest, which will award $5,000 for the best video of snowboarders riding terrain at each of the four remaining North American ski resorts where snowboarding is not allowed:

Mad River Glen, VT

Alta, UT

Deer Valley, UT

Taos, NM*

Video entries have started to come in. I’m personally a fan of the vid featuring a nerdy, Napoleon Dynamite-esque duo - fanny packs and all - who get their calisthenics on before taking Vermont’s Mad River Glen by storm early one morning.

* Taos has announced that it will begin allowing snowboarders for the first time beginning on March 19, 2008.

Ah, to be a college kid again. Students with big ideas about traveling the world - for free - stop day dreaming about the hottie across the hall and check this out. Each summer, STA Travel chooses one college-aged intern for its STA World Traveler Internship. The job? Oh, just spending the summer hopping from Europe to Asia to Australia to New Zealand to Buenos Aires to the freaking Galapagos Islands. Pretty rough. Along the way, the intern will share their adventures through photographs and video, interviews with fellow travelers, blogging and social networking through STA’s Student Travel Community. The whole idea is to show your impressionable peers how much fun you’re having and, in so doing, convince them to spend their next break following in your footsteps, preferably using plane tickets purchased from STA Travel. Applications are being accepted through March 1, 2008, so get cracking.

Here’s an example of the sort of travel video interns produce:

inTravel - a pretty slick looking online travel magazine - is running an ongoing contest that could land you $100 for travel stories and photography. You can read all the details in this craigslist post, but essentially, almost any travel experience will fit into one of the site’s categories. Each month, the story that receives the most votes (here’s where Internet savvy friends and family come in handy) wins.