Which travel rewards program has the most valuable points?

Did you know you can buy secondhand gift cards to enjoy discounts on plane tickets and hotel reservations? More than $20 billion worth of gift cards are expected to be given this year in the US for Christmas, Hanukkah, and other celebrations. Some people will even give the gift of travel with cards good toward purchases from airlines, online travel agencies, and hotel chains. Case in point: You could buy a $50 gift card from Travelocity and give it to a traveler you love. But your gift recipient might not have any trips coming up any time soon, and they might be afraid they'll lose or forget about their gift cards before their expiration date. So these travelers who don't want their cards auction them or trade them off on auction sites like eBay, GiftCardGranny, CardAvenue, and similar auction sites. Exhibit A: Earlier this evening, someone was auctioning off on eBay a $100 Travelocity gift card, with a starting bid of $65. If you snagged it at that price, you'd be saving 35 percent off the face value, and you could apply the card's balance toward the cost of any upcoming purchase. While that example is great, I've typically found more modest savings of about 5 or 6 percent once bidding takes place. Finding these gift card deals is easy. Sign up for e-mail alerts from GiftCardGranny.com, a site that consolidates gift card auction sales on eBay and other sites. The site will alert you when a gift card relevant to your preferred airline becomes available. ("New gift card available from American Airlines. Click over for details.") A search on GiftCardGranny this evening turned up dozen cards from American Airlines for sale. But inventory varies by the day. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: Ads on Boarding Passes: Are Airlines Sharing Your Info? How Do You Use a Cell Phone Boarding Pass at the Metal Detector? We Want to Know Your Airport Secrets!

I recently wrote a blog post entitled, "Solo travel websites worth checking out," featuring a number of great solo travel resources, mainly for women. A few of our readers responded through our Online Feedback Form, asking for similar tips, only this time geared towards mature female solo travelers. Ladies, thank you for your suggestions—as always, I am more than happy to oblige. At first glance, I wasn't really aware of the amount of great travel resources available for baby boomer women, but it turns out there is a wealth of information out there! After sifting through a number of websites dedicated to "Boomer Travel," I've narrowed it down to a few of my favorites, loaded with tips for anyone over 50 who can't get the travel bug out of their system. A great place to start is Boomeropia, a website designed especially for baby boomer travelers. The left column on their homepage hosts topics ranging anywhere from boutique hotels and river cruises to museums and other historical travel destinations. Their volunteer travel section is quite detailed, as is the "Money is no object" section, for the lucky ones out there. With its subtitle on the home page reading, "Baby Boomer Travel Advice: Tips on how to spend your kids inheritance," Aging Hipsters Travel is another great website geared towards "baby boomers, aging hipsters, over 50's, adult–teenager or whatever you want to call yourself." Tongue–in–cheek travel advice regarding travel visas and passports, packing checklists and a special section on tips for women over 50 who plan to travel alone. Their tips for travelers over 50 include advice on train travel as well as the perks of river cruising, and leaving "the roughing it to the youngsters." Boomer traveler Donna Hull started her own blog, "My Itchy Travel Feet: The Baby Boomers Guide to Travel," offering her personal travel experiences and best tips for aspiring followers. Advice from several solo travel experts is featured on her website, reminding women to stay in public throughout their trips as well as useful tips for embracing the lonely side of solo travel. If you'd rather not go it alone, there are a few online forums where like–minded travelers can connect, discuss and plan their travel adventures. Try looking through the Baby Boomer Travel Groups on Meetup, for starters, to see where ideas are cooking. According to the website, Boomers most interested in travel tend to be in New York City, Austin, TX., and Brisbane, Australia (this is an international group website after all). You can also sign up for updates on MyTC, a free social media website created just for finding travel companions "in the over 50s." For those of you on Facebook, there's even a group, comically named "Not Dead Yet Travel—Baby Boomers, Solo Travellers, Women Travellers" where you can share travel tips, ideas and maybe meet someone you want to travel with. Are you an older, more experienced, female solo traveler? Do you have any special tips to offer? Feel free to leave a comment or two, and feel free to ask us to cover a travel topic that interests you!

Hertz, America's largest car rental company, has switched from its #1 Awards loyalty program to a new rewards system called Gold Plus rewards. Unlike with Avis's program, points can be redeemed for free car rentals without blackout dates. Unlike with Avis's and National's programs, points don't expire as long as you rent a car or cash in points every two-year period. It's free to sign up, and Hertz is offering a 500-point sign-up bonus, redeemable for one free weekend day rental. Even more intriguing, I think, is that Hertz is waiving its usual annual fee for its #1 Club Gold service, which offers expedited service to members. The #1 Club Gold service lets you skip the rental car counters at 40 major airport locations and have expedited service at more than a thousand other locations. It's free, instead of having to pay the first year of the $60 membership fee, for new members joining through September 30, 2011. Check out the Hertz loyalty program website for details. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Book a trip you saw on TV Bookworms rejoice! Harry Potter takes over London and New York The 10 Most Travel-Inspiring Films of the Year

Not since Velcro has there been much innovation in how people tie their shoes. But since May, travelers looking to quickly slip in and out of their shoes at airport security have a new product to try: U-Laces. Ordinary shoes use 36-inch laces that crisscross through the eyelets, but U-Laces are a set of six pairs of tiny strips that run horizontally across your shoes, with a tie lace up at the top.What this means is that they "lock in and pop out" easily. Pulling off your shoes at a TSA checkpoint suddenly becomes quick. U-Laces come in a multitude of colors, sure to match your various pairs of shoes.The company's website tries to appeal to kids by showing rainbow-colored collections, but you can get your U-Laces all in the same, businesslike color, too. u-lace.com. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Electric bike rentals smooth out sightseeing 5 airport innovations worth praising Cruises: New website predicts when you should book