If the hotel/hotel lobby is large enough you can usually kill a few hours at an indoor cafe/coffee shop before moving on to one of the couches. If anyone gives me trouble I usually I tell them I’m waiting for a late night flight to a far away obscure city.

Granted though, the airport is *way* easier to pull off.

Given the state of the airline industry and lack of cash (especially in US), I doubt we’ll see much of airlines giving away anything.

Instead of hitchhiking, I think we’ll find more ride-sharing, done through bulletin-boards, social networking sites, etc.

I too would be cautious about hitchhiking alone – although in my research I found it was recommend as being safer — and even safer to hitchhike in cars with a solo driver, not more.

I’m not sure why this would be the case, I’d reason it makes more sense to do something like this in small groups.