Wouldn’t you love to get paid to travel? Winners of Finnair’s new “Quality Hunters” contest get to do just that: get paid to fly to Finnair’s destinations and evaluate their experiences. (h/t Jaunted). Here’s how Finnair describes the contest on its website:

Ever dreamed of getting paid to explore the world? Finnair, one of the world’s longest continuously operating airlines, offers you the adventure of a lifetime. We are on a global search for four Quality Hunters; intrepid, outspoken and discerning individuals whose task is to travel to Finnair’s destinations in Europe, Asia and the US for a period of two months in search of quality experiences.

The 4 contest winners will be traveling from October and November 2010. Even if you don’t win the grand prize, if you vote for the top Quality Hunter on the Rethinking Quality blog, you’ll be entered to win free international air tickets from Europe to Asia.

Of course, one of the questions on the online application is whether or not you have a valid passport. If you haven’t been out of the country in a while, you should probably go check your expiration date and see if it’s time to renew your passport.

Passport renewal by mail using the government’s standard service generally takes at least 6 weeks. To renew your passport with expedited service, you should allow at least 3 weeks. 3 weeks is a long time to wait, but it’s better than 6 weeks. Fortunately, if you have a confirmed itinerary that shows you need it sooner, you can either make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency office or use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com.

RushMyPassport walks you through the application process step-by-step, cutting down on both the frustration of filling out complicated paperwork and the chances of making an error that could delay your application. Then, we hand-deliver your application to the Department of State, cutting the processing time needed to renew your passport to as little as 24 hours.

Time for a renewal? Renew your passport the easy way!