I have had the red ring of death twice, and the process to get it replaced is actually really painless! Just call 1-800-MY-XBOX and go through the voice prompts. Then it will connect you to a person who will ask you what the problem is, and then they will work through some troubleshooting for you. They assume you are a novice, so they’ll ask you thinks like try unplugging it, plugging it in again, etc. Just be patient and then finally they will tell you that you need to have it sent to replace. They will give you an address and you can sign up and see the status of your shipment. They will ask for your address, e-mail address, etc, and then they will ship you a box to package your Xbox 360 in with a shipping label and everything. All you need to do is seal it up (it even comes with tape!) and ship it off at no charge whatsoever. As far as the wait to get your console back, could be a couple weeks but shouldnt be longer than a month. Whenever you do get it back, they also include a free Xbox Live Gold card for one month.
