10 Things Your Airline Doesn't Want You to Know

      Commercial airlines open up the world for business and exploration. Routes that used to take weeks or months now take a few hours in a plane.

        Flying can be fun and exciting, of course, but in recent years, the friendly skies have become a little (or a lot) less friendly. High fuel prices and operating costs have lowered the number of routes and reduced services provided by airlines. A business that started off as complicated (it is pretty incredible that those planes can fly, right?) has only gotten more complex.

     These days, airline travel can be a boring hassle. Or worse. Keep reading to learn what your airline doesn't want you to know.

1: A Flight Delay Might Not Stop You

    You're waiting at the airport and you've just heard that your plane is stuck in another city. Maybe the weather is keeping it grounded. Maybe it needs a part. Flight delays are common and unavoidable -- for your carrier. You, on the other hand, might still be able to get where you're going on time.

    If you can't reach your destination on time because of a flight delay with the airline you bought the ticket from, that airline is required to put you on a competitors' flight if that flight will get you there sooner than the original airline's next scheduled flight. Of course, the competitor's plane must have an available seat for this rule to apply.

2: It's Cheaper to Fly Some Times than Others

      If you can be flexible about when you fly, you might score some good savings on your ticket. There are certain days, weeks, months and times of day that offer cheaper fares.

      Wednesday, Tuesday and Saturday are the cheapest days to fly. Friday and Sunday are the most expensive. Tuesday afternoons through Thursday are good days to find sales on destinations. If you want the absolute cheapest fare, book your ticket for the red-eye flights or the earliest morning flight scheduled. Flights scheduled during lunch and dinner hours also tend to cost less.

    The first half of January is a good time to buy tickets. Airlines run destination sales then, and available travel dates usually extend into spring. Fares are highest for peak travel seasons like summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

3: You Can Get a Discount on First Class

     How many bargain shoppers do you know who check the price of first-class tickets? Probably not many. First-class seats are expensive -- and there's your advantage. Because of the price, first-class seats are often empty. Airlines don't like to fly with empty seats. Sometimes, they'll sell first-class tickets for the same price as a full-fare coach ticket. It's called a "Y-up fare." They're not always available, and if you have to change your travel plans, it could cost a bundle to change a Y-up ticket. But if you're sure about your plans and are willing to pay a little more for a lot more comfort, ask about Y-up availability when you book your flight.

Baggage Fees Are Bunk

   Since carriers started imposing checked baggage fees, fewer passengers bring luggage that goes into the cargo hold. To make up for that lost weight, ground crews load sand bags into the hold to balance the plane.

4: It's Easy to Shop Around for Cheaper Fares

    All fares are not equal, and it pays (or saves) to shop around. You can often get better deals through discount travel sites.

    Be sure to check out the Web sites of budget airlines directly. Some of them don't advertise their prices on fare comparison Web sites. Word gets around anyway, and their competitors will try to beat the budget flyers' prices.

   And don't forget about all those add-on fees. Check for baggage and other additional costs before buying your ticket.

5: Your Plane is a Revolving Door of Germs

     Airlines stress that the cabin air is continually scrubbed of germs as it circulates through the airplane, and that's true. However, the air is also pressurized, which strips it of moisture. This drier-than-desert air dries out your mucous membranes and lowers your resistance to germs around you. If you're sitting within two rows of someone with a cold, the dry, recirculated air makes you more likely to become infected.

     Even if you aren't seated near a sick person during your flight, you may still be at risk for infection. Airlines make money by keeping the planes full and flying. There's only a cursory cleaning -- if any cleaning takes place at all -- between flights. Cold and flu viruses can live for hours on surfaces, such as your seat, counters and faucets in the bathroom.

Other Dangers

    EPA tests of water from the galley and bathrooms in airplanes found that 17 percent of the tested sources were positive for a type of fecal bacteria. This is the same water used to brew coffee and tea on the plane.

6: Their Planes are Old

   It's stretching the truth to say that some commercial airplanes are older than their pilots -- unless you look at age in miles and years. Just recently, a hole opened in the fuselage of a Boeing 737-300 during flight. The plane made a successful emergency landing, but subsequent FAA inspections revealed the plane had made over 40,000 flights -- more than seven flights per day during its 15 years in service.

    Since a full inspection of an airplane's fuselage requires an electromagnetic device and takes a month to complete, inspections are usually limited to a few sections of the outer skin.

7: You'll Pay More for Your Flight than the Ticket Price

    That cheap fare you just booked will look different when you go to pay for it. In addition to taxes, your final price includes government-imposed fees for security, immigration, customs and agriculture inspections. It may also include fees for services and baggage. If you have to change your flight, you'll get hit with more fees.

    Because airlines aren't required to include these fees in the ticket price, you don't learn about them until it's time to pay. There's a bonus for the airline, too. By separating fees from ticket prices, airlines avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars in revenue.

Fare Plus Fees

Some airlines charge fees for blankets and headphones during your flight, and for Internet and lounge access while you wait at the airport.

8: Frequent Flyer Miles Really Aren't Worth Much

     Lots of airline companies out there are offering frequent flyer programs. That's great -- you can collect points from a bunch of different programs and come up with a boatload.

 Here's the catch. There are so many frequent flyer points floating around that they're losing value. It takes a ton of points to earn tickets or upgrade to a better seat. In some cases, the points expire more quickly, too. A secondary problem with frequent flyer and reward points is that airlines tempt you to spend more money than you normally would, because you want to build up those points. Although frequent flyer programs can come in handy, they're not always a fantastic deal.

9: Pilots are Pooped

     FAA domestic flight rules don't include a limit for the number of hours that a pilot can be on duty -- the organization simply has a limit of 8 hours of flight time for every 24 hours. If a pilot is scheduled for two or more flights in a day, delays on the ground for weather or other considerations can lengthen his or her time on duty, even though it may not affect actual time in the air. Add in the time for preflight checks, fueling and baggage loading, and your pilot may actually be on duty for 14 hours or more. To make matters worse, the mandatory 8 hours of rest time isn't all sleeping -- it includes driving, eating and getting ready for the next flight.

Napping Air Traffic Controllers

       Pilots aren't the only exhausted commercial flight workers. The FAA has recently uncovered two cases of air traffic controllers sleeping on the job, forcing several airplanes to land without advice or assistance from the ground.

10: A Ticket is Just a Piece of Paper

     Just because you have a ticket and a reservation, don't think you'll head out on your intended flight. Overbooking is a common practice among airlines. It's an attempt to cut losses (or make profits) from passengers who don't show up. So your ticket is no guarantee that you'll get a seat.

     If your flight is overbooked, the U.S. Department of Transportation requires the airline to ask for volunteers to be "bumped" from the flight. It'll get you on another flight, and the airline will offer some form of compensation -- perhaps expenses for meals while you wait, cash or a ticket voucher for another trip. If you're bumped involuntarily, the airline has specific DOT rules it must follow, including giving you cash compensation if its overbooking means you'll arrive more than an hour late at your destination.

10 Things Hotels Don't Want You to Know...

By: ANI




       Staying in a hotel can be fun, right? You can swim in the pool, try out all the free toiletries, order room service -- and someone else will even make your bed in the morning. A weekend getaway can be very relaxing.

       But there are things about hotel life that can sometimes   make your stay less enjoyable, like high prices or rooms that aren't exactly spic and span.

     Never fear, we've got some tricks for you to try. Being aware of these 10 things -- which hotels would almost certainly prefer to keep under their hats -- can save you money, help you avoid unpleasant surprises and give you have the best hotel stay possible.

1: Don't Believe Everything You Read

      Hotel reservations are usually made sight unseen. So, you have to rely on the information the hotel  offers through its Web site. And of course, those Web sites are designed to make you want to stay at that particular location, so they might not be entirely honest.

      Travel columnist and former hotel employee Amy Bradley-Hole advises potential hotel guests to do their homework, first. If a hotel is listed as "minutes away" from a particular attraction or location, what does that really mean? Plot it out on Google Maps to see if that translates to "60 minutes on foot" or "10 minutes in a cab." Figuring that out before you book can save you an unpleasant surprise once you arrive.

2: Your Bed Has Bed Bugs

      Beware: Bed bugs are on the rise. These pervasive insects are causing major problems in hospitals, apartment buildings and -- you guessed it -- hotels. Just because a hotel is expensive doesn't mean it's immune, either; bed bugs are difficult to spot, and they spread quickly.

     Before you book a room, check out the Bed Bug Registry. This free service keeps track of bed bug incidents at all different kinds of locations, including hotels. The reports are dated, and in some cases feature responses and updates from hotel staff. So, you can judge for yourself whether the problem has been dealt with appropriately -- and if you feel good about staying there.

3: There Still Might Be Rooms Available, Even if the Sign Says 'No Vacancies'

       You're desperate for a last-minute hotel room, and the "no vacancy" sign is lit up. That means absolutely every room in the hotel is full, doesn't it?

     Well, not necessarily. In some cases, a room will be marked as booked in the hotel computer because of a maintenance issue. Ask the desk clerk if there are any rooms with more cosmetic problems, as opposed to a room with a nonfunctioning toilet. If it's a simple matter of a stained rug or scratched table, you might be able to persuade the clerk to let you have the room. If you ask nicely, they might even discount the room because of the (marginally) substandard quality.

4: Room Rates Are Sometimes Cheaper at Night

        If you haven't made a reservation, you might be able to score a lower rate if you time it just right. After 5 or 6 p.m., you have a shot at getting a cheaper room if the hotel still has vacancies. Some hotels do have policies that prevent them from discounting rooms, even if that means losing business. But you might be able to get a nicer room or suite for the rate of the average double room if you ask.

      On the other hand, if it's 9 or 10 p.m., the hotel is much less likely to cut you a deal because the clerk knows that you don't have as many options. So, timing is everything.

5: Your Valuables Aren't Necessarily Safe in Your Room

       Remember that you're not the only person who has access to your hotel room. Nearly every member of the hotel staff is able to enter your room without your knowledge. So, when you leave the room for any significant amount of time, don't leave anything valuable behind. Some hotel rooms come equipped with small safes, but not all of them are insured against theft. If you do need to travel with valuables, ask the hotel management to place the items in the hotel safe, and to provide you with a receipt. The main hotel safe will be insured, and it's accessible to a much smaller number of staff members.

6: You Might Get Better Service if You Tip the Housekeeper

       Hotel housekeepers have some of the most underappreciated jobs in the hospitality business. They are also among the lowest paid, according to a Market Watch report. So, leaving a tip for the person cleaning your room is a nice way to supplement his or her income. Most housekeepers probably won't give you exceptionally poor service just because you don't leave a tip, but you might get exceptionally good service if you do. Depending on how expensive the hotel is, and how messy you're leaving the room, anywhere from $2 to $5 is appropriate.

      Remember to leave a tip every day, as opposed to just when you're checking out. You might have different housekeepers over the course of your stay, and you want to tip all of them equally. Also, be sure to leave your tip on the pillow, or on the table with a clearly marked note. That way the housekeeper knows it's for him or her, and not just change you've left on the table.

7: Your Room Isn't as Clean as It Looks

     One of the side benefits to staying in a hotel is that it comes with service. You don't have to make your bed, vacuum or clean the bathroom -- someone else does everything for you. But as tidy as it might look, is it really clean? It's important to remember that hundreds of people pass through an average hotel room over the course of a year, and that it's practically impossible to erase all evidence of a room's prior occupants. On the whole, that's nothing to worry about. But there are a few places in your hotel room that merit a bit more caution.

       Drinking glasses, for example -- you might not want to trust that they've been properly cleaned. Fox News reported in 2007 that a hidden camera investigation of several Atlanta hotels revealed that glasses often go unwashed, or else treated with potentially harmful substances.

Save yourself the worry and bring along your own cup.

8: Take Advantage of Free Amenities (and Watch Out for Ones that Aren't)

       It's easy to spend a lot more than the flat nightly rate at the  average hotel, between the mini bar, parking and who knows what else. Take advantage of the free amenities, like continental breakfast, and see if there are any deals to be had on the rest. For example, if you notice that the parking lot is full, ask the staff if they'll give you a discount on the daily rate.

       Some hotels charge a "daily amenities fee" that covers a wide variety of services, like access to Wi-Fi, complimentary cocktails, printing and newspaper delivery. If your hotel charges a fee like this, be sure to ask for a list of the included amenities when you check in. That way, you can be sure to take full advantage of what you've already paid for.

9: You Might Be Able to Get a Better Rate

       If you've got a specific hotel or chain in mind, don't call the 800 number to make a reservation. Instead, do a little research about their published rates, and then call the hotel front desk directly.

       Ask what specials the branch has right now, and whether it honors discounts like AARP or AAA. The clerk will be able to tell how many reservations the hotel has for that particular block of time, and if it's not very full, the branch probably will be to give you a better rate to ensure a reservation. If you're a member of that hotel's rewards club, be sure to mention that -- if you aren't, ask about signing up to see if that lowers the price even more.

10: It's Pretty Easy to Find Discounts on the Web

          The advent of the Internet has meant great things for travellers looking to save a bit of money on hotels. At the very least, it's easier to compare the rates on different dates, or see which days of the week are generally less expensive.

        Web sites like Kayak.com automatically show you the rates of different hotels based on how much you're willing to pay and what amenities you need, in addition to the dates of your trip. If your travel plans are flexible, check out the "deals" section of the Web site -- you can often get higher savings by combining airfare, hotel accommodation and other amenities.

Taller Women More Likely To Get Cancer, Large Study Finds...

       The taller a postmenopausal woman is, the greater her risk for developing cancer, according to a new, large study of American women. Similar results have been found in other Western populations, including in the United Kingdom and Canada, and in Asia.

     “There had been several previous studies but there hadn’t been much done in North America,” says Dr. Thomas E. Rohan, chair and professor of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He's the senior author of the paper published Thursday in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

    “We found that there was a strong, significant association between height and cancer risk, both for all cancers combined and for several specific cancer sites,” says Rohan. Those specific cancer sites are colorectum, colon, rectum, breast, endometrium, ovary, kidney, thyroid, melanoma and multiple myeloma.

          Each 10 centimeter - about 4 inch - increase in height is associated with a 13 percent increase in overall cancer risk, according to his group’s analysis of 144,701 women aged 50 to 79 participating in the Women’s Health Initiative, a major, long-term research program established by the National Institutes of Health in 1991.

     Rohan and his colleagues adjusted for other known risk factors, such as body weight, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, cancer screening, and hormone therapy use. In fact, the study is one of the more detailed of its kind to confirm that being tall independently raises a person’s chances of developing cancer.

      “This study is in women, our study was in women, but when we looked at studies of men as well, it is very similar,” says Dr. Jane Green, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, England and the lead author of the largest study to date of the link between height and cancer.

      That link “doesn’t seem to depend on when the study was done, or what the population was, or what the height of the population was on average, or the ethnicity of the population,” says Green. “It may suggest something interesting about how cancer develops in general.”

     Researchers say they don't know exactly why height is associated with cancer risk. “We speculate,” says Rohan.     
 

     Being tall may raise a person’s chances of developing cancer simply because taller people have more cells, and cells can mutate as they divide, which can lead to cancer, say researchers. But that explanation is “not really of further scientific interest” says Green because it doesn’t give any insight into the actual process of how cancer develops.

      Instead, researchers focus on other possible factors, such as genetics. “Eighty percent of the variation in height in Western populations is estimated to be determined by genetics,” according to today’s study. Those genes might have something to do with cancer development as well.

      But adult height is also determined by environment. “An obvious candidate is nutrition in early life,” says Rohan. “There has been a secular trend in the last century or so of increasing adult height, and that has been attributed to improvement in early childhood nutrition and to improvements in hygiene as well.”

      Adult height is associated with drinking more milk, for example, which is associated with higher circulating levels of so-called insulin-like growth factor, or IGF-I. IGF-I helps children grow, but studies have shown it is also associated with increased risk of certain cancers.  

     Rohan would like to see future studies examine the genes associated with height to see if there is a cancer link. In addition, he says, research studies that have recruited individuals at a young age may eventually “help us to understand whether nutrition in early life is contributing to cancer risk.”

     In the meantime, tall people should not worry about their cancer risk, says Green. The association of height with cancer risk is significant but “modest,” she says, and being tall actually carries a lower risk of some other diseases, such as heart disease and stroke.

     “You’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” says Green.

Love Hormone Triggers Anxiety And Fear

     Love hormone has a dark side! The fuzzy, warm hormone oxytocin, long known to promote feelings of love, social bonding and well-being, can also cause emotional pain, by strengthening bad memories and increasing fear and anxiety, a new study has claimed. Oxytocin appears to be the reason stressful social situations, perhaps being bullied at school or tormented by a boss, reverberate long past the event and can trigger fear and anxiety in the future.

     That's because the hormone actually strengthens social memory in one specific region of the brain, researchers from Northwestern University in the US have found. If a social experience is negative or stressful, the hormone activates a part of the brain that intensifies the memory. Oxytocin also increases the susceptibility to feeling fearful and anxious during stressful events going forward. The research, which was done in mice, is particularly relevant because oxytocin currently is being tested as an anti-anxiety drug in several clinical trials.

    "By understanding the oxytocin system's dual role in triggering or reducing anxiety, depending on the social context, we can optimise oxytocin treatments that improve well-being instead of triggering negative reactions," said Jelena Radulovic, the senior author of the study. This is the first study to link oxytocin to social stress and its ability to increase anxiety and fear in response to future stress.

       Scientists also discovered the brain region responsible for these effects - the lateral septum - and the pathway or route oxytocin uses in this area to amplify fear and anxiety. The scientists discovered that oxytocin strengthens negative social memory and future anxiety by triggering an important signalling molecule - ERK (extracellular signal regulated kinases) - that becomes activated for six hours after a negative social experience.ERK causes enhanced fear, Radulovic believes, by stimulating the brain's fear pathways, many of which pass through the lateral septum. The region is involved in emotional and stress responses.

     The findings surprised the researchers, who were expecting oxytocin to modulate positive emotions in memory, based on its long association with love and social bonding. "Oxytocin is usually considered a stress-reducing agent based on decades of research," said Yomayra Guzman, a doctoral student in Radulovic's lab and the study's lead author. "With this novel animal model, we showed how it enhances fear rather than reducing it and where the molecular changes are occurring in our central nervous system," Guzman said. The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Skipping Breakfast Can Give You A 'Heart Attack'

       Men who reported eating breakfast ate on average one more time per day than those who skipped breakfast, implying that those who abstained from breakfast were not eating additional make-up meals later in the day.


      Men who regularly skip breakfast are at a 27 percent higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than those who don’t.


      Researchers analyzed food frequency questionnaire data and tracked health outcomes for 16 years (1992-2008) on 26,902 male health professionals ages 45-82.


      The study suggested that men who reported not eating breakfast were younger than those who did, and were more likely to be smokers, employed full time, unmarried, less physically active and drank more alcohol.


     It was also found that men who reported eating late at night- eating after going to bed- had a 55 percent higher coronary heart disease risk than those who didn't. But researchers were less convinced this was a major public health concern because few men in the study reported this behavior.


During the study, 1,572 of the men had first-time cardiac events.


     “Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time,” Leah E. Cahill, Ph.D., study lead author and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass said.


      Men who reported eating breakfast ate on average one more time per day than those who skipped breakfast, implying that those who abstained from breakfast were not eating additional make-up meals later in the day.


     Although there was some overlap between those who skipped breakfast and those who ate late at night, 76 percent of late-night eaters also ate breakfast, researchers said.


     According to researchers, while the current study group was  composed of men who were of 97 percent white European descent, the results should also apply to women and other ethnic groups, but this should be tested in additional studies.


The study was published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.