Your Flight’s Been Canceled, So Now What Do You Do?

You’re grounded. Does the airline owe you?

That depends on the airline. Travel Holiday magazine reviewed the nine largest airlines’ contracts of carriage - available for your inspection at the airport - and found that some are more generous than others when it comes to delays and cancellations.

No law requires airlines to give refunds for canceled flights, though most will. You’re entitled to a refund only if the problem is outside the airline’s control - weather, air traffic control, or strikes.

If the airline’s at fault, it will almost certainly offer to put you on the next available direct flight in the same class of service. If you’re not satisfied, most airlines will put you on another carrier.

How to get the best foreign currency rate? We tested three strategies in Paris by asking how many francs we could get for $500.

ATM: 2,942 FF. Withdrawing from a U.S. account at a Paris machine landed a super rate (5.92), slightly offset by a $3 fee. The trick: Make few, large withdrawals.

Thomas Cook: 2,857 FF. We liked the 5.8 rate at a Paris office. The bad news? The 1.5 percent commission.

International Currency Exchange: 2,803 FF. Its rush service sends any currency to you within 48 hours (888-842-0880). Besides a $10 fee, the 5.72 rate was in line with banks - great if you’re heading where ATMs are in short supply, like Eastern Europe or Africa.

Hotel toiletries: sweet surprises.

Most hotels put their own names on those tiny shampoo and lotion bottles they leave in your room. But what products are really inside?

After all, if that soap gives your skin a new glow, you may not have to buy out the hotel boutique - it could be readily available back home.

Renaissance Hotels stocks its bathroom shelves with Bath & Body Works’ juniper-scented shampoos and shower gels.

Appropriate to its desert setting, Phoenix’s Arizona Biltmore carries Crabtree & Evelyn’s aloe vera products.

In Sheraton’s Luxury Collection hotels, you get high-end brands such as Herme’s (in Paris suites) or Bijan (at New York’s St. Regis).

Marriott’s Courtyard, however, keeps it simple, supplying you with good ol’ Flex shampoo.

Avert a video disaster! While it’s OK to take most print film through airport security X-rays, never walk through the security doorway with your camcorder’s videotapes, says the New York Institute of Photography.

To avoid scrambling your home movies, always put them on the X-ray convey or belt or have them hand-inspected.

Want to work out while on vacation? Take the stairs. A 150-pound person climbing at a leisurely pace can burn 360 calories an hour. If you go faster, you can burn up to 900 calories an hour.

At the Statue of Liberty, because of the huge numbers of visitors, it takes one to two hours to ascend the 354 steps to the crown. The steep climb increases your heart rate and works your quadriceps, but the slow trip means you’ll burn only about 100 calories.

The Eiffel Tower boasts 1,060 steps to the second level (it’s elevator-only the rest of the way). The climb burns about 280 calories in 10 to 15 minutes.