I've been told that humans can get the half-elf and half-orc alternate racial traits. However, humans don't have the things being replaced. So do they get them or not?
I think whoever told you that was confused.
Half-elfs and half-orcs can take Human Favored Class options because they count as human, in addition to the Favored Class options available to their specific race.
Edit: They may have been thinking of the adopted trait which allows any race to grab a single trait of another race. Which is completely seperate from the abilities gained for being a particular race (which confusingly are also called traits). Or they may have been thinking of the feat Racial heritage which allows a human to count as another race. But unless you're taking the mythic version, this is limited to meeting the pre-reqs of classes and other feats
Ok thx. That makes much more sense.