Beginning tomorrow, October 26, passengers heading to the USA will be subject to a substantial increase in security measures before being allowed to board their flight. In fact, the new requirements include being at the airport AT LEAST 90 minutes ahead of your USA-bound flight’s departure so that you have enough time for the new screening process. This covers all USA and International carriers that fly to the USA.
According to the TSA, this will impact 2,000 daily flights that arrive in the USA and approximately 325,000 passengers.
This is not exactly a new surprise that popped up today. Tomorrow happens to be a deadline that was set 120 days ago when the USA first issued bans on electronics in the cabin, and other restrictions. Most if not all of those restrictions have since been lifted once airlines and airports demonstrated compliance with the new policies.
What might be different starting tomorrow?
The biggest change that I see is that security personnel will increase the number of ‘random’ interviews that they conduct with passengers heading to the USA. These interviews can happen either at the check-in area or at the gate.
Airlines have announced substantial changes as a result of this policy change. For example, Cathay Pacific has suspend ‘remote check-in’ at locations away from the airport and bag drop off services in cities such as Hong Kong.
Lufthansa Group is asking Economy Class passengers to be at the airport at least 90 minutes prior to departure to allow for enough time for the added scrutiny.
The TSA has been intentionally cryptic with what other security measures take effect tomorrow, but considering the nature and sensitivity of security, it’s understandable that they’re not telling us everything that they plan on doing. In their comments however they did indicate that this security enhancement is being done in order to prevent something like an Electronics Ban from being reinstated.
I guess for that alone, a little more screening at the airport is a small price to pay.
LH group announced a new way of booking trips to a limited group of destinations that help reduce your costs and add a bit of mystery to your trip.
The way it works is that you first tell LH the dates you want to depart and return on and then book your trip as usual. Two days before your departure, you’ll get an email from LH letting you know what flights you’ll be taking. Don’t fret, you’ll depart and return on the days you booked, but you might get some creative routing for the trip. Your flights will be operated by a combination of Lufthansa, SWISS, or Austrian aircraft.
This new program is dubbed ‘AnyWay’ and it covers travel from most of Lufthansa’s German gateways including Stuttgart, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Leipzig. However, the ‘AnyWay’ concept only covers 10 destinations thus far: Miami, Bangkok, Mumbai, Dubai, Boston, Delhi, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Peking, Shanghai, and Tel Aviv.
Keep in mind that this is only available to Economy Class bookings made for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
For your willingness to be this flexible, the fares will be a bit cheaper than the lowest prices usually offered on a given route. In most cases, I observed fares being €50 to €100 less.
Sounds like fun if you’re into saving a small bit of money, but there can be some consequences to being frugal…..
The biggest issue that I see and would have with this program is that you’ll be steered to aircraft that will already be near capacity and the airlines are trying to squeeze every last ‘sardine’ into the tin. What this might mean for you is that you may be stuck in a middle seat on a very overcrowded A340 aircraft as you jet off to Asia. Since you’ll be among the last passengers to be put on a flight, your odds of getting a good seat diminish dramatically. If you book for you and your family, your odds of sitting together all but vanish if the plane is full.
However, if you’re into sitting at the back of an A340 in the seat next to the stairs going down to lavatories, you’ll have virtually everyone sitting in coach walking past you at least twice during the flight so you might be able to make a few friends as a result! 😉
‘AnyWay’ is set to launch on October 23 and will be available for travel from Mid-December to Mid-March in most cases.
To learn more about the program and to book travel under ‘AnyWay’, please visit the AnyWay webpage. However as of this writing, it appears that the webpage is not yet functioning even though the launch was set for October 23.
Following up on Part I of Safari 2017, Part II picks up where 1 left off with more photos and also an hour-long video capturing a transfer between 2 Lodges during our trip to South Africa. The video is actually quite good, especially at the 32 minute mark as we entered the Blyde River Canyon with a GoPro suctioned to the belly of the chopper. A big thanks to Jana and her team at Wild Skies Aviation for providing such a fantastic service. If your ever in the Hoedspruit area of South Africa and need/want to take a phenomenal Helicopter tour of the area, do it! You won’t be sorry!
The second batch of photos combines shots taken at 2 of the 3 lodges we visited: Dulini Private Game Reserve (where I will probably want to be interred in one day) in the western sector of the Sabi Sands of South Africa and the wonderful Jaci’s Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Reserve. The reason we chose to visit Jaci’s was the fact that they have a submerged ‘Hide’ for photographers to get to water level at a dam for some amazing photo ops. Jaci’s did not disappoint. In fact we’ve already booked next year’s stay.
As far as gear goes for this trip, I packed my Nikon D800 and D5, along with a Nikon 24-70, Sigma 150-600S, Rokinon 24mm 1.4 (For the star trails), and the ‘toddler’ as my wife calls it, the Nikon 600mm / f4. The D5 did the most of the heavy lifting, but the D800 took lead on anything that needed huge megapixels or situations where the I didn’t want to risk damage to the D5.
Enjoy these for now. More on the way!
Here is the video I referred to earlier. It covers the 1 hour transfer flight between Dulini Private Game Reserve to the Khaya Ndlovu Manor House where we stayed while we visited with the volunteers and staff of the Rhino Revolution. My wife brought a fair amount of medical tools and equipment to them on this trip to help with their efforts to tend to orphaned Rhinos (whose Mothers were poached). Rhino Rev’s mission is to rehabilitate these orphans and then release them into the wild, where they will be monitored closely by private security.
Known as the ‘Dewane’ male Leopard, he is a dominant predator in the Western Sector of the Sabi Sands reserve. Taken at Dulini.
Adolescent male Elephant enjoys a nice swim….Taken at Jaci’s
Elder female accompanies a ‘teenager’ as well as a one year old to the dam….Taken at Jaci’s
A Kudu Bull surprisingly stays around long enough to pose….Taken at Jaci’s.
Male Lion resting at Jaci’s…..
A Tawny Eagle perches on a Marula Tree awaiting a target to come by. Taken at Dulini.
Young Wild Dogs play ‘tug of war’ over an Impala hide. One of the most endangered species on the planet unfortunately. Taken at Jaci’s.
One of my top 5 shots from the trip. A Croc surfaces showing off his successful Tilapia hunt. Taken at Jaci’s.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as the Ellies crossed between me and setting sun. Taken at Jaci’s.
Heron and Tilapia do not see eye to eye….Taken at Jaci’s.
Bad day for the Tilapia….
A Village Weaver works hard on his nest in the hopes that he can attract a female to call it her home…Taken at Dulini.
‘Dark Mane’ of the Majingilane coalition of Lions takes a moment after stealing the Impala carcass from a Lion Pride that hunted it. Typical behavior of Male Lions who are part of coalitions. Taken at Dulini.
My most favorite critter…..the Lilac Breasted Roller. Taken at Dulini.
Unfortunately these beautiful birds are highly endangered, but for the moment this Saddle Billed Stork enjoys fishing in a river. Taken at Dulini.
