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For Immediate Release | Official News Wire for the Travel Industry

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What smart travelers know

April 5, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

A record-breaking number of Americans are traveling, but most are unprepared for the journey – more than 90% of US travelers don’t know their rights, according to AirHelp, advocate for air passengers.

For easy reference, they have compiled a brief overview of U.S. air passenger rights below, along with insider tips for smart travelers. Knowing your rights could make you eligible to claim compensation. These include what to do regarding:

  • Flight Delays
  • Cancellations
  • Bumping, Denied Boarding and Overbooking
  • Lost Luggage
  • Missed Connections
  • When to fly
  • How to pack
  • And more

Disruptions: If you are flying within the U.S. and you are denied boarding due to an overbooked flight, you may be eligible to claim 400% of the one-way fare to your destination in compensation, of a value up to $1,350. Also, for flight cancellations or lengthy delays, if you’re flying to the EU on an EU airline, or departing from an EU airport, you may be eligible to claim up to $700 per person in compensation under European law EC 261.

Lost Luggage: Did you know airlines that lose or damage travelers’ luggage are obligated to pay out compensation of $1,500 – $3,500 to impacted passengers and reimburse them for lost items? Many travelers are unaware of these rights. Whether a traveler is flying within the U.S. or to one of the other 120 countries that ratified the Montreal Convention, if that person experiences luggage issues while traveling, they may be entitled to compensation under air passenger rights laws, including U.S. national law and the Montreal Convention. In order to successfully get the compensation that they are entitled to, a passenger must file a claim before leaving the airport. Travelers should fill out a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) claim for misplaced luggage, including the case number of their bags. The more detailed the claim, the better off that passenger will be, including an itemized list of the contents of their luggage, including the value of each item.

Missed Connections: If flights are booked together under one reference code, passengers can claim $300 – $700 in compensation from the airlines if they miss a connecting flight due to an earlier disruption under EC 261.

Fly during off-peak days or times to avoid the largest crowds at airports. The late night flights are often the least crowded, which means that your flight may be less likely to be overbooked, and your wait time at security will be shorter.

Consider flying out of alternate airports, if your airport is known to have delays. If flights from one airport typically experience significant disruptions, you can anticipate the new screenings will create longer lines at security and additional delays. Look into flights through different airports that fit your travel needs.

Leave extra time for traveling to the airport. No matter when people are traveling, they should anticipate traffic near the airport and overcrowding inside, thanks to overtourism. Pack the car with your luggage the night before departing to help save precious time the day of. Schedule extra time for driving, plan to arrive at the airport at least three hours before takeoff, and be sure to leave ample time to get through lines at security in case of large crowds. If it is easy enough, travelers can also consider public transportation to eliminate parking fees and cut costs.

Be ready for longer lines at security. With larger flights, waiting for luggage can take a lot of extra time at the airport. For short trips, travelers may consider using only a carry-on item, as long as all items fall under TSA requirements.

Strategically pack your luggage to have your ID and all liquid items at the top so that they’re easily accessible to TSA staff.

Pack larger electronics at the top. In July 2018, the TSA announced rules that require electronics larger than a cellphone to be placed in separate screening bins. If you’re one of the many travelers who are opting to bring bags on board rather than pay money to check them, pack larger electronics at the top so they’re easy to remove and place in a separate screening bin.

Consider wearing a pullover jacket or sweatshirt instead of a zip-up – this will allow you to quickly get through security without having to worry about removing articles of clothing.

Bring chargers and extra entertainment for the airport. Sometimes, flight disruptions are inevitable, so consider packing an extra phone charger and book to take on the flight.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Young elephant shot 13 times: Tourists watched in horror

March 27, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Balule Associated Nature Reserve has justified the killing of a young elephant bull in front of tourists as an ‘act of self-defense’, backtracking on an original announcement condemning the act and ignoring eye-witness accounts.

Balule Nature Reserve is a protected area in Limpopo Province, South Africa which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park as a member of the Associated Private Nature Reserve

The young elephant bull was shot 13 times in front of four eye-witnesses standing on a viewing deck overlooking Balule’s Maseke Game Reserve, where the hunt took place.

Balule’s Hunting Incident Report states that “the elephant charged [the hunting party] and they shot it when it was five meters from them.”

However, the hunters were never in any danger, says Annelize Slabbert, one of the four onlookers who witnessed the shooting.

She says guests at the lodge saw the whole incident from their unobstructed vantage point.

Her husband, Gerard, affirms this. “After the first shot, I saw the three men standing by their vehicle in the road; the elephant was 80 to 100 meters away from them and starting running in the opposite direction.”

The Slabberts also say the elephant never charged the hunting party. According to Annelize, “it was calmly feeding on a tree when the first shot rang out. The elephant then gave a loud cry and ran for cover in the thicket, with the hunters running in pursuit, firing more shots. Thirteen shots later, after the elephant had fallen in a ditch in an attempt to escape the hunters, its shrieks ceased.”

Later, a TLB, tractor and trailer had to be called in to retrieve the carcass from the deep ditch, the hunting report confirms.

“It is something I will, unfortunately, never forget,” Annelize says. “It was heartbreaking.”

Balule management has vehemently rejected any claims of alcohol use, but the final report states that one member of the hunting party, Sean Nielsen did, in fact, ‘mess his whiskey’ on one of the witnesses who had approached the hunting party after the incident. The report reads that “a heated exchange took place between the witness and Mr Nielson.”

Photographs taken on the scene show Nielsen, the long-term lessee of Maseke Game Reserve, with a glass of tawny liquid in hand. He reportedly acted as the reserve representative on the hunt.

Photo by witness
A witness took this photo

The photographs, Balule chairperson Sharon Haussmann argues, were taken after the shooting and are, therefore, not indicative of a breach of any ethical or general hunting protocols.

Change of tune

When the incident occurred on 23 November last year, Haussmann initiated a full investigation and said that the parties involved would be held accountable. She labelled the incident as “completely unethical and inconsiderate and a huge embarrassment for Balule.” She said “it did not comply with the sustainable utilization model of ethical hunting in accordance with the hunting protocol that governs all reserves within APNR and to which Balule and hence Maseke are bound.”

The full investigation report was shared in full in Febraury this year. The outcome painted an entirely different picture.

Haussmann backtracked on her initial statement and said that “according to the APNR protocol there were no ethical transgressions.

“We don’t approve that it happened in front of a lodge, but unfortunately, the lay of the land was such that it was in view of a lodge,” Haussmann said in January. The full investigation concludes that “besides poor site selection, there is no evidence of ethical breaches that can be actioned by us.”

When asked about the contradicting statements between Balule’s final report and the witness reports sent in as part of the investigation, Haussmann said it was a case of ‘he said, she said’.

“I wasn’t there. I wish I was; then I could tell you for sure [what happened],” she said. The report simply concludes that there’s no reason to doubt the “version put forward by the ‘hunting party’”.

Hunting continues

Kruger National Park’s managing executive Glenn Phillips also previously condemned the hunt and said SANParks was “keenly awaiting the finalisation of the [Balule] investigation”. When questioned on the outcome of the investigation, no further comment was received.

The increasing number of questionable hunting incidents occurring in the Kruger’s adjoining reserves underscores the growing conflict between hunting and photographic safaris operating on the same land in the Assosiated Private Nature Reserves (APNRs).

While this conflict ensues in meetings regarding protocol and ethics, poaching in the park is on the rise and Kruger’s elephants are caught in a dangerous gap between licensed and unlicensed killers.

Kruger recently launched a campaign aimed at fighting elephant poaching in the park’s northern region, however, Balule was given approval by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) to hunt 22 elephants during the 2019/2020 hunting season, which begins on 1 April. This amounts to nearly half of the 47 elephants permitted to be hunted in all the APNRs this season.

In the previous year, a total of 53 elephants were legally hunted in the APNR, while 71 elephants were poached in the Kruger Park

Travel News | eTurboNews

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