Trip Reports - New baggage screening report: UA LAX & SFO

My first trip of 2003 was a day trip up to SFO for some golf. I arrived at LAX on Jan 3rd at 7:15am for an 8:15 flight and it was fairly calm. I pulled my wheeled golf carrying case along to the 1K check in. The kind agent checked me in, then said I had to take my bag over to TSA to have them check it. I guess I should have done that first. There was a smallish line of people waiting to have their checked bags checked. I could see how this will be a horribly long line on a busy day.

My agent however had already checked me in, and she said she would hold onto my boarding pass and the routing sticker for my bag til TSA had checked me. So I went to TSA, and the nice, but small girl needed my help to place the heavy golf bag on her table. She opened it and began swiping all over with explosive residue test swabs. She never actually opened any of the pockets on the bag. Then she tried to close it, but a pair of jeans were stopping it from being closed. I pushed the jeans back in and she said not to touch it. I realized that I had "contaminated" my bag and felt lucky that she didn't have to redo the scan.

She really had a tough time getting the case closed, and my offer to help her close my bag was rejected. She called for help and a really big guy came over to smash my case closed enough to snap the latches. Then they placed a bright pink TSA sticker on the case.

Then the very nice UA agent came over to hand me my boarding pass and place the routing sticker on my bag. Then she hauled the bag over to the belt. While she was doing all this, the people waiting in line to check in had one less agent to help them. I wondered if I got special treatment since I was a 1K in First class or if it was just a bit chaotic with the new procedures.

After a routine flight to SFO on a 757, I was first off the plane and quickly made my way to baggage claim. I hurried since I had a friend waiting to pick me up. However, I was quite surprised to see my golf case waiting for me! It was a long walk, but I used the moving walkway and it couldn't have been more than 5 minutes to reach the baggage area. Very good performance SFO! I should say that the airport was a ghost town. At 9:30am on a Friday, it is never this empty, holiday or no holiday.

After an enjoyable round of golf at the Lake Merced Country Club, I was dropped back off at SFO and I proceeded to 1K check in. But procedures were different here. The UA agent checked me in, and put the routing sticker on my case. But then I was told to take my case over to the TSA scanning machine. The TSA person took my bag and said "have a nice flight". I said, "don't I have to stick around and watch you open it?". "No sir, we'll take care of everything".

So, relieved of my baggage I marched off to the RCC to watch the Fiesta Bowl. During the 3rd quarter, I had to board, and I asked the pursur to ask the captain to put the game on channel 9. And he did! Since the game went to double OT, I actually got to see the end at the LAX RCC. I spent about 20 minutes in the RCC, knowing that LAX baggage is very slow. Also, LAX (unlike SFO) send golf clubs to the oversize belt and it always takes a long time, priority tag or not. But when I finally made it down to baggage claim, they hadn't even started dropping any bags from my flight.

5 minutes later, the normal-sized bags from my flight came off, and 10 minutes after that, my golf bag popped out. When I got home and opened it up, there was a piece of paper inside which said: Thank you for flying from San Francisco Internationl, a World Class Airport serving the "City by the Bay".

Under that was some legalese about searching my bag and the note that this page was inserted by your local SFO TSA team.

So, still to this day, there is no consistency in security with the TSA from airport to airport.

At St. Louis a similar situation with baggage screening.....
Of course there is barely enough room for lines in front of the ticket counters to begin with at STL; now they have the machines in there.

Jacksonville was a pilot program for all of this.... We've had the bag screening going on for a month. It is all done behind the scenes. They ripped up the roof of the lower level to add in extra conveyors and forced the airport authority out of much of their office space to install the machines. JAX is no different than it was before the new procedures.

The other day, I was at LAX and saw the line streaming out of terminal 1 for Southwest Airlines. I was glad I only had a hand carry. I can't imagaine how long the line was going to take.

Yesterday, I had to go to Palm Desert for a golf game with a client. I fretted about carrying my golf clubs as I usually travel light without checked baggage. I decided to spend my time doing a search on Google for a golf bag shipping service and I found one to pick up my clubs from my home and have them delivered and waiting for me at the golf course.

Until there is more consistency at the airport, less hassle with the baggage screeners and shorter lines, I will just save myself time and hassle by using a door-to-door delivery service. Now if anyone else can recommend a luggage shipping service when my family goes on vacation later this year....that would be appreciated.

[This message has been edited by monsieurdino (edited 01-04-2003).]

SNA is similar to SFO's method. EVERYTHING is Airside, if you have oversize bags, you will be asked to take them to an oversize area (normally the airline will have an agent or their security go with you). You drop your item off and never see it again. If it does get opened the not would be present.

BTW: LH security has done the note in the bag/case for years on checked bags they open for searches...

Has there been any news or personal experience by anyone here on what happens when a bag/suitcase that is searched/opened in the absence of its owner is returned to the same damaged in one form or another (either the bag itself or because the items therein were not repacked with the same care they were originally given) or where items have gone missing?

Speaking from experience with customs and agriculture inspections, reclosing my suitcase is often difficult even when one takes the time (and we know they won't). I have also seen and experience how luggage is treated by the airlines and having the suitcase locked is less an effective measure against theft and more of a necessity to prevent it from popping open an spilling all over the place. I somehow do not see how I can send it down the line unlocked. Any thoughts?

I agree with MrMillion. Who is going to compensate pax when stuff goes missing?

I concur with MrMillion and Gaucho! Who will be responsible for missing stuff?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spider:
I concur with MrMillion and Gaucho! Who will be responsible for missing stuff?</font>
This is also my biggest concern! However, there is nothing I can do right now. This is just sad!

TSA has already said they're not responsible, so the liability will probably fall on the already struggling airlines.

It's clear that NO ONE will ultimately take responsibility for our checked items. We as pax will have to become proactive on this count and utilize 3rd party baggage services to transport oversized or excess luggage-allowance pieces from point to point. We shouldn't make the mistake of assuming that our fave airlines are looking out for our interests let alone the TSA.