Lennys26v2

Thanks LoganTSO, Chollie.

Good points. I never thought the obvious that it could just be my physical bag. That makes sense. I will do a little experiment on my next trip amd see what happens.

malagajohn

anytime I pack papers or magazines in my checked bag , I always get the friendly note from the TSA

chollie

I have actually read about someone here on FT whose bag always got searched. She experimented and finally figured out that as crazy as it seemed, something about her suitcase was the culprit.

A friend went through several years of bag searches. They stopped after she replaced her old dopp-kit with a newer toiletry bag. I asked her if the dopp-kit had been lead-lined.

Romelle

I don't know about TSA searches on checked bags, but once brought back a bunch of gift full-sized bars of soap from Italy. The person eyeballing the scanner didn't like it. Everything had to be unpacked until that soap was reached and re-scanned.

chollie

Bricks or blocks of cheese can also get unwanted attention.

I say 'unwanted' not because I have anything to hide, but because I never had a lock broken or removed or anything stolen from a bag until TSA. Anytime TSA opens my bag, there are multiple opportunities for problems: destroyed TSA-recognized locks, liquids opened and not resealed, items stolen, items added that are not mine.

Loren Pechtel

In my experience anything that is of appreciable volume of undifferentiated material and of a density higher than water will draw a check. They seem to have some (but nowhere near complete) understanding of bottles of shampoo and the like but anything else draws a TSA note. There's a jar of peanut butter in one of our suitcases, I expect it to be opened.

Also, anything that's sufficiently opaque to x-ray draws a check. (Example, frying pans.)

On the flip side of this, I have never gotten a note in a bag that didn't have something of appreciable volume at least as dense as water.

Note that differentiated objects aren't a problem--the ~2 pounds of peppermint candies in our luggage won't draw their eye. (Although in the old days we did get searched in SHA once over candy--because it had metallic wrappings on the pieces.)

tomhuber2003

If you travel with a lot of things with wires it is 100% sure they will look.

The TSA hates wires.

Often1

On those rare occasions when I check a bag, it is chock full of wires and I have not found that to be even close to the case.

Another consideration for OP is that his case spends time at or near construction sites or certain types of fertilizer. Checked luggage "sniffers" also check for explosives and those can cause alerts.

YadiMolina

For at least 7 years I have been flying into the US with bottles of liquor in my bags at least twice a year. These get rechecked into a domestic destination. To my recollection every time they get the TSA flyer.

And on our way back out of the US, we always leave with a lot of non-clothing items in our luggage (toys, gizmos). Again, it's almost expected that we get the TSA flyer.

Yoshi212

Firstly, Thanks to LoganTSO for the contribution. I appreciate a knowledgeable imput.

I share Chollie's experience since TSA as I have lost several locks and have lost a few items too. But there are things I do travel with in my carry baggage when possible.

AA_ORDlady

I occasionally get the notes--but I may have anything from wine bottles, curling iron, books, snacks and lots of skin/hair products in my checked bag. I don't really mind and there is not anything worth stealing in my checked bags.
DH had a note in a checked bag (regular suitcase) when he returned from a dive trip to NAS---I assume it was the regulator and/or dive computer. He was annoyed that they rearranged things and did not leave the dive equipment in the center where it was cushioned. TSA, of course, laid all the expensive equipment on the top of the clothing so it was virtually unprotected on the outside of the bag. We have never found the notes when we check a seperate "dive bag"-with wetsuits, BC, regulators, masks, fins, snorkels, regulators, etc.

Dalo

Many times I pack 8 or 10 chargers and cords , extension cord , travel iron etc . and never get checked . Don't know why .

WorldLux

I would say that you pack something that looks suspicious to them. When I travel with the camera tripod, the luggage I pack the tripod in gets checked every time.

televisor

I used to get a lot of the notes, however I changed my practices and no longer get searches:

You want to make sure various potentially suspicious items are kept distinct so that they clearly look separate on the x-ray (note: the x-rays appear to take 2 separate planes of imaging, both from the sides and from above, but I only ever ensure separation in one plane).

My guidelines are:
- Keep liquids/foods separated from electronics/cables.
- Keep different cables separated, i.e. one bundle per cable, as far apart as possible.
- Same with books
- Keep metallic items (tripods, small pans, etc.) separate from both of the above

I've travelled with large blocks of cheese, a few charging cables/camera chargers, a small tripod, and even a small tamago pan - and haven't had a search (across multiple countries) while following those guidelines.

Loren Pechtel

There are usually no electronics of any kind in our checked baggage and these days I don't carry books, either. I've never packed a tripod, we have only packed pans once. It's still about 50/50 that at least one bag gets searched and I can basically guarantee two of ours are going to be searched next month--containers of food her relatives want.