jamescho

I've always used the TSA locks in and out of the US. It has never been a problem for me and no one has ever requested for me to open my bags.

ABM88

As far as I know, there's absolutely no law requiring that people use TSA locks if they want to use a lock. My understanding is that people are free to use whatever lock they want or no lock at all, but if they do use a TSA lock and their bag is pulled for visual inspection, the agent will unlock it, whereas they'll just cut through and destroy non-TSA locks.

My feeling is, if you are even occasionally traveling through the U.S. and you're checking a bag, you might as well get TSA locks if you can. It provides all the same benefits as non-TSA locks plus one more.

Loren Pechtel

So far my experience elsewhere is that if they want in a bag they ask you rather than simply opening it.

JonBearPig

I recently came back from HKG last night and my TSA-approved Tumi lock was removed from my luggage. I spun the lock one more time at the gate to ensure it was locked too. No note, just a missing $20 lock.

Mellonc

TSA, if they searched your bag, is required to notify you typically with a paper note. Don't. BOther with a lock that can be open and re-locked with a master key. Use Zip Ties. You can get them on Amazon for cheap. This way, you'll know for sure if someone tempered with your bag. When you see it roll down the luggage carousel with your zip ties cut (have one loop on the baggAge handle and have another loop on the zippers) immediately go to the baggage office and tell them your bag has been tempered with.

lewisc

News accounts of theft by baggage handlers suggest they have the keys/tools necessary to open TSA approved locks. The lock might suggest which bags are worth opening.
I don't think the note is a requirement. I've read news accounts which suggest TSA continues to open bags even after they run out of notes.

Paul56

I had my carry-on locked with a TSA lock and was told emphatically
by one TSA agent that my carry-on was not supposed to be locked.

My theory is he was annoyed about not being able to tear into my
bag without notifying me... which they are supposed to do anyways.

I had my CPAP inside which I had failed to remove so he must have
thought he was onto something nefarious and I was deemed guilty
until proven innocent.

I unlock the bag and he immediately takes it out of my view for a
search. If that happens again I am asking for a supervisor.

I've also gone through where the agent did everything right.
Informed me they would search the bag and did so in front of me.

Perhaps I should use zip-ties... they bring me the bag to unlock and
I state "You really think I have something sharp to open it?" LOL

lewisc

There posters who have "issues" with the TSA. Any mistake made by the TSA is interpreted as some kind of malicious act. Any error made by the passenger is deemed to either be an intentional refusal to follow a stupid rule
or an innocent mistake.

Your interpretation of events might be right.

I'll give you an alternate theory. The TSA agent was annoyed at you for slowing up the line. Had you removed the unit from it's case, and possibly put it in a plastic bag, you would have gone right through.

Mellonc

Even if they don't leave a note, you'll at least know, that someone opened your luggage without your knowledge. As such, have the luggage opened by the airline agent rather than yourself. In the U.S. this may not be such a big issue. But if you are in foreign countries where the contraband laws are draconian, you don't want to take chances with soneone putting something in your bag.

Paul56

That is an interesting alternative theory, but...

This was very early in the morning and the checkpoint had just
opened up. I was the third person going in with no one behind me.

It still makes no excuse for them not following their own rules of
keeping luggage in sight at all times.

chollie

No, lewisc. Had the TSO told the pax 'open your bag', there would have been no delay.

When a TSO does this, there's always the risk of a terminal dump. If I were a bad guy and I had something really bad in my carry-on and I saw a TSO grab it and take it out of sight, I'd get out of there fast. I wouldn't stand around until the TSO found my contraband and then started asking 'whose bag is this'?

I had my bag searched at ATL, right on the exit table. The TSO identified me as the owner, searched the bag (a gym bag). He finally found the suspicious object - a TSA-approved lock in the otherwise empty shoe compartment at the end of the bag. Unlocked, unattached to anything. I had it just in case I checked a bag returning from overseas.

Short exchange with the xray operator, then he told me she'd never seen one before, they were for checked bags, not carry-on, but he'd let me go 'this one time'.

If challenged about locking my bag at the checkpoint, I point out that pax can steal from an unlocked bag, too. In fact, on longhaul flights when I intend to sleep, my valuables (other than headphones) are locked in the bag in the overhead.

Loren Pechtel

They've never seen one on a carry-on???

We routinely lock our carry-ons to discourage thieves rummaging in the bin while supposedly getting their own stuff. I have never paid attention to how many others do the same thing but I certainly have seen locked carryons before.

Usually we use our old pre-TSA locks on the carryons but we have used TSA types on occasion.


There's also the security advantage that it's harder for a black hat to slip something *INTO* a locked bag.

chollie

It wasn't even 'on' the carry-on. It was a spare TSA-approved lock that was by itself in a separate, unlocked end compartment (for shoes) on the gym bag. It was just silliness on his part. Also a bit strange that the xray TSO had supposedly never seen one before.

Interestingly enough, the main compartment of my daypack was locked, but it wasn't flagged and he never checked it.

I got in the habit of locking it because it was easier (and safer) than arguing with the TSOs about keeping my bags in my sight. I always got selected for the NoS and frequently lost sight of my bags. A lock wouldn't stop an opportunistic pax from walking off with the entire bag, but it would stop anyone, in or out of uniform, from casually dipping a hand in and stealing something.

Himeno

The only times I have ever had a lock on my checked baggage get opened, cut off or otherwise "lost" has been at a US airport.

I tend to lock my carry on bags, with a non TSA lock, only when going through a TSA checkpoint.

Randyk47

Just last week finished a three plus week trip through Europe. I have no misgivings or false sense of security but we do lock our bags with TSA approved locks. It's as much about keeping the bags from opening by accident as it is security. As it turned out only one bag was opened by TSA once on the way home in Charlotte. Got the note and TSA had replaced and locked the lock. Why that bag, no idea as it was a garment bag with nothing but some pretty funky clothing in it.