T8191

Exactly the same procedure here too!! ^

My 'swiss knife' was bought at a Dollar Tree store [as was the pack of 100 cable ties], so I doubt anyone will bother to steal it!

vpk

Why to bother locking your bag at all if using TSA locks? Do you really think a thief does not have the keys to TSA locks?

nux

Why bother bumping a thread more than three years old to post that?

Fitch

But as we're all here now...

Back in the day, I had a mate who worked for BAA (the guys who used to run most UK airports). Pre-9/11 things were significantly more lax, and one day he took me on a walking tour "behind the scenes" at Heathrow (this was in the late 80s).

One thing that stuck with me was coming across a Customs rummage team opening a combination lock suitcase with the coolest tool ever.

It consisted of a battery-powered motor driving 3 small rubber wheels and a pair of arms. The operator would use the Customs skeleton key set to open the suitcase lock and would pop the catches. Then he would adjust the arms to push against top and bottom of the case and the rubber wheels to sit on the numbers. On pressing the Start button, it would take no more than a couple of minutes to run through all combinations from 000 to 999, pausing briefly on each one to attempt opening the case with the arms.

The Customs guys were very friendly and told us that they loved this little tool as it saved them sheet-loads of time when they wanted to have a "sneaky peak".

Not sure why the TSA have to be so brutal when this simple technology has been around for 30-odd years ?

flieduk

Whilst I do not subscribe to the Southern US, rural, anti-government brigade, I do not understand why the TSA cannot act like normal people and tannoy the passenger or have another mechanism to allow them to open the baggage.

UKtravelbear

Simply because there is very little time to tannoy the passenger, for them to realise 'oh they want me!' then to go and find an airport phone / info desk then to be taken to the baggage scanning area ...

Plus the sheer number of cases that the TSA inspect each day make it impractical.

I read an article in the Washington Post just before thanksgiving about this and whilst the % of bags that get a manual search (as opposed to extra scans) is small 4 -5 % - the number of bags is in the high hundreds. And each search takes a couple of minutes.

Using the figures at BWI and 120,000 bags in thanksgiving week 5% = 6,000 bags to be manually searched = 860 a day. I hate to think what the numbers are like at JFK or ORD or LAX!


Washington Post article

shorthauldad

I've never locked a checked bag. I've never had anything taken from a checked bag. This strategy seems to work fine for me.

Randyk47

We always lock our bags with TSA locks. We have absolutely no misgivings or any notion that the locks keep potential theives out of our luggage. It's more just to keep the bag closed and cut down on the zipper getting caught and the contents getting spilled out. Why TSA locks and not just zip ties? Somehow, especially now that most luggage companies include them for free, we've built up quite a collection. Surprisingly we've only lost two or three over the years.