<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Helen123:
I second Hagbard Viking's point. Besides theft concern, how can we know and be responsible for our luggages' contents if they can be opened w/o our presence? TSA states that "Screening personnel are to place a card in the baggage indicating that a search was performed" - does this give us the jusification to complaint and to ask TSA for compensation if things are missing from the luggage after the flight? </font>
I would be extremely reluctant to fly to a country like Singapore or Malaysia (which have a mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking) with unlocked bags. There have been reported instances of baggage handlers in an originating city putting drugs into unsuspecting passengers bags, then having their buddy baggage handlers remove them at the other end. Occasionally, the handler at the other end fails to pull the bag and remove the drugs before the bags are delivered to the passenger, then the passenger gets stopped by customs and accused of smuggling. This exact scenario happened to a Colmobian man traveling to Mexico last year, and it took him 3 months of legal wrangling to convince the authorities that the drugs were not his and release him.