Originally Posted by JIMCHI

I tried using a Prestolock SearchAlert lock on my luggage this weekend, with poor results. This lock is listed on the TSA website as being approved by them and that their staff have keys for them. Checked in the bag at BDL, where checked bag screening is doine in the lobby. I stood around the screening area and when the TSA employee got my bag he started complaining that someone put a lock on the bag. I walked over and told him it was my bag and that it had a TSA approved lock on it. He looked at it and said "Oh, that's what they look like" and then told me that only a supervisor has the key and that it's in an office at the other end of the terminal. I gave him the combination and he went through the bag and put the lock back on again. I made a connection through DFW and when I arrived in SMF the bag came up with the lock missing and the two zipper pulls through which the lock went had been cut. I have no idea why this bag was subjected to additional screening either at BDL or DFW, but I do know that I will never use one of these locks again. What an idiotic system where they have one key and it's locked in an office.