Originally Posted by flpab
Because I work at an airport and see the belt system you all have to know that there are broken locks all over the conveyor belts. I would always bring my bags inside to check them. The street drop at my airport has a huge drop off that connects to the main belt, it is not very gentle and the bags get caught and stuck if they are wheels down so they are beat up and then they get shot out of another machine, handled two more times after tsa and then two more times at the destination. That is why your suitcases look so bad sometimes.
It is rough on them and I see locks, tags, the medal pulls, etc all over the belts. Twist ties and zip locks are your best bet.
This is also the case at our airport. There are hundreds of locks,zipper tabs,name tags etc etc littering the floors beneath the belts. If I was a passenger, I would be more concerned with vehicles picking up this stuff in the tires and bringing it to the flightline where it becomes FOD (foreign object damage sucked into the engine)