Originally Posted by jbatl
New to this board. Found it while searching for an answer to what is becoming a MAJOR problem.
I fly weekly for work with thousands of dollars in equipment. I check it in hard-sided cases. I have been buying TravelSentry TSA locks to secure the cases. Unfortunately, at least one, and sometimes two or three of these locks simply disappear everytime I fly. Even more perplexing, I NEVER find TSA notification cards inside my cases. I can only assume the locks are being ripped off my luggage by some piece of equipment. When the locks make it through, they are often bent and mangled. At $10 each, it's like setting fire to a stack of money. On Wednesday, I bought four new TravelSentry locks at Brookstone for $43. By the time I got back to ATL on Friday, only two were left.
I've read the TSA site and they blame the airline conveyor system. I can't see waiting in line at baggage service to make a claim every time I fly. Plus, it's not like I have the damaged lock ... the thing is completely gone! At the same time, I don't feel good about checking this equipment unsecured.
Is anyone else having a similar experience? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do????
Thanks ...
jb
There are three possible explanations:
1) TSA screeners are failing to resecure the locks once they've inspected the bag. Shouldn't happen but it does. This is a matter of paying attention to detail.
2) Conveyor belts in either the airline baggage feed system or in the TSA x-ray machines are tearing the locks off. This happens more than people would think. The CTX machine has two belts inside: one is a "feeder" belt that moves the bag into position, and the other is the "output" belt that shoots it out. Items that dangle from the bag tend to get caught either between the belts or between the output belt and the lip of the receiving platform. These machines move objects at incredible speed, and in the tug-of-war between a lock, zipper tab, name tag, shoulder strap or anything else that hangs off of a bag and the machine conveyor belt, the machine's belt wins every time.
3) Airline baggage handlers are tearing locks off.
I'm not siding with one possibility over the other. I'm just pointing out that these are plausible explanations.