I am new to flyertalk and this is my first post. Although I am only a lowly silver, I want to share with all of your a very unpleasant experience with Northwest.

On 11/30/2003, I flew Northwest from HKG - NRT - MSP - ORD. As usual, I left all my luggage unlocked at HKG when I checked-in. After I got home in Chicago, however, I discovered that one of my luggage was damaged. The luggage lock was broken and the zipper was cut. I got a note in the luggage, stating that TSA in MSP examined the baggage.

Unlock checked luggage may not be new to us anymore, but apparently that might not be the case elsewhere. It is clear that some stupid NWA luggage handlers in HKG or NRT locked my luggage so that TSA at MSP had to break the lock and zipper for their examination.

I had been in contact with Northwest for the past month and demand compensation from them. Although they admitted it was an "unfortunate luggage mishandle incident", they blamed TSA and would not take any responsibility.

Maybe it's due to the fact that I'm only a lowly silver and NWA didn't even care, but I will never spend my own money to fly NWA again. I did my part to unlock my luggage when I checked-in, yet I would never get any compensation for related damages. UAL, in this case only (because I preferred NWA over UAL in general but this may change after this horrible nightmare), sounds to be a safer bet for a ORD-HKG trip because they offer nonstop flights (and hence minimizing luggage handling and TSA inspection). What do you guys think?

------------------
United Premier, NWA Sliver elite, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold