Just went through LAX yesterday. Travelling with family so there was checked in baggage. Long slow moving lines to do checked-in baggage screening after you check in! YOU MUST BE PRESENT!

This is some bizarre US TSA crap that one TSA employee insisted was used across USA. I didn't see this anywhere else in my US travels in last couple of weeks. You basically wait in line (for up to an hour) to hand the screener your luggage and he then tells you it is OK to go to security (not after they screen your luggage-BEFORE!!). I have no idea why you can't just let your bags go at check in and have them screened behind closed doors somewhere else. Air Canada is not happy about having the screening machine placed in the middle of their check-in area and obviously not pleased about slow moving lines.

If you have baggage to check I would suggest another airport unless you like standing in line.

If all US airports are going this route . . .

Actually, I'd much rather they screen bags before you enter the secure area. Right now, from my understanding, you cannot lock your checked luggage in the US because they may open your bag up WITHOUT you present if they find something suspicious... At least, if they screen the bag in front of you, you get to put your lock on the bag... I don't like having my checked luggage unlocked, especially if I'm crossing international borders. You never know if someone slipped something into your suitcase... Like that Montreal incident. Try explaning that to a customs agent!

This same procedure has been in place at MIA for quite a while. Check in at UA, then must take bags to separate area for handoff to TSA. Few signs or proper instructions. Any wonder people don't want to fly transborder or within the USA any more, traffic remains down? Remember, this is the same government that is trying to run Iraq and failing miserably. Why should their airports be any different? The US has for too long has downgraded their public service and the whole idea of this quaint notion of working in government being a positive career path. No wonder the place is staffed by losers who screw up at every opportunity, and have predisposition to authoritarianims. Another offshoot of the neoCon revolution.

It is also the same in MSY, has been for several months.

I do not know but suspect that the method of screening is a matter of airport logistics - ie. space availability or lack thereof.

It depends on the terminal/city/destination/airline. I was in LAX 10 days ago with luggage flying AS (of course ) and at the TSA screening in T3 they let us simply leave our bags and go to the gates. The same thing happened three weeks previous in LAX in T1 when I was flying HP (of course ).

While in both cases my ultimate destination was YEG, the fact I was firstly going to LAS (HP connect) and SEA (AS connect) and was flying an American carrier may have had a lot to do with it. (P.S. See how I spend my $$).

I assume BlondeBomber you were flying AC non-stop to YYC out of T2 as you must go into the cue for TSA immediately after check-in. It's because you're going non-stop transborder I suspect in LAX.

PE, I am not sure if this is the case. I believe that it has much more to do with how the airports/terminals have been able to handle the installation of the x-ray machines (which are about the size of mini-vans).

For a lot of airports, the only place that the machines will actually fit is in the lobbies. IIRC, the airlines are responsible for getting the bags to the TSA, so the easiest way (for the airlines) is just to have the passengers bring their own bags to the TSA. The reason that BB ended up in line for an hour is that the bags cannot be out of control of their owner, the airline, or the TSA. It sounds like LAX could use more security screeners.

In SFO, for example, the same United checkin desks are used for flights to LAX or DEN as YYC or YVR. When you checkin with UA, they take your bag behind the counter (like the 'old' days) and then a porter takes a whole cart of them accross the lobby to the TSA, who screen them and send them back. You do not have to present once the bag is handed over to the airline, whether flying to Canada or not.

In some other airports, there is room the baggage holdroom (downstairs) for the x-ray machines, so the lobby procedure shouldn't have changed since 11 September.

makin' miles has it exactly right I think--still doesn't make me happy.

"Actually, I'd much rather they screen bags before you enter the secure area. Right now, from my understanding, you cannot lock your checked luggage in the US because they may open your bag up WITHOUT you present if they find something suspicious... At least, if they screen the bag in front of you, you get to put your lock on the bag"

-- Actually you don't get to see them screen your bag and you STILL CANNOT LOCK your bag. As mm says, you just have to stay with your bag until TSA takes it over. At LAX Term 2, they then have guys using the airport luggage carts taking mounds of bags over to airline baggage for loading, I saw several bags fall off in the time I was standing there, some from top height--TALK ABOUT INEFFICIENT AND A SOURCE OF BAG DAMAGE!

This kind of crap makes me want to avoid USA altogether. I travel a lot in third world, Europe and nowhere do I see this kind of inefficiency. I don't mind the screening. I don't even mind personal body searches, I just want it done quickly and competently. Standing in another line just because they have no secure area for your baggage seems a bit bizarre to me. But hey that's me. Glad I'm going to Hong Kong and China next week where all this stuff happens with great efficiency.

BTW, I was at other airports where this inefficiency wasn't evident (obviously had space for the screening machine in a secure area). Just checked in like normal and normal security with secondary screening--one airport took a total of 10 minutes from check-in to gate, including a comprehensive secondary security screening. LAX has just got it all wrong!

Like everything that has to do with TSA and their Canadian equivalents, it seems to be wholly a function of which "bozo" is working that day. I was through MSY a couple of months ago, and simply dropped my bags at the end of a long line of bags, flashed my boarding pass to that to "guard" watching the end of the line, and proceeded on my way.

In ORD, which is fast becoming my favourite airport, the X-ray machines are "behind the scenes" so you simply check-in like you always did, dropping your bags off at check-in. (And apparently they are so confident in the X-rays at ORD, you may now take a different flight than your checked baggage.)

I've had it both ways in LAX, over the past several years. Last year I had to essentially identical connections in less than a week. One time I had to wait in line (there were only perhaps 10 people, so it wasn't too bad) while the next time I was able to just drop off my bags at what would have been a much longer line had there been people standing next to each bag.

Check your bags with the skycap at the curb and avoid the mess (works for AA, DL in MIA and DL in MCO).