Lock or not to lock?
 

Not sure if this is the right place but will give it a go in here - if not please move to best place in the forum. Thank you.

Do you lock up your suitcases when traveling? I am not much of an air traveler. This will be my second flight at the end of this month. I noticed there are locks that come with my suitcase and they are tiny wee ones. Not sure if I should bother locking up.

Please any advice would be appreciated.

Do you lock up yours?

If you do lock, make sure it's a TSA style lock so they can unlock it if they need to. If it's not a TSA style lock, they will just cut it off.

I lock but it's not really to keep people out, most luggage locks can easily be gotten around, but to keep zippers and handles closed.

For the following reasons I never lock mine:

1. A locked suitcase indicates that there may be something worth stealing inside the bag.

2. A lock, no matter how strong, is pointless on a zippered bag. Most zippered bags can be opened with a ballpoint pen and closed with no damage to the lock, bag, or zipper.

3. At times, a bag may have to be opened, without the owner present, for a security inspection or a customs examination. In those cases there is a good chance the lock will be cut off.

I simply avoid putting anything of value in my checked luggage.

I have not checked my luggage in a while, but I will lock my roller-board when I have to gate check it for flying on a CR7. I bought two TSA approved locks from REI for five dollars.... As some had mentioned, there are other ways to open bags without taking off the lock.. For the years that I did check my luggage, I never had trouble with the locks being cut off, or items disappearing..

Do not lock but make sure it is secure - for instance for a hard suitcase get a strap that can go around it so that if the clasps get flipped it does not open.

When I check a bag, it doesn't have anything in it but clothes and/or toiletries. That being said, I always lock it with a TSA lock, if for nothing else than to keep my knickers from ending up on the tarmac. I've retrieved my bag (before I started locking it) with clothes hanging out where the zipper was opened, and seen clothing strewn onto the baggage claim belt from others' bags.

I've also used cable ties for closing the zippers, not necessarily locks. Be sure to pack extra cable ties (for the return) and put nail clippers in carry on if you go this route.

I never lock it. If the TSA or Luggage Thieves really want your stuff, they will get it.

The TSA lock doesn't guarantee anything. I locked up my snowboard with a TSA approved lock with the little logo clearly marked, it arrived after a domestic SEA-SFO flight with the lock missing. I assume they couldn't find the keys so just cut it off.

FWIW
If you have clothes, and no valuables, in the checked bag, use a TSA lock if you want to.

If you have valuable items and absolutely have to check them, use a Pelican case and some American hardened steel locks. Wait at the drop-off area until your bag clears through the EDS, and you are good to go. If your bag alarms, open the bag for TSA so they may inspect it. Then have them relock it once they are finished. It's not a guarantee against theft but whomever endeavors to steal your valuables will have their work cut for them. Baggage handlers make far less than TSOs so I would be more worried about them taking items.

I do lock or cable-tie my bags. No method is 100% effective; a determined thief can get into any bag. The point is to raise the difficulty enough to encourage casual or hurried ones to move on to another victim.

High-end luggage luggage screams that other expensive things may be inside, but plain black cheap bags are not necessarily immune.

Knowing your formerly-secured bag has been invaded as soon as it comes off the carousel allows immediate examination. Reporting theft/damage is best done before you leave the airport. It may allow opportunity to obtain replacements in a large city, before onward travel to remote areas. (In London I could replace missing insect repellent and hiking socks; in Arusha not so much.) If you wear difficult-to-find sizes, carry specialized clothing/shoes, etc., knowing immediately what's missing can greatly impact the rest of a trip.

Before TSA I never had a single theft from luggage anywhere in the world, but since they began searching bags without oversight I experience a loss every half-dozen or so flights. Boring bags, nothing checked that shouldn't be, but no recourse. TSA has even cut off locks that did not prevent access, so if I want to be able to lock my luggage en route in iffy hotels, on trains etc., I keep an extra in my carry-on.

Friend of mine had TSA open the TSA lock and leave the bag unlocked. No evidence that they ever opened the bag, just that the lock was opened (apparently deliberately). From what she told me, they told her to leave it unlocked, she pointed out that it was a TSA lock, they said OK, and she found the bag unlocked at the other end.

She says she doesn't usually check bags - only reason she did was that she was given a nice bottle of wine and the *()*& LGA rule prohibit her from bringing it on board.

By the way, this was yesterday at DAY.

The only time you need to leave luggage unlocked or use *magic* locks is for flights to or within the US.

For the rest of the world lock them if only to ensure that your bag doesn't pop open mid flight.