I only check my (clothes) bags when I'm checking my (gun) bags. But I've gotten the notes several times - but always in the clothes bags and never the gun bags.

This seems Very Strange to me.

Once they must have been very curious about my ammo because when I got hom there were several hundred rounds of 22 and 380 ammo rolling around inside my bag because they didn't latch the holder correctly.

Oh no! That is terrible. (I guess it's "nice" of them to poison-test the
bars for you j/k)

Interestingly, we didn't use a lock, but used twist-ties to secure the zippers,
and those were twisted back together carefully. We haven't invested in
those TSA-approved locks, because I'm not sure it's worth it...why have a
lock if it's just a lock that can be opened?

--LG

My understanding is that besides the manufacturers, TSA is the only one to have master keys for the locks. While they can get in to the lock, it should keep the ramp workers out. They'd still be beneficial outside the US.

Super

Add Velveeta and Peanut Butter to the food products that require a bag to be hand searched.

Do you know if this is just since the "liquid/gel" thing, or always? We
definitely have flown with PB in our checked luggage in the past, but I
don't remember getting the note.

--LG

In my experience brownies, fudge, and lead crystal will trigger inspections, too.

Deleted

I think I want to travel with all of you who bring fancy chocolate, brownies,
and fudge along.

--LG

We used TSA locks on a trip from Europe to the US this year and the TSA lock was cut off! The TSA said that they are not always recognised!

I've had deodorant and coins set off alarms. Never pack either at the top or bottom of your cases.

I guess most of you don't fly out of DFW and don't use curb side check in.

Before DFW got the in line system all curb side bags were done by hand. Now only terminal A since the didn't have funding for the inline system there.

[QUOTE=Bart]The intent all along was to have in-line baggage systems that minimized the number of bags and number of times that they would have to be handled by either TSA officers or airline employees. Unfortunately, this means having to reconfigure the conveyor systems to accomodate the CTX and ETD machines. Some folks just can't adjust to changes in the matrix.
[QUOTE]

Just allow paging once all major airports get this system and I'm all for it. I think the feds are slowly giving funds to TSA and airports to build these systems. My father works for a conveyor company that builds these systems for the airports. Small airports like DSM and SYR could be put at the bottom of the list and stand-alone CTX machines from major airports with inline systems can be sent there.

No offense, but I want TSA down-sized. They should be used for essential tasks like reading x-ray screens and ETD testing. (I'll avoid the privatization controversy here.) Using TSA for loading and unloading baggage is like using a police officer as a toll-booth collector. I still think TSA staffing is not properly planned at airports. Sometimes there are 3 screeners at a CTX machine with low pax volume and sometimes there's 1 screener at a CTX machine with 10-20 bags!!! (He ended up doing a mass ETD swab on all of them and then threw them on the baggage conveyor.)

Sorry, but no. It's not that difficult to get a master lock ... think eBay and other more nefarious schemes ...

Hm, so what do you do personally? I guess if you don't have anything that is
both valuable and liquid/gel, you could split the carry-on/checked that way and
just not lock it.... That's what we've done.

Of course, in a sense, everything in my luggage is "valuable" to me! Maybe
the TSA-locks are less likely (even if possible) to be tampered with?

It does bother me that the TSA locks are so brightly-colored and obvious
to bystanders. I mean, if a thief had to investigate locks closely before
knowing if his/her skeleton key would work, then it would be another
deterrent. Surely the TSA folks get up close enough that they don't need
the special color indicators....

--LG

It's happened to me as well somewhere between HNL and BWI. I even told the TSA agent that they were TSA locks.

With the symbols on the locks and saying TSA on them, it shouldn't be too hard to recognize. I personally think TSA agents are lazy and just cut them instead of finding keys.

Ok, the theory went ...