How secure are the TSA locks?
 

Does anyone know how secure the TSA approved locks are? Every one I've looked at (not many to look at here in Australia) looks laughable with 3 digit combinations or those non-secure flat aluminium keys like those found on really cheap (and useless) travel locks that open easily with a screwdriver.

I always lock my bags not to prevent theft, but to prevent inadverdently becoming a courier for drugs or anything else.

A cable tie being missing proves nothing.

I guess on my next RTW I'll use a mix of my high security old padlocks and cable ties where I don't have a choice.

Given recent events in Japan I'm not happy that I'm flying from Tokyo to a country that has an automatic death penalty for possession of any quantity of illicit drugs! (But I can't see it happening again....)

Audrey

they are about as secure as a common twist tie!

Why would a lock make your luggage secure from being a drug mule? If somebody wanted to, they would just cut any lock off, stuff it with drugs, and pick it up on the other end.

Granted, the more secure you make it the more likley they are to move onto another bag, but if they wanted to use your bag, they would.

About as secure as any other suitcase locks, i.e. not very.

Some do have indicators that show when a TSA key has been used to open them, so they may be useful to alert you to the fact that your bag has been opened.

If the lock is missing when you pick up your bag, you would be alerted right then and there to inspect the contents of your bag before going to customs. (Though if the lock is something with a commonly available key that allows opening and relocking without indication of being opened, you might still not be able to notice whether your bag has been opened.)

So what if you are alerted right when you see the bag? Are you going to pitch the drugs in the garbage can? Explain to the customs agent that they really are not your drugs? How is s/he to know you did not just panic and get cold feet?

I use colored cable ties on the rare occasions I check a bag. Cheap, simple and will encourage the average thief to grab the next bag.

On life's list of risks, becoming an unknowing drug mule is pretty low on the list of things for me to worry about.

When every other bag I have (including my cabin bag and my husband's bags) is bristling with locks one being missing is evidence of something - if a lock was missing I would alert customs/security and request a search.

Audrey

I've yet to see a travel lock that would take me more than 30 seconds to get in. And even then, with being able to go through the zipper using a pen trick would negate most of it, even if there was a decent one. I was in Argentina recently, and someone had a 3 digit combination padlock that they didn't know the code to. While we were going a mile in a taxi, I opened it by feel, without even looking at it. This was a Master one, and an easy style, for sure.

I don't have any locks on my bags. Locks are the sign of a sick society. :D

I also can open about any TSA lock with no problem at all. I also can open any of the little locks that people put on their carry on bags.

I am handy. I was able to help a FA get a passenger out of the toilet when the passenger didn't know how to open the lock from the inside.

I just lost my TSA lock from my luggage. I bought a new TSA padlock of the same model and apparently they have the same number on the keys.

And what?

I can use both key to open the padlock!! :confused: So this means if I know the number, I can simply use the same key to open

Ancient thread aside, the number *might* refer to the TSA Key number. Does it say TSA #1, or similar?

Since I posted in 2008, I have helped people out by opening many TSA locks when folks arrive at meetings and their keys are at home!

The TSA locks are an illusion of security.

I use zip ties for my own bags.

"How secure are the TSA locks? "
That's an oxymoron!

They are complete jokes.

Having said that, if you google around, you can find some web pages where people have made their own TSA keys by opening TSA locks and seeing what's inside. It looks like there is some variation in how terrible they are. For example TSA 004 seems like a complete total astonishingly ludicrous joke, whereas TSA 007 looks like merely an easily pickable lock.

But basically, anyone with pretty modest lockpicking skills will get into any of them.

If the post mentioned refers to lock, I can't find it. Could you please provide a link.

Thanks