Flew I paid J on 2 tickets:

SINBKK on SQ
BKKISTKGL on TK

All transits were under 3 hours.

My TSA locked bag was opened, tossed through, items stolen and then relocked.

Figure it was likely IST.

This is a good reason to pack dirty underwear on top.

Sorry this happened to you. Pretty damned frustrating.

Was primarily dirty clothes on top. Tossed right to bottom even pulling dirty socks out of my shoes.

Ultimately this is even increases the requirement to carry on when transiting dicey airports. Just sucked that my 1st leg, on SQ has such crazy carry on weight restrictions that they enforce.

Clearly they were looking for small valuable items (electronics I assume) as they only stole cell phone accessories (some cases for the girlfriend, chargers) and not my LV man bag, a medium sized purse still in original packing, LV belts, new Paul Smith socks.

Reminds me of the time I was bringing back a bottle of vodka from Poland. Airport employees drank half of it (out of a locked bag) and refilled.

How did I find out? Employee's refilled it with water. It broke in freezer.

Re vodka replaced with water
At least you were not pouring vodka to house guests and having your guests give you funny looks.

Dirty clothes do nothing to disguise electronic items and jewelry if the airport employees (TSA, security) are using xrays.

Dirty clothes, especially in a 'classy' bag do nothing to deter a thief with unsupervised time on his hands. The locks can be easily and quickly picked and practiced thieves are on to the 'dirty clothes' trick.

I am surprised that the lock was relocked. If the zippers are nylon, I think it's possible that the thieves opened and resealed them. You can avoid that by making sure the lock is secured to another part of the bag that prevents it from sliding around freely.

At the end of the day, there's really no effective way to guarantee your bag and its contents will arrive unmolested. (I recall somewhere, NYC, I think, where they found piles of opened and pilfered bags in a vacant lot near the airport).

Very sorry this happened to you.

I'm sorry this happened to you.

If I'm worried about the contents I use coloured cable ties and always have an anchor point on the outside of the bag to protect the zippers.

Carry the spare cable ties in carry on to prevent re-sealing in case of theft. When you collect the bag you can instantly spot any tampering - not that I've ever seen any.

The worst attempted theft from mine was a slash of the bag through an (open, empty) outside pocket. Thief opened the pocket and cut through the lining behind the pocket flap, covering the theft with the closed pocket. Didn't spot this until I started to unpack at home. Nothing in the bag except dirty, scruffy clothes and a laptop cable. Nothing stolen!

1. Do not check bags.

2. See 1.

TSA locks are worse than useless. They are easy to open and give a false sense of security.

Agree. 9/10 trips, no check. It's the few times I check to bring liquor back where I have a problem

I agree completely. The problem is that some non-US airlines have ridiculously low carry-on weight limits.

Some folks have laughed at me for flying UA so much when other, far better airlines serve the same route. On UA, I can cram as much weight as I can fit into my legal-sized carry-on and never have to check anything for multi-week photo trips. Try that with a 7 Kg weight limit.

Definitely IST. No explanation needed.

'Locked bag' is a joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXDdL1hqTVU

You need a clamshell suitcase if you want to avoid that problem.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../Samsonite.jpg

But then of course if TSA wants to do a search, they have to break the locks. LOL

A view years back they arrest a fairly large number of people in italy who stole from luggage sometimes while it was still in the plane. The videos are on youtube, shocking to see the brutality with which they opened the luggage.