Airlines inspecting luggage

[happy mom of 6]

I have been reading about how the airports get into peoples luggage to inspect what is inside. Exactly how do they do this if your luggage is locked? Not that I mind that my luggage is inspected, but I don't want to get to my destination and find that the contents are all wrinkled and for it to look like I have slept in my clothes. Do they break the locks? Do they have some kind of master key? Do they damage the luggage? I sure hope not!! Any answers? Thank you.

 

[Eeyore1954]

One word of advice -- don't lock your luggage. If it is locked and selected for inspection, they will break the lock.

I travel a lot on business and seem to get "tagged" often. I've never noticed my things messed up. There's always a card or note inside and the zipper pulls have a plastic threaded "lock" on them (I've seen orange and one time a blue one).

But the way I pack ( ) my stuff usually arrives looking slept in anyway! So the TSA can only HELP in my case!

 

[DaisyDebbie]

Yes they will pop the lock I specifically told my dh not to lock the suitcase but did he listen? No. My lock was popped, but nothing was messed up.

 

[denisenh]

I am not sure about other airlines but SWA agents will ask, at the time of luggage check in, if your luggage is unlocked and if it isn't they will ask you to unlock it.
We had one bagged searched a couple of weeks ago, on a return trip from MCO. The only evidence was a flier in with our things that said so. It appeared tht they were very careful or they may have taken everything out and refolded it.
heehee...it was the suitcase with a bag of wet swim suits and dirty laundry bag.

 

[DebbieB]

It depends on your airport. At PIT, after you check-in and get your luggage tagged, you have to take it over to the detection area. They will direct you to one of two lines. In one line, you are sent to a manual inspection station where they open your bag in front of you. The other line will go through the scanner and you have the opportunity to lock it after it goes through. At MCO, the scanner is behind the scenes, so you don't have the opportunity to watch them search it and they ask if it is locked. They suggest using twist ties to make sure it stays closed.

 

[sgtdisney]

They can, and will pop the locks or break open your suitcase in any fashion if they have to in order to inspect it. Before our last trip we went out and bought some new soft sided luggage with the zippers and secured them with those little zip ties as opposed to the locks. All of our other luggage was hard sided with the locks on it.. We had no luggage opened when we left O'Hare, but they did open one suitcase on our return trip from Ft.Lauderdale. They resecured it with a tiny little red zip tie and put a pre-printed letter in the suitcase. It really didn't look like anything had been disturbed or moved.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

You eliminate the "choice" of lines by using the curbside Sky Caps.
I have nothing to hide, hate lines and choices , so I tip them, and they take care of the rest. It does not preclude a search, as I learned recently, but, it certainly saves time.

 

[sgtdisney]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
You eliminate the "choice" of lines by using the curbside Sky Caps.
I have nothing to hide, hate lines and choices , so I tip them, and they take care of the rest. It does not preclude a search, as I learned recently, but, it certainly saves time.

I agree with you completely here, Gail.. I would rather let them open my luggage without me there, if I don't have to wait in line to watch them do it. I have nothing to hide and if they want to open it, they can do so. I would rather use the sky-cap, drop off the bags, tip him/her nicely (it is well worth the cost) and walk right to the boarding gate with boarding pass in hand..

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I would rather use the sky-cap, drop off the bags, tip him/her nicely (it is well worth the cost) and walk right to the boarding gate with boarding pass in hand..

I love that too!!! I am not a pack mule on vacation (or any other time for that matter ) Nor do I like to hold others up while I try to find space for my luggage. Personally, I would LOVE it if they would stop with the carryons and allow one personal item (with exceptions for ill health or infants/children) per pax. This would keep things moving much quicker.

 

[Dodie]

Originally posted by happy mom of 6
Exactly how do they do this if your luggage is locked?

New security regulations specifically state that checked luggage should NOT be locked. It's been that way for several months now.

 

[steph]

Wondering if anyone else uses straps on their luggage? I put straps on the soft and hard luggage, 1- to hold it together in case is comes open and 2- to help me identify it as it comes out at luggage pick up.

So what happens if I use straps instead of locks, will they put the straps back on and secure it the way I had it?

Thanks
Steph

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
You eliminate the "choice" of lines by using the curbside Sky Caps.
I have nothing to hide, hate lines and choices , so I tip them, and they take care of the rest. It does not preclude a search, as I learned recently, but, it certainly saves time.

They have suspended curbside check-in at PIT. You have to take your luggage to the inspection area in the main terminal after check-in, which means standing in 2 lines. You can't even just leave it at the inspection area, you have to wait in the line until they inspect it. After it is inspected or scanned, they put it on the belt and you can leave. They hope to have a setup in the underground baggage handling area by later this spring so that they can resume curbside.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

So what happens if I use straps instead of locks, will they put the straps back on and secure it the way I had it?

Yes.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

They have suspended curbside check-in at PIT. You have to take your luggage to the inspection area in the main terminal after check-in, which means standing in 2 lines. You can't even just leave it at the inspection area, you have to wait in the line until they inspect it. After it is inspected or scanned, they put it on the belt and you can leave. They hope to have a setup in the underground baggage handling area by later this spring so that they can resume curbside.

Oh, that is awful. I hope they open the new setup soon. What a pain that must be.

 

[idontknow]

We went on a cruise in Jan and brought back 10 bottles of liquer. I was prepared for some of it and brought a rolling carryon, but could only fit 8 bottles inside of it. We had to pack 2 bottles with bubblewrap in a checked bag. When we got to our home airport, we didn't see any tags on the outside of it. When we got home and started unpacking, there was a note in the bag that had the 2 bottles. Nothing was messed up and we never lock our luggage. (hey, we had traveler's insurance on that trip. Let them hash it out with whoever as long as we get paid back if anything was missing ) Now, on our way from IND to MCO, we were about the only ones that did not have our checked baggage searched. I thought that was really weird. As we stood at the baggage claim in MCO, almost every bag had pink tags on them and people were really ticked! I saw quite a few bags with clothes hanging out the zippers. But, DH forgot to take the carrying handle off of our garment bag and someone took it off and put it in a pocket for us. I thought that was really nice of them considering the way everyone elses luggage arrived. Now, in May when we go, I'm sure I will pay for the ease we had in Jan.

 

[wilderness01]

We flew in February and on our return trip they searched our bags at MCO. They said this is the new policy that all the bags get searched. I was puzzled since they also had the x-ray machines and thought a hand search was just random. Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[kylara]

I just flew to Atlanta earlier this month and they didn't hand search everyone's bags. A couple in the group were searched but not when they were there. We checked in and then needed to leave our luggage at the TSA xray area.

edited to add: I flew out of MCO.

 

[wilderness01]

Thanks. What airline did you fly?

 

[katypop]

dd and i flew down last april and i had put a small lock on both suitcases we checked. when we claimed our luggage at mco one of the cases was missing it's lock. things were a little messy, not much but enough to know it had been searched. i had about 10 rolls of film in this bag, perhaps the pattern it made was suspicious? i also had 10 envelopes containing bills and coin for housekeeping tips in it, maybe the metal caused alarm? in any case nothing was missing, and i didn't bother to lock anything for the trip home.

katypop

 

[Jeanny]

Wow Katypop, you're lucky. I've read you really shouldn't put your film in your checked luggage as the x-rays are stronger than those you check your carry-on through.

You're also lucky your envelopes with money were still there. I would never put ANY money in the checked luggage. I'm just not trusting enough I guess.

Jeanny