About those TSA locks on your airport-ready camera bag...

I saw this in a recent post in the Bag Reviews forum:

Just a heads up for anyone out there who travels by air and checks a camera bag which has "TSA-approved" locks. These articles hit the news recently:

Leaked Photo Leads To 3-D Printed Copies of TSA's Master Keys For Approved Luggage Locks

Make your own TSA universal luggage keys

People really should keep in mind that locks don't do a huge deal anyway. Most locks on front doors of North American homes can usually be bumped in a matter of seconds, and the majority of padlocks are fairly easy to get through.

Anyone that wanted to open a luggage can with a knife. And plastic cases can be opened by a hammer breaking the lock section.

The other issue is that if TSA wants to look in your luggage, the key may be lost that day or some other employee has it etc. so they cut the lock anyway. My son works at an airport and cut TSA approved locks are quite common.

While luggage is easily opened by cutting or breaking it, doing so is far more obvious. Being able to open and then re-close something without leaving any outward sign of the fact makes detection of it far harder, and therefore easier to get away with.

If half the bags going onto an airplane are visibly damaged, then red flags are going to be raised about it. But if no one notices that anything was wrong with their luggage till they get it home, well then only the people who have anything missing are actually going to report it, if they notice at all (Some may assume they simply forgot something and lost it on the trip, or not think about the fact that it is missing till well after the trip is over). Limited reporting then makes it harder to be sure where the theft actually happened.

Oh, if only they would have cut the TSA lock off. In my case, they clipped off one of the zipper pulls locked together with the TSA lock, leaving the lock untouched, but ruining the suitcase!

Locks do nothing.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=wpIJVWXsBBI

The point of luggage locks is to prevent casual pickpocketing and accidental unzipping/opening: people unzipping pockets and taking out tablets or other electronics while you're distracted in the terminal, or people opening your luggage having taken it off the carousel thinking it's theirs. Many of them can be opened without tools or force. The 3-digit combination lock on my mom's suitcase is so poorly made it can be opened by pulling on the shackle and turning the combination dials left to right and feeling for them clicking into place.

Public availability of the TSA keys is not a big deal, they only have the skeleton key so that the TSA can quickly remove the locks and replace them without breaking them. They will break off locks that are not the TSA type, and not replace them.

Never locked it, never worried about it.

Do you guys carry luggage tags on your carry-ons, though? I've wondered about that - I have a bag that never leaves my side when I travel, specifically bought it so I wouldn't have to gate-check anything - but I've wondered if a set of tags on it with my name and email would be a good idea anyway.

I couldn't hurt but in addition I also have something inside the bag with my name and contact info. That way the scumbag that stole it will know who they took it from.

I have friends who lost gear, good or cheap, in checked luggage. I can't get on the plane without seeing my camera gear with me. I've gone to events where I took my kids so they had the rest of my gear in their carry ons. Locks do nothing. Sad, but it's the way things are. And now with the lithium battery controversy . . . .