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texas1234 wrote:I dont lock the main suitcase for two reasons one TSA will just break it or call me if they want to get into it, and the other is if somebody steals the main suitcase they are either going to break the lock or they are going to take a $10 pocket knife and cut the suitcase open in less than a minute. Either way I dont see the point in locking the main suitcase.

Being a TSA screener was very educating in that regard. Almost all zipper suitcases can be opened with just a ball point pen, but that ruins the pen, so most of us carried a little stylus to do the same job. Most of them close back up just as easily.

The locks provided by the luggage manufacturers are less than useless, the combination locks can be figured out by moving the tumblers side to side to see the notches, the key locks can be picked with said ballpoint pen. The little combination luggage lock you pick up in Brookstone or the hardware store, the one with the little wheels side by side, can be figured out as easily as the ones on the luggage, with the same technique, and many of the cheaper four tumbler padlocks can be picked with ease.

Working at TSA was an education.

texas1234 wrote:I would avoid walking up to the ticket agent and screaming "I have a gun!" that would be ill advised.

While I worked at TSA, I flew to San Antonio to take a test, and of course I took my gun with me. When I walked up to the ticket counter to check in, at the airport I worked at, I announced loud enough for all to hear - "Guess what I have in my bag?"

And my TSA co-workers shrink wrapped my bag about an inch thick. Of course anticipating such antics, I had my knife in the outside pocket and easily accessible, so the bag was unwrapped more quickly that it was wrapped.

You lock (or zip tie) the main suitcase so stuff doesn't fall out, since latches and zippers do fail. Unless you want to trust the airline baggage handlers to gather everything up for you and put it in a sack. It is very entertaining to see people's shoes, underwear, dop kits, etc, strewn along the conveyer belt. It is less entertaining when you realize it is your stuff.