I found a locking steel box at an office supply (Office Max, It think) that was just big enough to carry the XD40 sc, 20 rounds of ammo in the original box, and two full 9 round magazines in nylon cases with velcro closures. The XD is not loaded, of course.
We followed our usual pre-flight schedule for flying out of ABIA via SW Air...arriving in the terminal 1 hour before take-off. We got in line at the SW counter, and fortunately had the full-service agent become available when we got to the head of the line. I believe it would have been difficult to deal with the gun at the "self-service" kiosks that we've used in the past. (After the experience at the counter at DIA (see below), I think in the future I will go to the full-service counter and wait, even if that counter is busy, when we reach the head of the line.)
I told the agent that I needed to declare an unloaded firearm locked in a case in my checked bag. She calmly handed me the firearm declaration card to fill out, and when I completed it, asked me to open the suitcase and put the card into the box with the gun and lock it. No fuss, no bother. Before leaving I had practiced removing the gun from the locked case in the suitcase and demonstrating it is unloaded until I was comfortable with the procedure. But she never asked me to show the gun was not loaded. Nor did the agent at DIA. That was a surprise.
Then I was directed to take my bag to the TSA inspection area which is located along the wall to the left of the SW counters. The TSA screener asked me if I wanted to lock the bag, which I had not done yet thinking he might ask to examine the gun. After I locked it, he performed the explosive residue test on the bag, and that was it. We were done, and he took the bag to the baggage area to be put on the plane.
The extra time due to declaring the gun was at most 7-8 minutes. Of course, if the TSA screener had a line, it would have been a lot longer.
The return was almost as trouble free. When we got to the check in area for SW at DIA, there were maybe 50 people lined up for the kiosks, but it appeared that the full-service counter had no line. I did not notice that the full-service were taking passengers from the same line as for the kiosks, so I went directly there, waited until one of the agents was free, and asked if I needed to wait in the kiosk line to see them or could I get served without waiting in that line. She asked what I needed, and I told her I had the unloaded firearm to declare. Lo and behold, I was told to wait where I was until she served the next person in line. That saved a lot of time, but I think it would be more fair to the other passengers if I waited in the line and then went to the full-service when getting to the front. (I need to call SW and find out what they really want me to do in the future.) I had saved the declaration card from the flight to Denver, and both agents at the counter said I could reuse it. Again, no request to demonstrate the gun was not loaded.
At this point, the procedure in DIA differed in that the agent called for "CTX", which turned out to be a baggage handler to escort my bag and I to the "CTX" machine. Waiting for the handler took about 5 minutes, and "CTX" turned out to be a special very large bag scanning machine in a room off a hallway near check-in. The TSA screener logged the bag, ran it through the machine, asked me if the gun case was locked, then put a special TSA seal on the baggage tag. That was another 7-8 minutes, and finally we were done and on our way to security and then the gate.
I actually did not notice the TSA seal until I started unpacking at home. It is about the size of a quarter, folded over the side of the tag on the bag so you only saw half of it if you looked at the tag without handling it. To me, that smacks of the infamous "gun in this bag" label that used to be put on bags some years ago. Has anyone seen this at other airports, and what do you think of it?
In all, taking the gun was a lot less hassle than I had expected, and I carried IWB the whole week
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