For the post about how could it be opened despite it having a non-TSA lock - google opening a zipped suitcase - it is not a happy tale - locked zips do not stop anyone who means business
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There's one in every crowd (or blog) - the exception that proves the rules.
For TSA padlocks, TSA locking & combination locking luggage straps, and getting searched - I may be the one this time.
As my el-cheapo HP laptop (US November 2017 crazy internet sales day) is longer and wider than the zip for my carry on bag - I decided to repack it in the box it came in and pack it in one of my checked in bags.
Due to a number of subsequent trips back and forth to the US (including said laptop) - the checked-in bag containing it has been opened every time in HNL by Homeland Security.
On the 2nd trip post purchase I realised it must be the laptop as it had been taken out of its box and repacked the wrong way (so did not fit into polystyrene baffles correctly).
So this time I waited after taking the bags from the carousel in HNL and putting them with HS at counter zero. After nearly 30 minutes my two bags finally got put through the one scanning machine AND...
The LT bag got pulled aside for a look.
Glad I'd waited as the HS man picked up a large pair of scissors and went to cut the strap off. So I called out to him loudly; "It has a TSA lock on the strap".
He looked up to see who was interupting him and then turned his back, so I added; "And the padlock on the zips is also TSA#7."
Just for good measure.
Sure enough out came the laptop box, packed so it only has a towel over it when the bag gets opened in half. Also out came about another 10 or 12 items that did not need to be touched (and were not looked at in the slightest). The box was opened, laptop tipped out relatively carefully, baffles pulled off, laptop opened, closed, opened, closed, turned over and over a few times and then repacked (correctly).
The other items pulled out (basicly padding around the 4 sides of the box) were rammed on only on 3 of the 4 sides but no damage resulted.
Strap put back on but not through the handle bay as before & locked as was the padlock through the 2 zips.
So, I thought my lost 35 minutes was relatively well spent. Then instead of placing the bag back on the adjacent rollers - he threw it. No damage was done but that was the only bag thrown while I had been waiting and for the next ten or so minutes I lingered watching.
The subsequent 4 trips have seen it opened both directions once more but the strap has not been cut. I do wait at HNL every time now and have had to call out 2 of the 4 times. The guys in Kona are far more personable/nice and has only been opened once although I wait for the 30-45 seconds it takes them to scan it.