I recently travelled to Miami and I know that The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has the right to open my luggage and inspect it - the fact that my luggage is inspected leaving the country and not when arriving escapes me, but who am I to question this!. I also purchased TSA approved locks for my luggage so that the nice people of TSA could open them.
When I picked up my suitcases at my home airport, I noticed that one of them had been opened, as the lock had not been closed correctly and later found a TSA notice of baggage inspection inside.
This, I did not think was right. Admittedly, it possibly does not take much to open a suitcase, but the lock is not only for security but for safety, so that the contents will not scatter all over the luggage belt or worse, lost amid the entrails of an airport.
I, thus, decided to write an email to the nice people of TSA, enclosing a pic of the unlocked lock (not sure whether this is gramatically correct, but I like the sound of it) and pointing out that since I comply with their laws and regulations, the least I would expect in return was for my suitcase to be locked after inspection.
I was, truthfully, just looking for an apology and the usual phrase that "we always endeavour to.....etc, etc". What I received was an email attaching a five page claim form that looks too long and too complicated to read, let alone complete, print and send, especially since I had no intention of making a claim because, as I had mentioned to the nice people of TSA, luckily nothing was missing from my suitcase.
If only the nice people of TSA had read my email!!