Lockstep

I used the special Transportation Security Administration locks on my luggage for flights from Seattle to Dulles to Vilnius, Lithuania, and then home from St. Petersburg, Russia, through Dulles to Seattle in June ’04. The locks were not cut, but the red symbol came off. The store would not exchange them.

I used them again in June ’04, three weeks later, to travel from Seattle to John Wayne Airport in California and again they were not cut.

On both trips, at check-in I was told I would have to remove the locks. I pointed out that they were TSA locks. “Oh, yes,” they said, and then it was no problem.

Also, recently, I had a non-TSA lock cut even though it was not fastened to two tabs and thus not locking the suitcase. Dumb!

PRISCILLA LONG
Mercer Island, WA