anyone got stolen in there luggage?

[colomom]

TSA employees are a joke, most of them are unemployable elsewhere and the security companies are the low bidders after all. You get what you pay for.:rolleyes:

 

The background check done on TSA employees is extensive. It is similar to the background checks run on FBI employees. The training took 3 solid weeks and is ongoing.

 

I don't understand your reference to the "security companies". TSA employees are federal government employees.

[Happy ks]

I agree that it's best that you include ONLY your name and phone number on luggage tags (no home address), and I'd go further by suggesting PLEASE LIST YOUR CELL PHONE #, not your home number. It does no good for someone to call your home when you're away.

 

Last fall, I mistakenly picked up a bag identical to mine at the terminal in Venice (this was a bag I'd purchased on the ship). About an hour later, while checking into a hotel, I discovered that in my haste, I'd picked up somebody else's bag. This bag had a phone number on the tag, but it was the owner's HOME phone number. I called them, but of course, it did no good. To make matters even worse, my friend had completed my luggage tags, and she listed MY home number too, instead of my cell.

 

Eventually, it was all figured out and we each got our bag back before leaving Venice, but it was a gigantic, costly hassle, and I learned my lesson to check tags VERY CAREFULLY before running off with 'my' luggage, and to put my my cell phone # on my own tags.

 

Question: do you put a copy of your itinerary inside your luggage and/or in an outside pocket? I'm torn about this. One one hand, it would help an honest person re-direct your luggage, should it go 'sideways'. OTOH, if a dishonest person came across it, they would know exactly how long you'll be away from home. Even if the itinerary didn't include your home address, it's easy enough to find that out.

 

 

I always include a copy of our itinerary inside the luggage. I have 2 ID tags on the outside of every piece. I usually have a luggage strap on the outside as well, I have some with TSA locks (combination). But it's not unusual for people to have the exact same luggage as you do, so it is imperitive to check the tag and see your name there before leaving the terminal. We always check, there have been times when we thought a piece was ours, or noticed someone starting to walk off with our piece, only to stop them and ask them to check the tag. Many people just grab and go without bothering to check.

 

There are many different types of identifiers you can use. Some people use yarn or ribbon, I've heard of people using small shower scrunchies. Luggage stores and online sites sell handle covers, colorful luggage tags. Some people even mark up their bags with paint or markers (I guess if it is cheap luggage a person won't mind doing this).

[Deckhandoug]

The background check done on TSA employees is extensive. It is similar to the background checks run on FBI employees. The training took 3 solid weeks and is ongoing.

 

I don't understand your reference to the "security companies". TSA employees are federal government employees.

 

I am very familiar with the requirements, qualifications, training and pay scale of TSA workers and I am not impressed.

 

TSA are not the only ones providing security at the Airport.

[trixietx]

Last April we flew from Oklahoma City to Ft. Lauderdale. I have always carried my camera in my purse, but I thought I didn't have room. When we got on the ship and our luggage arrived my camera was missing and the four packages of cigarettes that my husband put in the bag. The battery charger was still in my suitcase, it wasn't in the camera bag.

 

When we got back to OKC I talked with a TSA supervisor and he told me to file a claim and gave me the email address of his supervisor. His supervisor emailed me back and said that I had probably lost my camera or didn't pack it and that most people eventually find what they thought was missing. All I know is that my camera was in my suitcase and the cigarettes were when we left OKC, but they didn't make it to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

I filed the claim with TSA ,attached the receipt for my old camera (not quite 2 years old) and the receipt for the camera I bought to replace it. I got a certified letter last week that said TSA was not responsible and the claim was denied.

 

We travel quite a bit and have had lost bags a few times, that have always been found but there was never anything missing from them.

 

Yes, I learned an expensive lesson!

[fayruz]

It could have been the person who sold the watch who gave you an empty box?

I have had things pinched from my bag on sundeck ( a watch, a bottle of sun lotion, a pareo). Now, if I have to go alone, I go to the pool in my bathing suit and nothing else, and don't care about stupid comments.

Thefts on board of ships are getting very frequent.

This time I am taking my bags on board and taking them again down with me, no risking having some wiseguy pick them up before I leave the ship and get away with it.

[GlendaleCruiser]

They indicted a couple of people here in Phoenix who were taking bags off the carousels and walking out before the owners had a chance to get them. It's easy if yours is the bag that keeps going around and around after everyone has left.

 

They found HUNDREDS of bags at their place and they are attempting to locate owners now.

[Host Kewlguy]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38730685/ns/travel-news/

[Host Kewlguy]

http://www.10news.com/news/10958212/detail.html