[QUOTE=Antigen]
Ok. So you’re teling me that you’ve got hair gel, a water bottle, and a very expensive camera (which belongs to your employer) in a knapsack. Knowing that you can’t have hair gel and water in a carry-on bag, you opt to check the whole bag instead of tossing your hair gel and water bottle?
Yeah, you made a bad call.
.
[/QUOTE]
And, then you were foolish enough to write that letter, and start this OP. Dude- it ain’t your week. It’s gonna get worse when you talk to your boss, too. Is your resume up to date?
[QUOTE=dropzone]
I am a former baggage handler and apologize for the sticky fingers of my union brothers. However, I agree it’s like the CD case on the front seat or the $20 in the back pocket in that there are some people who cannot help themselves; if they see a pretty bauble they have to take it. It’s not fair for one of us to leave a stolen camera right there, tempting them, because we were too cheap to pitch a half a bottle of water and some hair goop.
Good God, you acted massively and publicly stupid, yet you want us and Delta to sympathize with you? You’ve been here six years; what gave you the idea that would happen?
[/QUOTE]
This is a load of crap. The stuff is not out in plain sight, it’s packed away in checked luggage. An asshole baggage handler has to open the bag and root through, which they do routinely. It’s a nice little side line, and if you worked there you knew about it. It happens every fucking hour of every fucking day, the airlines know it, and they don’t do shit to stop it. Fuck them. The traveller may be naive to put anything of value in the checked luggage, but he/she doesn’t deserve to be blamed for doing so – the airlines and the TSA encourage it, and even require it on some flights (if you were flying to or from the UK in the last few weeks, you’d know you would not have been allowed to bring your camera on the plane – everything had to be checked).
I haven’t flown in awhile, so maybe some more stupid rules were put in place, but I remember being able to lock my luggage. Does security rifle through checked luggage with no cause after it leaves your hands?
The airlines have to power to provide security of checked baggage, and the passengers do not. So putting the onus on the passengers is just crazy. What should happen is that the airlines should guarantee that you will get your bags back as checked, or get compensation. The compensation might be a fixed amount per bag, but the passenger should be able to declare high value contents, and get them insured for their full value for a small cost – say $1 per $500 of the extra value. Why they can’t do this, I don’t understand.
Oh, and to Moe, here’s what I suggest when you talk to your boss “I fucked up. I wasn’t thinking and left the issue camera in my bag, TSA forced me to check that bag when I flew, and it disappeared. I have made calls and claims, but it doesn’t look good. I’m sorry, it’s my fault. What do you suggest?” I know that “I wasn’t thinking and left…” is somewhat of a lie (well, the “I wasn’t thinking…” is 100% right, so it’s not entirely a lie ), but the “**I ** fucked up” is the critical part. Don’t try and put the blame on Delta- let your Boss think of that on his own, if he’s going to. When you screw up this big time, it puts off the anger if you admit it straight out.
Why shouldn’t the taxpayers pay for another $500 camera the airline couldn’t be troubled to safeguard? We paid millions to the widows of 9/11 to protect the airline that fucked up that one, too.
[QUOTE=myskepticsight]
I haven’t flown in awhile, so maybe some more stupid rules were put in place, but I remember being able to lock my luggage. Does security rifle through checked luggage with no cause after it leaves your hands?
[/QUOTE]
You are no longer allowed to lock your baggage.
I don’t know if security rifles through it, but I always assume they do.
[QUOTE=myskepticsight]
I haven’t flown in awhile, so maybe some more stupid rules were put in place, but I remember being able to lock my luggage. Does security rifle through checked luggage with no cause after it leaves your hands?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, sometimes. They’ll usually leave a note in your bag to let you know that they’ve done so. For this reason, you can’t have locks on your luggage anymore; they’ll just break them off. The exception is that you can use TSA-approved locks that gotpasswords mentioned - they come with a keyed lock in addition to the combination lock, and a TSA agent can open it with their key.
[ul]
[li]**Borrowed ** an expensive camera that didn’t belong to you,[/li][li]without permission from the owner,[/li][li]who happens to be the taxpayers,[/li][li]and you let it out of your sight?[/li][/ul]
Why the hell aren’t you writing a complaint letter to yourself?
[/QUOTE]
If, as several have said, the airlines should be automatically responsible for any valuables in passengers’ checked luggage, how long would it take before every other person claims to have had something expensive in there that disappeared?
[QUOTE=MLS]
If, as several have said, the airlines should be automatically responsible for any valuables in passengers’ checked luggage, how long would it take before every other person claims to have had something expensive in there that disappeared?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=MLS]
If, as several have said, the airlines should be automatically responsible for any valuables in passengers’ checked luggage, how long would it take before every other person claims to have had something expensive in there that disappeared?
[/QUOTE]
Firstly, the passenger would need to notify the airline of valuable contents before checking the bag in.
Secondly, the airlines and the TSA need to work out a system under which bags can be secured from pilfering while at the same time the TSA can check the contents.
[QUOTE=saoirse]
Err… yes, actually. Every experienced traveler in this thread has said that checking a valuable item is like leaving it in a car in a bad neighborhood, or walking down a street with it in a bad neighborhood.
[/QUOTE]
Don’t let hyperbole make you any more stupid than necessary. The danger you face while walking through a ‘bad neighborhood’ is one of forcibly robbery of items on your own person. Until Delta or TSA employees begin mugging people, it is a silly comparison. That should be obvious whether you have flown 250 miles, or like me, 1,000,000 miles.
[QUOTE=gotpasswords]
If you have the lock that anybody at TSA can open, what’s the point?
[/QUOTE]
The better ones include an idicator mechanism that they have been opened by a TSA key. At least you will know for certain when your luggage has been opened.
[QUOTE=shelbo]
This is a load of crap. The stuff is not out in plain sight, it’s packed away in checked luggage. An asshole baggage handler has to open the bag and root through…
[/quote]
You had me this far, though with soft luggage a fancy camera could be identified while picking up. There are probably some who give every knapsack they pick up a quick grope. Then again, it might’ve opened completely by accident, revealing the camera. Or they tossed the bag, figuring its owner used his head and didn’t leave anything fragile in the bag, heard a crunch, and kicked the broken camera under the converyor rather than get yelled at for breaking it. We don’t know. However,
is not true. There may be some people who do it occasionally but the handlers are usually too busy to get nosy. In three years I saw only one package rifled through and stolen from; it was a cardboard box containing bricks of marijuana that had accidentally broken open at a previous stop where the staff took what they wanted, taped the box closed, and labled it for the guys in Chicago to finish the job.
[QUOTE=shelbo]
This is a load of crap. The stuff is not out in plain sight, it’s packed away in checked luggage. An asshole baggage handler has to open the bag and root through, which they do routinely. It’s a nice little side line, and if you worked there you knew about it. It happens every fucking hour of every fucking day, the airlines know it, and they don’t do shit to stop it. Fuck them. .
[/QUOTE]
Wrong. OK, it was a loooong time ago, but I worked my way through College being a security guard, and one of my worst jobs was the beat through baggage handling at LAX, keeping an eye out for handlers stealing stuff. There were several of us, thus the airlines did do *something * about it.
Now- at most places- there are Cameras- especially where the TSA opens stuff.
), but the “**I ** fucked up” is the critical part. Don’t try and put the blame on Delta- let your Boss think of that on his own, if he’s going to. When you screw up this big time, it puts off the anger if you admit it straight out.
:mad: