Thursday, August 19, 2010

Illegal alien, continued

Something I had not noticed while I noted down my first bit of fun with entering the US: 

So, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has teamed up with the manufacturers of expensive luggage to offer TSA locks - locks that will keep your suitcase shut to spontaneous access from those who have no business going through your things, yet accessible to the good people who protect the US borders from people with changing fingerprints or suspicious luggage. They have a key, and so they will not have to break the lock (or, if the lock is part of the suitcase, the whole suitcase) in order to check your belongings for anything they would not like to see in the United States of America.

Sounded good! So I paid a substantial amount of extra money to Rimowa to get a fancy suitcase that TSA could open.

Right.

Only that I was informed by a remarkably rude Delta employee that the US of A's border control is under no legislation whatsoever, and nobody can make them use those locks if they are not in the mood, and noone will give you back your money if they decide that they're up for a little destruction.

The result: My expensive luxury suitcase's TSA lock was ignored. They just broke the lock, and, for good measure, the suitcase zipper as well, for their routine check. 
"You were taking too long, Miss."
That's right: I was taking too long because your coworker had problems operating the fingerprint scanner. Interestingly, when I asked a TSA official later in Detroit if he could check whether there was a problem with my lock so that the key didn't work, the lock opened without any problem. However, he refused to write me a note with a TSA stamp saying that my lock worked perfectly fine - "I'm absolutely not going to get involved in anything like this." Great. Thanks.

I'm really, really annoyed with this.

World: Do not shell out money for TSA locks. They are absolutely useless.
Also, don't fly Delta through JFK. They seem to recruit their personnel in hell. 

1 comment:

Maroussia said...

I've also heard from several people, that Delta employee are stealing from people's bags. There's a thread somewhere, that Russian guys were coming home with 3 nexus ones phones, but were left only with 1, plus other examples. Scarily enough, we're flying with them in November. Can't wait:/