Luggage locks have never been for security. Never.
Samsonite has two keys, A and B. Those two keys will open almost all Samsonite suitcases ever made. There are very few luggage locks that can't be picked with a paperclip in two seconds or less.
Combination locks? Get serious. They'll yield to a common screwdriver.
And those cute little paddlelocks? Get outta here! A small wire cutter will cut them open.
So, why do luggage manufacturers put locks on suitcases? Simple: to prevent the suitcase from coming open accidentally in transit especially if the latch or zipper should catch on something. That's all the lock on your suitcase is supposed to do. It holds the latch down so that if the latch catches on something, it won't pull up allowing your suitcase to come open and spill its contents.
And it's a good thing too. Every day in America, people arrive back at their cars and find that they've locked the keys inside. And every day people wait an hour in the pouring rain for a locksmith to come and spend fifteen minutes opening the car and then charge them $100 for it. And Every day tired travelers arrive in hotels across the country and discover that they've lost their luggage keys. And every day hotels send up Porters who, in less time than the guest needs to express his embarasment for loosing his keys, unlock the suitcase and claim a five dollar tip.
You are not prohibited from taking your knives in your checked bags. Unfortunately, airport security isn't prohibited from breaking your bag lock and rummaging for valuables.
They never have been. If it's going on that plane along with two hundred civilian passengers, it is and always has been subject to search. Airports have, for years, used x-ray equipment, sniffing dogs, and even more sophisticated equipment to screen a small fraction of checked baggage. Anthing suspecious has to be opened.
In the past, this has been done mostly on international flights and mostly at just a few major airports.
Congress has now mandated 100% screening of all checked baggage out of all but the smallest airports. So, the opening of domestic checked baggage is going to become infinitely more common.
Of course, with this comes the problem of employee theft.
Airlines are now bar-coding checked luggage. They need to do this since the same security rules require them to match bags to passengers. And, if a passenger doesn't board, they must remove that passenger's bags from the plane. Airlines now track exactly which passengers are on the plane, exactly who's bags are on the plane, and approximately -- within a few feet -- where those bags are in the hold. So, if, as they're about to push off, the computer realizes that Mr. Bin Laden's suitcases are aboard, but Mr. Bin Laden himself never boarded, they can quickly go into the hold and locate those bags without much delay.
My guess is that they will very quickly bring that same system to bear on the theft problem. They will track exactly which employees handle a given bag, cetainly who opens it and searches it.
I just got back from a Christmas trip myself and on my ticket it says, "Baggage liability is limited to $2500 per passenger... Carrier is not responsible for money, jewlery, cameras, video and electronics equipment including computers, silverware, precious gems and metals, negotiable papers, securities, business documents, samples, commercial merchandise, works of art, antiques, collector's items, artifacts, manuscripts, furs, irreplacable books or publications, or similar items." I'm not going to mention the carrier because I think you'll find that all carriers have about the same limits.
By the way, British Airways lost a bag of mine last year, lost it completely. It happened to contain a W.D. Pease pocket knive worth in excess of $2500. They paid me $650 total, knife and everything, which is the per-passenger limit on international flights.
Anyway, valuable pocket knives certainly fall under one of those exemptions, collector's items, or work or art, or "similar item."
Certainly for custom makers and dealers, "samples, commercial merchandise," just about covers whatever you might be taking to a show.
These limits and exemptions are not, by the way, anything new. In fact, the $2500 limit is fairly new. It used to be something like $250. A good pair of shoes costs more than that.
My practical advice if you're going to travel with anything valuable in your luggage is to snap a few digital pictures showing the item in the bag as you pack it (maybe include your ticket with your confirmation code showing in the frame). Then, use a zip-tie, or some tape, or something that will give some evidence that your bag has been opened. If you find your seal broken when you arrive, take the bag directly to the airline baggage office and insist that their rep watch as you inventory your bag.
I've flown a few times on Alaska/Horizon with a gun in my checked baggage. You just declare it when you check in. They're cool about it. They give you a tag to put INSIDE the bag with the gun, but do NOT mark the outside of the bag. However, they do somehow track it because when you arrive, you will NOT find your bag on the chute. You'll have to go to the baggage office and sign for it.
Now that opening of domestic checked luggage is going to be common-place, now that security screening for boarding passengers and their carry-on baggage is becoming so troublesome and invasive, and now that airlines are strictly limiting carry-on baggage, I think we need to pressure the airlines to address the whole issue of valuable in checked baggage. It's not limited to just knives.
People are carrying more and more electronics and computers all the time. Theft of lap-top computers from the out-side of security screening x-ray machines is becoming very common. If you forget the pen in your pocket and the metal detector beeps, you can be delayed for several minutes as they run that wand thing all over you. Meanwhile, your brifecase and laptop are there for anyone to simply grab and take.
Jewlery is much the same. Who can wear an expensive watch aboard now? You have to take it off and the security checkpoint and run it through the x-ray leaving it vulerable just as the lap-top is. And women can't wear big earings aboard or any jewlery of a shall we say, "intimate" nature. Some of those piercings that people are sporting these days would be a bit embarasing to have to remove at the checkpoint.
And the jewlery issue extends to men too. I like to wear a french-cuffed shirt and cufflinks. (I always say that if a man wants to pierce something, he should pierce what God intended him to pierce: his shirt cuffs.) But, I can't wear them aboard anymore. It's to much hassle at security and the risk of theft of an expensive pair of cufflinks it to great. I also like to carry a nice pocket knife. In many cases, a $2500+ W.D. Pease, for example, the knife is as much a form of jewlery for men than anything. Other men like to sport expensive tie bars or money clips or tennis bracelets or chains or rings.
One might suggest that we pack our jews in our carry-on baggage. But, aside from the real risk of theft, there's the potential for having to have your carry-on bag opened and the contents spead out in broad public view. The man now has to stand there while the guard holds up with $5000 and $10,000 watches for everyone to see thus making the man a potential target for a mugging later or even just for having that bag snatched when he's momentarily distracted looking for his driver's license for the 42nd time today.
And, of course, legal pocket knives are a big issue. Even if yours isn't a $2500+ W.D. Pease, even a decent pocket knife is worth at least $50 these days. It's not hard and it's not jewlery to get up to $150. Their small, unmarked, easily stolen, and pawn shops love 'em.
For years airlines have dealt with guns being toted by hunters. But those same folks often bring knives, often hundreds of dollars worth, along too.
So, I think we all need to pressure the airlines to come up with some solution to this problem.
