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TSA opening luggage

Occasionally we have had TSA leave a note inside our luggage that for some reason our bags were opened for inspection. We just returned from Europe flying into JFK and small blue and yellow stickers were placed on two of the checked bags. Does anyone know if this means they were opened or is this just a JFK procedure indicating the bags passed the xrays?

Posted by
9371 posts

Every time my bag has been opened there has been a note left telling me so. This has even been the case from London to the US. Other countries might do things differently, though.

Posted by
780 posts

I have gotten the same notice when mine was opened and checked out of Heathrow, but I have never had stickers placed on it. That may be for sorting purposes?

Posted by
2193 posts

As far as I know, these stickers are used by airport baggage handlers and screeners to indicate which bags have or have not been screened. I’m not sure they indicate that a given bag has been opened and/or visually inspected. The flyer is standard when they’ve opened your luggage.

Posted by
518 posts

Those stickers were put on our luggage on a recent departure from Newark. I had not seen that before and wondered what it was. The person at the check in counter put it on. She was really busy, so I didn't ask.

Posted by
23626 posts

This has been posted several times recently as if it is a new discovery. It is not. To defeat it all you have to do is imobilize the zippers. Sure, they can get in with a screwdriver or any other sharp tool but they can not cover it up if the zippers cannot be move to reclose the bag.

Posted by
850 posts

As I stated it has probably been shown before but very possible and likely that someone here has not seen it. It has been around for a while.

Posted by
6 posts

When I was connecting through Heathrow a few weeks ago, we missed our connection and decided to spend a night in London courtesy of British Airways instead of arriving in Atlanta at midnight. When I finally got my luggage in Atlanta my TSA lock was gone and they had kindly rearranged the inside to fit better. No note though...