TSA Checkpoint – Valdosta Municipal Airport

This airport (as small as it is) requires passengers to unlock their own suitcase locks before handing them to the agent for hand-​inspection (every suitcase is hand-​inspected). When I asked why, they said, «it is easier than our having to use our key.» When I opened the lock for them, the agent swung it around to the counter and I did not even realize that the lock had flown off — and landed under the luggage conveyor belt — until someone else at the counter pointed it out. This is a very small airport in a small town. There isn’t even the luxury of TSA Precheck or a first class lounge. Valdosta TSA does not have the pressures of LGA or JFK, surely they can do their job and use their own key.