Flying Southwest

[Chewy65]

I have flown Southwest with long guns a few times, but now will be taking a pistol in checked baggage. I have read Southwest's most recent policy to which here is a link.

Does anyone think this will be a problem? I will lock the unloaded Sig in the hard case it came in from Sig, but secured with a couple of non-tsa padlocks, and place that inside of hard sided luggage with locked TSA locks. I will hold onto the keys to the non-tsa locks.

I may also place up to 11 pounds of ammo inside the same piece of luggage, but outside of the Sig case. All magazines will be unloaded. I was thinking of duct taping the four factory boxes of ammo together, but am wondering if that will look suspicious when viewed with xray equipment.

This will all be checked and declared.

Of course, there will be regular items inside of the same hard sided luggage. Does anyone see any problems?

[rvicta]

I don't see any problems, although I don't know why you need to tape the boxes of ammo together. I just tape the ends. When I fly with ammo, I just lay them along the bottom of my luggage. If the airline policy states that the magazines need to be unloaded, don't forget to save at least one box to put any left over rounds in when you fly back. I forgot this when I flew out to TX and on my return flight I checked in with 17 rounds in 2 magazines. Had to give them up at a security counter.

I like flying Southwest because they don't put the red tag on your luggage with the firearm(s) like American does.

[Major Danger]

I checked pistols on SW in June. I have a small pelican case that I checked by itself. Departing flight was just 2 unloaded glocks and empty mags, one lock on the box. Return flight had the pistols, mags loaded but not in the gun, and a box of ammo in the case. Only weird thing was someone put a zip tie on the empty lock hole on the other corner of the box. Worst part was just waiting in the baggage office to get it hand delivered. I think your plan is more than adequate.

[Chewy65]

Thanks. It will be weird to be in a Constitutional Carry state. You are right to not like what American does when the place the tag on the outside. When I first flew with my shotguns, TSA rules required the red tag be placed inside of the case by the TSA agent and you then locked it in front of the agent with whom you left the firearm. I think one time the tag was left on the outside of the case by the ticket agent, but that when it went through TSA it was placed inside. That was a good tip about saving a box if any ammo is brought back.

As for the Pelikan case, I actually looked at one for the Sig, have one for the one of the long guns. They are nice cases and I and will likely get one someday, but part of retirement is living by a budget and the Sig case should be sufficient as it will be placed in new hard luggage. Knock on wood.

[JDay]

You should be able to put non-tsa locks on the luggage too. One of my buddies always Flys with a starting pistol just so he can do this.

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[Chewy65]

You should be able to put non-tsa locks on the luggage too. One of my buddies always Flys with a starting pistol just so he can do this.

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I like the way he thinks. Of course that means additional hassle when checking in and retreiving baggage. But if you don't want someone rummaging through your stuff . . .

[dwalker]

1- if your going to put a pistol case in your suitcase use a steel cable lock- and not a crappy one but one that will take serious effort to break- to lock the small case in the larger one.
2- Mags can be loaded or unloaded, your choice. I flew back from Nebraska a month or so ago with loaded rifle and pistol mags, because I did not have room for the boxes and the mags.
3- AFAIK you can only put non-tsa locks on the actual gun case, and if you get one of those "random checks" (I always seem to because when they x-ray the bag they see the ammo, mags, holster, knives, etc.) they will cut the locks off and not care about damage to your bag.