Lock up your suitcase, throw away the key...

August 16, 2015 6:08 AM

I'm moving and will be living out of a suitcase for a while... and I think I packed the suitcase lock key in a moving box *after* locking the suitcase (moving boxes are now on the road and inaccessible). How can I open the suitcase today?

I expect I can take the suitcase to a locksmith or track down the lock type and call for a replacement key to be mailed, but I don't have a car and I'm hoping to get the suitcase open today. The suitcase will be checked baggage with me on a flight later today. Ideas on hacking the lock, otherwise opening the suitcase in a reparable way, getting help from airport staff, or other quicker ideas would be most appreciated (though longer solutions can't hurt).

I believe the lock came with the Samsonite suitcase. It looks like this: the characters in the first image are "HNG", and the underside says "TSA __7" (two unclear characters in front of that 7). I've Googled breaking a TSA lock and have poked around with a bobby pin a bit, but I don't want to break anything off inside the lock, and I haven't found instructions specific to the lock type I have.

Any experience with getting help at the airport? Who would I talk to if I wanted TSA to open my suitcase and leave it unlocked afterward? I'm figuring I'll at least ask about getting it opened when I check the suitcase.

Thanks Mefi.

posted by StealthOatmeal to Travel & Transportation (13 answers total)

Best answer: Take it to a hardware store that sells chain. Use their bolt cutters to break the padlock. Buy another padlock.
posted by flabdablet at 6:20 AM on August 16, 2015 [7 favorites]

Best answer: If that's a zippered case, you can try pushing a pen or other similar object into the zipper to pop it open.
posted by cubby at 6:31 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: that's just a cheap padlock. stick a steel rod through the hoop, grab the body in a decent pair of pliers and twist hard. you can buy a new padlock at the airport. or the suggestion above with boltcutters if you don't have that kind of thing to hand.
posted by andrewcooke at 6:35 AM on August 16, 2015 [4 favorites]

I think that the bolt cutters method is the most likely to leave the suitcase zipper functional. Those locks are relatively easy to open with a lever method, but I'd worry about breaking off the zipper pulls.
posted by mercredi at 6:37 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for all the great answers—trying these now. These are great suggestions.

I should add that I don't care about losing the lock (but do need to suitcase to stay closed/zipped so I can fly with it).
posted by StealthOatmeal at 6:47 AM on August 16, 2015

If you have access to large hardware store, just bring it inside, choose a new lock and then "try out" one of the large bolt cutters. It'll probably cut easily but I've seen tempered steel crack the blades of bolt cutters (I really had to heave on them). If it turns out to be super hard tempered, which is very unlikely, then buy a triangular x-section file and go to town. Have a pair of pliers to hold it steady.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:51 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh ya.... As mentiones just ball point pen your zipper. Use stuff as needed. Then rezip over to close. That's for today. And then buy a new set of tsa locks. They are about $8 for two in any airport gift shop.
posted by chasles at 6:56 AM on August 16, 2015

I've seen tempered steel crack the blades of bolt cutters

Tempered steel is not something I'd expect to find in a cheap padlock designed to keep zippers closed. There would be no point at all making the lock that much stronger than the zippers. Any bolt cutter capable of cutting chain should make short work of that little lock.
posted by flabdablet at 7:13 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

If you ask nicely and they're not busy, maybe the TSA person will open it for you! I would ask the people at the security screening area.
posted by J. Wilson at 7:24 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

cut it off, or find the person at the airport with this keyring.
posted by russm at 8:32 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, all. The suitcase zipper itself turned out to be pretty malleable, so I used pliers to pry one zipper tab off the zipper (there's now one zipper without a pulltab, and a working zipper with the lock and the other zipper tab hanging from it).
posted by StealthOatmeal at 11:40 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

So you've gone to all the trouble to ask for advice on opening the suitcase in a repairable way, marked three suggestions any of which would have achieved that end as best answers, then just wielded a pair of pliers in a way that irreparably destroys one of your pull tabs anyway?

Fair enough. But when it falls open on the baggage carousel and spills its guts all over the airport, don't come crying to us :-)

Hint: keyring through what's left of the zipper without the tab.
posted by flabdablet at 11:05 AM on August 17, 2015

Response by poster: I should have been clearer with what "repairable" meant: I didn't want to get the suitcase open but need to swathe it in duct tape to keep it closed as it goes through checked baggage. FWIW, this is a repairable method in the stricter sense in that the zip tab can be bent back once the lock is unlocked, and as long as it isn't bent this way again it won't break (like a paper clip bent back and forth multiple times). A keyring through the tabless zipper (if bending it back doesn't work) is a great idea, thanks!
posted by StealthOatmeal at 9:53 AM on August 19, 2015