I need to vent.

[tyketto]

The TSA is a bloody joke. Idiots at best, and hardly doing anything to keep us safe 'at random'.

I fly to Vegas for the USBC tournament. Get to the airport, check in both of my bowling bags for the flight (one being the roller). Take my 5th ball as carry-on. I leave them unlocked this time (last time I locked them, even with the "TSA Approved" locks, they cut them). The ticket agent picked up the roller by the straps, and put it on the conveyor. He picked up the top bag and placed that on there too. So far so good.

Get on the flight, take off, land, pick up my bags at baggage claim, saw that my straps are undone, my shoes outside the shoe bags they were in, my bowling balls switched around, and the handle on my roller completely snapped and broken. Inside are two TSA leaflets saying that the TSA inspects all bags, and for our safety, mine were selected. As a student pilot myself, I can understand commercial aviation safety. So I'll let the inspection pass. But at least put my bags back the way I left it. Common Courtesy.

On the way back, the same thing happens. My bags are inspected again. First time I can see, but I definitely do not believe that it is coincidence that the same two bags get inspected, completely searched through, and damaged on the same trip. There is a metal bar on my AMF four ball roller (http://www.bowlingindex.com/ProShop/bags/bga/bga4.htm) so the top bag slots onto the bottom bag. The bar is now completely bent, and the now the entire handle is gone instead of cracked.

I bought this bag new 9 years ago at my pro shop in Vegas at the retail price listed on that URL, and within 2 days the TSA took a perfectly good working roller and damaged it.

What will they do? Airline says it isn't their fault, and I believe them. Now I have to fill out some bloody claims form and fax it to the TSA, and hopefully they compensate me for the bag. I'm going for the full amount ($260) and nothing less. they are telling me it could take up to 6 MONTHS to investigate my claim. :mad:

It's fairly obvious when you see a bowling bag that you know what is in it, and it is absolutely pathetic that the TSA singles out the same piece of gear TWICE, especially when there is a 7 month long tournament going on. I seriously doubt the same thing has happened to other bowling bags when they've accompanied bowlers when flying.

The Transportation Security Agency. A bloody joke. :mad:

BL.

[Rowdy]

Somebody forgot the USBC has a service called Bowling Ball Express. Besides,who in their right mind gets on an airplane with bowling balls anymore???

[slap]

I fly to a few tournaments each season so I can tell you with confidence that the TSA didn't single out your equipment. They check very ball for explosive residue.

If I'm traveling alone I check three balls and carry on two. When my two ball tote goes through the x ray machine it's always pulled aside for the explosive check. In fact I'm used to the routine, I don't even zip the bag. They wipe each ball with a type of swab and put it into a machine. I assume they do they same procedure with the checked balls because they always put that white "inspected by the tsa" slip in the bag.

As far as the rough handling of your bag...:D

Last year I flew to Reno for the TNBA national tournmanent. I flew from here to reno with a layover in Chicago. A few of us are looking out the window in Chicago and we see the Southwest guys throwing...no correction..."launching" luggage onto the luggage ramp going into the plane. Then I see them attempt to launch my three ball roller tote and miss the ramp short. Bam! Right on the tarmac. Chipped my spare ball near the finger hole.

[Hammerhead1987]

Last year I flew to Reno for the TNBA national tournmanent. I flew from here to reno with a layover in Chicago. A few of us are looking out the window in Chicago and we see the Southwest guys throwing...no correction..."launching" luggage onto the luggage ramp going into the plane. Then I see them attempt to launch my three ball roller tote and miss the ramp short. Bam! Right on the tarmac. Chipped my spare ball near the finger hole.

Slap I would have been livid! I would have been swearing up and down banging on the window, then would have gone to chew someone a new one, but hey that's me. I am a calm cool person and handle everything the way it needs to be handled. If they don't have respect for my things, I have no respect for them! I imagine you handled it better than I would have.

[slap]

Slap I would have been livid! I would have been swearing up and down banging on the window, then would have gone to chew someone a new one, but hey that's me. I am a calm cool person and handle everything the way it needs to be handled. If they don't have respect for my things, I have no respect for them! I imagine you handled it better than I would have.

Oh, there was a whole terminal full of pissed off bowlers. Three out of every four bowling bags landed on the tarmac while we banged on the glass window. We all attacked the gate agents but they claimed they weren't liable.

Heck at least my balls showed up. This year on the way to Vegas, American lost my one of my teammates gear. Five balls gone! And I mean gone, not sent to the wrong airport, not delayed, totally gone from their system. They had no idea where the bags went....riiight, wink, wink. He had to drill up all new gear onsite but at least he was able to fill a claim.

[tyketto]

Somebody forgot the USBC has a service called Bowling Ball Express. Besides,who in their right mind gets on an airplane with bowling balls anymore???

If you had read my other thread, you would have seen that this was my first ever USBC tournament. It is kind of hard to forget something you never knew about.

I've always flown with my bowling balls to every collegiate tournament I have ever been to, let alone any other tournament I wasn't able to drive to. Last one I flew to, I was able to take both of my two-ball bags as carry-on, so I knew that they were fine. That's what everyone does. If it works for Wayne Webb's and Tony Reyes' teams, it should work for ours, as our team flew with them.

Besides. paying the extra $200 something to ship them, or have my wife check our bags as luggage and I check my two in for free. Hmm...... :rolleyes:

I fly to a few tournaments each season so I can tell you with confidence that the TSA didn't single out your equipment. They check very ball for explosive residue.

If I'm traveling alone I check three balls and carry on two. When my two ball tote goes through the x ray machine it's always pulled aside for the explosive check. In fact I'm used to the routine, I don't even zip the bag. They wipe each ball with a type of swab and put it into a machine. I assume they do they same procedure with the checked balls because they always put that white "inspected by the tsa" slip in the bag.


I carried my Blue Hammer on with me. No extra checking was done, as there was nothing but the ball in it. It just pisses me off that they don't even have the courtesy to put things back the way they saw it, especially since it is the bags of the people who are paying them.




As far as the rough handling of your bag...:D

Last year I flew to Reno for the TNBA national tournmanent. I flew from here to reno with a layover in Chicago. A few of us are looking out the window in Chicago and we see the Southwest guys throwing...no correction..."launching" luggage onto the luggage ramp going into the plane. Then I see them attempt to launch my three ball roller tote and miss the ramp short. Bam! Right on the tarmac. Chipped my spare ball near the finger hole.

Slap I would have been livid! I would have been swearing up and down banging on the window, then would have gone to chew someone a new one, but hey that's me. I am a calm cool person and handle everything the way it needs to be handled. If they don't have respect for my things, I have no respect for them! I imagine you handled it better than I would have.


Oh, there was a whole terminal full of pissed off bowlers. Three out of every four bowling bags landed on the tarmac while we banged on the glass window. We all attacked the gate agents but they claimed they weren't liable.


If you had a camera or camera phone on you, you should have caught it on that and sent it to the news. Something similar happened in Minneapolis about 6 - 7 years ago, when the ramp agents were playing basketball with people's luggage and 'shooting' it into the carts. Someone caught the whole thing on camera, and it turned out to be that the bag in question had a porcelain doll wrapped and insulated in it. It shattered.

Airline said it wasn't their fault/weren't liable. After it went public, the ramp agents were fired, and the airline compensated them monetarily for the loss.

BL.

[snowspike1]

it also happend to some band (not a well known one but still). A guitar was busted and the owner complained- got nowhere, filled out forms and got nowhere, so he wrote a song about it and made a you tube video and put the hole thing on the web...


I think that got him somewhere..

[Rowdy]

I'm going to have to wave the BS flag on this,"It's my first time at the USBC tournament and I didn't know about..." It's right there on the Bowl.com page for the Open. Numerous times. And one phone call would have gotten you clued in. I asked some guys just back and they all report nary a problem with the shipping both ways. And mentioned that when they called the USBC the people there recommended using BBE because of the problems with the airlines in the past.

[mmcfarland300]

I know I always go with a large group of bowlers, and we will always have a few guys drive there in a large van and they take all the equipment with them. Everyone chips in $50 bucks and that covers gas and whatever for the guys driving. 3-4 guys driving non stop usually my bags are there before I board the plane.

[tyketto]

I'm going to have to wave the BS flag on this,"It's my first time at the USBC tournament and I didn't know about..." It's right there on the Bowl.com page for the Open. Numerous times. And one phone call would have gotten you clued in. I asked some guys just back and they all report nary a problem with the shipping both ways. And mentioned that when they called the USBC the people there recommended using BBE because of the problems with the airlines in the past.

Wave your BS flag all you want. I never knew about this. I only go to bowl.com to check on my info, the High school/JOG, Ladies Tour, and Collegiates. I didn't schedule the times, pay the entry fees or anything of the sort. Our team captain did, and he didn't mention anything of this to any of us; He was the only one driving to the tournament as everyone else was flying. That's a 11 hour drive. As my wife was going to stay there longer, driving back was NOT an option for me.

Oh.. By all means, PM me and you can look up my info as well. You should be able to see for yourself that it was my first Tournament.

I'm glad your guys came back without a problem; no offense, but I'm not worried about your guys and their gear, when it is my gear that was damaged.

Like I mentioned before, I've flown with my gear more times than you can imagine (even overseas), and never once has me equipment went through the wars like it has with this one trip. Also, like I said before, it isn't the airline that handles the inspections and throwing things around; it is the TSA. I watched them as they loaded my gear into the plane; the crack was plainly visible when they loaded it on the flight down there, and completely non-existent when they loaded it on the way back.

Like I said, a bloody joke.

BL.