What makes something TSA accessible?

Question

And what do you risk when going to the airport without a tsa accessible bag/case?

Answer 1

The short answer: Unlocked luggage.  This is the cheapest, and easiest way to make something "TSA accessible."

You can also purchase Travel Sentry locks (look for the red diamond logo) that TSA has master keys for.

If you choose to lock your bags with other than TSA-approved locks, one of two things will happen:

1) Nothing.  (They didn't need to open your bag)

2) You'll have a bag w/ a broken lock at your destination.

Answer 2

TSA-accessible usually means that the locks can be opened with special keys that the TSA has.

Personally, I travel without locking my suitcases these days.  At smaller airports where they don't have the scanning equipment, they open up the suitcases and look through them, and locking my suitcase (even with TSA-accessible locks) merely requires more time for the search process to occur.

If you go to the airport and check a bag that doesn't have TSA accessible locks, they will break the lock to get in if they need to.