To clarify my understanding of how this worked was the hard-sided, locked case is necessarily placed inside your luggage; not transferred out in the open by it's own.E10 wrote:That isn't how things have worked when I've flown with my gun(s), but I've flown only on Southwest. The guns were in a locked hard case inside a larger bag. I checked the bag and told the ticket agent it contained a firearm. She gave me the card to fill out and took it back and put it in the bag. The bag was not conspicuously marked - it looked like all the others. She put it on the conveyor and it dropped out of sight down the ramp. The next time I saw it was at the destination airport checked baggage pick up, all safe and sound. I don't know whether it received any higher security attention, but I think I would rather have stealth. A shiny, hard case with an special tag just screams, 'Gun!' In my own humble opinion, it's better to disappear into the masses, same as carrying a concealed handgun.
And, being originally a Texas airline, Southwest may just have a more mature attitude towards firearms.
It may have been on this very forum I remember reading a post about how it used to be a big sticker labeled FIREARM was affixed to the checked baggage until it was realized that was a stupid idea.
I somewhat found it odd they would be making it more obvious to numerous people outside the xray screeners a gun was inside, both from my initial posting confusion and the anecdote cited. But at the same time the desire to not want to be responsible for losing one made me wonder how much communication about the contents went down the line.