Flying with a CCW - SFO to SAN and back via Southwest Airlines

tl;dr: the declaration process is just an additional step and I would allow time for it, especially during busy seasons. Fly SW if you can. Don't be a dick.​Flew to San Francisco International from San Diego and back last week. Since I'm not LEO or otherwise super-special I had to check in my pistol.I was bringing two mags, a box of ammo, and the pistol with a chamber flag inserted. Per the Southwest page it doesn't specifically say that the magazines needed to be unloaded, but I kept them unloaded just in case.I packed everything into a steel lockbox and cable-tied it to the frame of my soft-sided suitcase. I then put a TSA lock on the exterior zipper pulls to dissuade unscrupulous people from taking my underwear.Flying out of San Diego was non-eventful. The check-in area was busy and full of people. Using the self-tagging kiosks is the status quo but since I knew I needed to talk to a real human being, I totally bypassed the check in terminal queue and spoke with a Southwest employee at the "Check-In Help" station. I said, "Hi, I have an unloaded firearm to declare." (On a tangent, a woman directly behind me said "me too!"and got in line behind me).The employee said okay, and asked for my ID and for me to place my bag on the scale. She gave me a "Southwest Airlines Firearm(s) Declaration Tag" (like this [front] [back]) which I filled out with my contact info, flight confirmation number, and signature saying I was following their listed policies (firearm is unloaded, ammo is secure, etc.) She then had me open my suitcase to expose the case, asked if the firearm was unloaded (I said "Yes") and then she taped the declaration card to the case; I didn't need to open the case. She then had me close my suitcase back up and attached the baggage tag, then put it on the conveyor to the back for screening.I asked "All set?" to which she responded "Yup. You can wait here if you'd like but unless it was loaded you should be good to go, we'll call you via the phone number if there are any issues." She then wished me a nice flight and started to help the woman behind me. The entire interaction was straightforward, she was pleasant and efficient to deal wit, and the Southwest employees in earshot treated the whole interaction as normal (I'm wondering if it's because we're a military town and it's something they deal with often, or if the people I had were just professional and experienced.)I didn't hang around and instead went through TSA screening (which was actually less than 15 minutes total, amazingly) and hung out at the gate. Never got a call, ate my overpriced airport food, and boarded the plane as normal.When I arrived at SFO, I went straight to baggage pickup. While I got there ahead of most of the flight, bags were already unloading and I got mine right as it came off the conveyor onto the carousel. I went to a private restroom to get everything situated and saw that my TSA lock was not on the outside. Opening my bag, the lock and a TSA inspection card were inside. I opened the case and saw nothing was amiss, so I got my CCW where it belongs (since I was no longer in a restricted area) and went upon my day as usual.Flying out of San Francisco was more eventful but ultimately straightforward. I was flying out on a weekday evening flight and the check-in area was generally empty. Similar to San Diego I saw a sign for a 'full-service check-in' and let the Southwest employee know that I had a firearm to declare. The employee had me follow the similar process of asking for my ID, had me fill out a Declaration Tag.While I was filling out the Declaration tag, he made a phone call to what I assume was TSA personnel, letting them know that they needed a firearm inspection. After that call, he called his Southwest team and said he had a firearm declaration and needed another employee to cover his station. When the backup SW employee arrived he asked if he had a firearm declaration to do ("Yup, so I'll be over there")--all told they said "fIrEaRm" and treated the process non-chalantly so I took them to be experienced in the process as well.Once I was done filling out my tag he and asked me to open my bag. I opened my bag to expose the case and he saw that my SD tag one was still taped on. He told me they aren't supposed to be taped on and I said the employees in San Diego did that; he asked me to take the tag off and he disposed of it. Once he visually observed that the case was closed, he asked if it was unloaded to which I affirmed. He told me to place the card in general vicinity of the case and close everything back up. Once I completed that, he asked me to bring my bag and follow him to a screening area.About 100 feet away from the Southwest check-in area was an non-occupied check-in desk area (specifically, in front of Door 8 for those familiar with the Departure Terminal.) At this area was a...desk with a partition? in-line with check-in counter, similar to the desk shown here (except the partition was narrower than the desk), with the desk side facing inwards away from the general thoroughfare. After reaching this area, the Southwest employee stood nearby and let me know a TSA screener was on the way. We waited seven minutes (wanted to keep track as a data point) and a TSA-badged individual came from an unmarked door of the check-in area. He asked me if this was for a firearm inspection to which I affirmed, and then asked me to place my bag on the desk. He then donned gloves and took out an inspection card, a swab strip of some kind, and a highlighter.He then then began to unzip all the exterior pockets of the bag and search them. He then asked me to unlock the TSA combo lock on the main compartment as he didn't have his TSA unlock keys, so I reached over the partition and unlocked it. He then unzipped the main compartment--at first he saw my rectangular soft-sided toiletry bag and asked if that was the case to which I responded no. He then continued to carefully unpack my suitcase until he got to the firearm case. He asked me if the firearm was unloaded ("Yes sir") and then asked me to unlock the case. This was a surprise since it would be kinda visible to anyone that looked over, so I used my body to block any line of sight since the partition didn't occlude the entire desk and I unlocked the case. Without really picking anything up he proceed to check that the magazines were empty, that the magazine well was empty, and he opened the ammo box to see if ammunition was inside. He then pointed at the chamber flag and asked me what it was (to which I explained that it was a chamber flag and is used to indicate that the firearm chamber was empty) which gave me the sense that he was familiar enough with firearms to know the basics, but not experienced enough to know that.He then asked me to close the case. While I was doing so he filled out his inspection card, and marked my baggage tag with line with the highlighter (which I didn't realize until later.) Once I had closed and locked the case (which was a little difficult to do because of the partition), he then took the swab and swabbed the bottom interior edges of my suitcase--it didn't change colors so I guess I was gtg. He then began to repack my suitcase--when I reached over to assist he stopped (seemed surprised) and asked what I was doing, to which I said I was helping him repack the suitcase. He said that's "That's okay sir, I will do it" in a pleasant but firm manner to which I understood to stay on my side of the partition.Once everything was packed back up, he placed the Declaration Tag and his inspection card on top of my clothes and zipped up the case and had me lock it. He then thanked me and handed off my suitcase to the Southwest employee who was still standing nearby the entire time. The SW employee then wish me a pleasant evening, and took my suitcase through a door at the back of the check-in area (it was at this point that I noticed the highlighter marking on the tag right before he walked through the door.) This whole process of him arriving and inspecting took less than ten minutes, so all total less than 20 minutes from when I first walked to to the SW counter.I then went through TSA screening (again relatively quick this time as well) and had dinner at Starbird.At San Diego while there already people waiting from the flight at baggage claim, bags hadn't unloaded yet. After about five minutes the carousel spooled up and my bag was the fifth off the conveyor. Same as before, I went to a private restroom and got everything onto my person.​Ultimately, while I was initially slightly cautious of what to expect (and read tons of advice sites like this one) the declaration process is just an additional step and I would allow time for it, especially during busy seasons. The SW people I interacted with were aware of their policies and were professional. The TSA inspection process at SFO was un-anticipated but was helpful since I knew it was cleared to go before going through security screening. Outside of the highlighter mark at SFO my luggage looked like all the others, and I can only presume the mark was to say the bag was already inspected.My only concern with the whole process is that having your firearm in your suitcase is that it gets treated like regular luggage i.e. you pickup on the carousel, which is obviously a downside if someone on your flight was near you at check in and knew you had a firearm in your bag, and got to the carousel before you did (which is why I placed a Tile tracker in my suitcase.) I believe if you check in a hard-sided case like a Plano/Nanuk/Pelican and the 'suitcase' is the firearm case, it get's handled all special-like and you have to pick it up in the special baggage claim area. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/333uDth