[kijeda]

Baggage claim in most airports around the world is behind some kind of one way exit point so you need to have been a traveller on a flight to get access to the baggage carousel.

It is also not uncommon in places where petty theft is high for you to have to show your baggage receipt matches the baggage tag before you can take it from the baggage handling area.

[dajohnson89]

I had to this at SDQ (Santo Domingo). I was pleasantly surprised.

[enjo]

This isn’t true of any airport I can think of... and I travel (across the world) quite frequently.

The exception is baggage claims for international flights which are usually in a secure area due to the need to pass through customs.

[hjk05]

This is true of literally every single airport i’ve ever traveled through. I guess experiences vary greatly.

[arkades]

This would be a more useful discussion if both of you just named the relevant airports.

[gambiting]

Where were those airports out of curiosity? I've flown hundreds of times in my life, airports across Europe, and I have never ever seen this.

[matchbok]

Every airport in the US I've been to...

[wahern]

I've been to almost every major airport, and several regional ones, in the continental United States and I can't remember a single baggage claim area for domestic flights that wasn't open to the public. Just this past weekend: Boston and San Francisco, both open to the public.

My favorite airport was Long Beach; it's been ~9 years, but last time I flew in the baggage claim conveyor belt was literally outside at the curb. (And this is why that place rocked. The expansion has likely since ruined all the little conveniences of LGB.)

Once upon a time some baggage areas had security which would spot-check claim tickets before you could leave the baggage area. That was mostly pre-9/11, though, when checking in your bags could be easier than leaving with them. Some major airports have [now] uselessly annoying barriers to baggage claim areas for that purpose.

[sliken]

PIT is open as well. Generally wherever I fly is someone is meeting me they meet me at the luggage claim.

Not sure how it could be any other way. After all you can pack weapons in checked bags, so once you are at checked baggage you are already beyond the security perimeter.

[ramblerman]

> not sure how it could be any other way.

Use one way doors like pretty much any airport in Europe. Once you go to baggage you can’t go back to the main airport. But you are still not in a public area.

[sliken]

Sure, that's common here as well. But with 1000s of people an hour leaving it's easy to walk in an out door.

Are they enforced with guards blocking people from coming in the exits?