What’s the equivalency for cell phones after the man gets its way again? Carrying your medical records on your phone with a screen saver that says “Attention! Medical Records Inside”? Our TSA keys are made out of a high-quality special alloy and are highly durable. All keys have been thoroughly tested by us and are 100% accurate. Go Places was the first specialist online luggage retailer in the UK and has been selling luggage since 1969. Read more » Next, enter your new combination. Make sure to enter it twice, just to be sure. Once you’ve done that, release the reset button and your new combination should be set! Lois Alter Mark is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer who also writes regularly for Forbes and Reader's Digest. She writes about everything from luxury cruises and spas to quirky restaurants and street art. A former New Yorker, Lois now lives in San Diego where she's turned into a weather wimp and is still searching for a good slice of pizza.

And, as noted, any zipper closed bag can be trivially opened with a ballpoint pen then resealed anyway. Any object with a thin enough point will do to pry open the ratchet on an ordinary cable tie. My favorite is a push-pin, but the small eyeglasses screwdriver I carry works really well, also.I’d like to trust TSA personnel but about half of the time there is no TSA reminder in the luggage. Were they just lazy? Can I trust them anyway? If you make your own bumb keys they are fragile as they are made of soft metal like brass, not high strength tool steel, so they are more likely to break. I try to set up a poker face, take my bags from the belt conveyer and sincerely hope that any possible item was already removed, without any trace, before I proceed. Likewise for hotel safes. Numerous hotel staff have access to the master code. And it’s the hotel staff that you’re trying to protect your valuables from; ever seen a broken-in hotel door? Jenna McLaughlin of The Intercept followed up on this story with the TSA, and got this remarkable response from TSA publicist Mike England.

Now, you can enter your new combination or key. Remember to test it a few times to make sure it’s working properly. The reason why flying with a gun is so effective is because it provides a physical barrier between your luggage and the rest of the world. If someone were to try and steal your bag, they would have to get past the gun first. This is much more difficult than simply taking a bag that is not protected.

Knowing this will help you get over the broken bump key issue. That is you misdirect the suspicion to something else like petty vandalism or revenge etc, not an attempt at covert entry. So maybe, JUST MAYBE, in addition to not poking around in your bag, it could arrive at destination. You’re already on the “draws breath” list of pre-crime suspects (which is, all of us, if we’re not dead) As a side note, I tend to save various images of an interesting value and I think I saved a copy of that image like 2 weeks ago? Reminds me of a story: At a certain organization with which I was associated, they remastered a building because too many people had master keys. They had almost completed the re-mastering when one of the administrators lost his key ring, which naturally contained one of the new master keys. So much for re-mastering.