Are you worried that airlines may misplace your checked-in baggage ? Or the fear that someone else may walk-away with your luggage while you were using the rest room ?

It's a long list of items that travellers are now prohibited to keep in their carry-on bags so how to ensure that your expensive checked luggage is handled safely by the airline staff ?

Jon Udell has discovered a brilliant workaround that virtually ensures that the airline staff will handle your checked bags extra carefully and deliver them to you promptly at the destination - Carry an airgun that requires no license to buy but is still considered a weapon in the airlines rulebook.

[TSA is security agency for domestic air travel in US]

Weapons that travel MUST be in a hard case, must be declared upon check-in, and MUST BE LOCKED by a TSA official.

A "weapons" is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols - those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets - are considered weapons…and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States.

I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare…I’m given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

That’s the procedure. The case is extra-tracked…TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

The author of this hack says he does this each time he flies with his camera gear in the US. Use this trick at your own risk but certainly don't apply it on international flights.