Given a travel related situation, and given a specific question about the situation, summarize the question into a title

I forgot to bring my padlock for this trip so my hostel in Taipei lent one to me until I buy one, which I keep forgetting to do.

The one they lent me is a generic "NO. 20" 4-barrel combination lock. There's no brand name in the instruction sheet. It has a feature where you can set or program the lock's combination.



I used the padlock fine about three times. But now I cannot get it to open just a couple of hours after last using it.

I did not forget the code. I set it to a year in the 20th century. I'm not sure the order of the last two digits but I've tried both many times, and I've even gone systematically through all 100 possibilities that begin with 1-9-?-?!

Is it a known problem with this kind of cheap padlock to "forget" or spontaneously change their combination?

(Yes I know I can just cut it off. But I'd feel like a bit of an idiot especially since the lock is not mine and is on loan. In fact the hostel must not own a pair of bolt cutters like I thought most do. They've asked a locksmith to come! I fear this may prove expensive, which is worse than just feeling like an idiot...)

Are cheap "programmable" combination padlocks known to change their own combinations?

I'm planning to go to Germany next year. A direct flight from my home country (Dominican Republic) would be about USD $1400. I have B1/B2 US visa and I was wondering if it'd be possible for me to purchase a round-trip flight from DR to Miami and then a second round-trip flight from Miami to Frankfurt. That'd save me up to $500 dollars, which is a considerable amount. I'd like to know if there'd be any issues with me entering the U.S twice in such a short period of time (around 10 days).

Traveling to USA to get a cheaper flight

We are going to spend 2 days in London in mid-December and we wonder if we should buy the London Pass which is £46.00 per day per adult. It is not the first time we have used this kind of pass and have always been satisfied with it in the past. However, this one seems pretty expensive to me. Would I save much money by paying the £184.00 for the two days in London?


Is the London Pass worth the price?