Airlines Using Apple AirTags To Track Lost Bags

Great news. Hope to see lots of other airlines rushing to get on board with this. It's pretty much a no-brainer (honestly, who does this help the most? those airlines that embrace it....at virtually no cost to the airlines).

Kudos to those making this happen.

Why does nobody have doubt this will work as intended.

The current bag tag barcode technology, while not as accurate as AirTags, does work well IF airline employees actually use it properly.

When airlines lose your bag, normally it's because someone didn't do their jobs right.
I doubt having AirTags telling them where your bags are will force them to do a better job.

This $30 toy is just for the peace of mind.
Thieves will still steal.
Bags will still fall to the tarmac or loaded on the wrong plane.
Nor does it matter they tell you your bag is in London or LA, it's still not with you.
And your bag which are supposed to be on the next flight could still arrive in 8 hours or 3 days.

Did you read the article? This doesn't replace the bar code or any of the functions the bar code serves. This is for exactly the situations you specify where the bar code has failed -- it fell off a belt or got loaded on the wrong plane -- to help the airline find the bag. Right now that's a blind search and hope it turns up, with this solution the airline can know where it is and go retrieve it.

Yeah, AirTags are useful precisely for the situation where something went wrong with the barcode system (which is mostly effective). The barcodes don’t do much if they come off or someone forgets to scan or there is an issue with a scanner and the chain of custody for your bag is broken. Even if they have your bag, it could be one of many in a pile of mishandled bags and something that actively sends off a signal from your bag as opposed to confirming your bag is your bag once they find it can make it much easier to track your bag down.

Mistakes happen, but airlines and passengers interests are aligned in trying to get mishandled bags back to the right person. Things like AirTags simply make that process easier for all involved.

This is really only useful as long as Apple/“Find My” devices are near the AirTag and can transmit updates accordingly. The first time I checked an AirTag in the US, when I landed in Rome, the Find My app still showed my luggage at the gate in DFW until it appeared on the carousel in FCO. So clearly no iPhones or iPads came near enough to it while I waited about an hour for my bag to be delivered. American’s app was able to keep me updated as normal, but who knows what could have happened if my bag had indeed been delayed even with the AirTag in it.

Nice to know that the world still have at least 2 overly optimistic people.

Did you read my post? I never said this should replace the bar code or any of the functions the bar code serves.

That's what they want you to think. Airline's interest isn't aligned with you. You want your bags back, they don't lose sleep if you never get your bags. You just spent $30 to help them do their job properly.

You can argue with them all day long on locating the bags. Unless you can physically reach the bag by yourself, you're still relying on the very people that failed the system.

Now full disclosure. I do spend $30 for my peace of mind. Did the tags help me get my mishandled bags faster, no. At least I know if my bags end up 7000 miles away I can expect to wait a few more days rather than the next flight every 4 hours.

The tag location is updated anytime a connected (cellular or wifi) device comes near it. For your bags, there (thankfully) was no one in the cargo hold between DFW and FCO, but once the bags were being handled by luggage handlers, one of their Apple devices received the Airtag ping and anonymously updated your tag's location to the Find-My server. Find-My tells you when the last position update was made so you know if the data is live or stale. If you had landed in FCO and DFW was displaying the current location rather than 5 or 6 hors earlier, then you know your bag did not make the flight.

It's too bad that Alaska Air's new electronic baggage tags are nothing more than electronic bar code. At the prices they are asking for passengers to buy the tags, they should have an AirTag position sensor/transmitter built in.
https://alaskaair.bagtag.com/

I've not see one of their tags in person, but the bulky mechanism and strap used to tie them to the luggage handle looks like it would get in the way of me using the handle to lift my bag ... and would be prone to snagging on baggage conveyors, airport trollies, and carousels. A traditional barcode tag doesn't have these problem and is very difficult to snag and/or tear.

Interesting, although it's kind of backwards that the customer has to take on the responsibility of buying the technology to tell the airline where their own bag is...

Here’s an interesting angle. My experience is identical to Miguel’s on practically every airline. There is one exception and that’s Vistara (now part of Air India).
On 100% of their flights my bag was discovered at the right location immediately after landing, while the plan was still taxiing. I first thought someone just left a phone in their bag, but given it has happened a dozen times since, and never happened with any other airline, suggests to me that they have some sort of technology involved.

I don’t think the customer has to, definitely not the many millions not using apple products.
The AirTags are useful regardless, and this adds another use case. Very happy to see it.
For whatever little it’s worth- over the last quarter of a century and many hundreds of flights, my bags were only missing twice, both times on a domestic connection in the US. At least one of those was probably not the airline fault but a result of a tight connection and a delayed flight. In both cases the bags arrived promptly the next day, so life is not all that terrible

Nothing more than an unnecessary gimmick.

I hated those stories when people claimed to track their bag in the dumpster of an apartment complex.

People work and have lives. Late bags get loaded on to someone’s van to be delivered to passengers address. They don’t finish delivering all the bags. Go home and next morning resume delivering your bags.

You don’t really understand what it is, do you?
This is not to track a bag that has been found and is on its way (not a bad idea though)…
It is useful when the airline has no idea where your bag is. It can shorten the time to find it from weeks to hours - sometimes minutes.

Should not the airlines take responsibility for not losing our luggage and finding it when they do, rather than expecting the customer to find it for them?

Seems you've never had to call close to a hundred times to the sub-contractor to the sub-contractor of the airline for a full freaking week, while being lied to consistently by all of them, not knowing if you would be better off buying new clothes (knowing darn well that the airline would charge you extra for carrying those clothes on the return flight) or waiting to get your own.

Had I had an airtag, I would have driven the 200km to the airport, or the logistics company warehouse, or wherever those bags spend their week's adventure without me.

For the few clothes we HAD no choice but buy, the airline refused to pay claiming I-don't-know-what...

Not a nice week, as we were on a road trip with children.

Lufthansa, I am looking at you.