A few weeks ago, Lufthansa made headlines for issuing a statement about banning Apple AirTags. The airline ended up backtracking. Well, there’s now another airline that seemingly wants to go down this rabbit hole.
Continue reading: Oy: Air New Zealand Bans Apple AirTags
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Of Topic, but Ben, could you maybe do a post on why TripAdvisor killed SeatGuru, and the best alternatives?
Being unable to reliably track customers bags and then in turn banning customers from effectively tracking their own bags is everything you need to know about the state of air travel today.
Air New Zealand would better serve themselves to either solve the problem or shut up.
It is more telling that so many ‘global’ airlines don’t have continuous baggage tracking via scanning each piece iof baggage at every point and providing that info to their customers via their app or website.
Goodbye Air New Zealand! From your subpar business class to not allowing bag tracking, I will be moving to other airlines for my frequent Oceania travels.
Instead of unfounded bans, airlines should be proposing a (real) alternative. ICAO should put their foot down and if AirTags are safe, to allow them. I think the sample size of AirTags flying around has affirmed non-scientifically that there is no operational or safety impact to flight (subject to scientific validation).
For reference, Lufthansa had e-tag bags for years (and in theory to this day) in/on bags for years without issue, with much larger electronics.
@scudder For the time being, you can see the seatguru pages on the wayback machine, although I am looking forward to see what Ben may be aware of. Most of the alternatives I have seen are not as comprehensive.
Just pack a firearm in your suitcase and if they lose it file a report with the FBI, the airport police, the TSA Inspector General, and contact local news outlets.
Morons.
AirPods, MagSafe wallets (& batteries?) all have similar tracking functionality and can’t be “turned off”. Are they going to ban those too?
As with the Lufthansa nonsense, this will just be ignored.
What about interlined bags from one airline to NZ ? Say you’re flying United to LAX and onwards to AKL and the bags are through checked ?
It’s only of a customer mentions they have one that it’s a breach of the conditions of carriage.
LH hasn’t banned them, so it appears NZ is the only airline worldwide.
In addition I just checked the NZ website and you would think they would have a banner in their homepage. They don’t.
It's accessible as a zombie, but officially no longer supported or updated. Per TripAdvisor
I use aeroLOPA instead. The graphics are better and seems to be updated still.
If all airlines tried to ban Air Tags, the entire checked baggage system would come to a screeching halt due to the amount of Air Tags airlines/security would need to A) Try and find from an X-ray scan, and B) Then try and find once they open checked luggage, because NO PASSENGER IS GOING TO COMPLY WITH THIS STUPID ATTEMPT AT BANNING AIR TAGS, WHOSE BATTERIES POSE LITERALLY ZERO FIRE RISK, AND WHICH ARE AWESOME TOOLS FOR THOSE WITH CHECKED BAGS.
I'll be switching from coffee to tea, now.
Isn’t this one for Apple to take forward rather than the authorities in terms of demonstrating safety?
Accessible, yes... but it hasn't been updated in quite some time, and as such is rather unreliable at this point.
Nowadays many major airlines have introduced entirely new aircraft, subfleets, and/or cabin overhauls, but SeatGuru doesn't feature them.
It's sad that this happened.
Quite simply, I will not fly on an airline that doesn't permit me to put Apple AirTags in my luggage.
Apple AirTags are not a safety risk and with the rank incompetence of the airlines to deliver our luggage to us without damage, on time and in the correct location, Apple AirTags or their equal as essential for travelers to use in their checked luggage.
BCT… trust the FAA? I think we did that with the 737 max … that didn’t work so well.
https://www.aerolopa.com/ is a much better alternative to SeatGuru, though without the commentary on each seat. The seatmaps themselves, though, are much more detailed.
This is a very stupid decision based on nothing. That’s why they say they will review it in 2023. Based on what? It is corporate BS. I will always have AirTags on all my bags. Good luck Air New Zealand. I never flew on your planes and don’t plan to in the near future.
Just email the dangerous goods folks at IATA. Dave Brennan is extremely helpful.
Just use a Samsung Smart Things Tag then, most likely check in associates will ask if you have an Apple Tag and if you are using Samsung Tags, you technically aren't lying so you can get away with that. A further benefit is that a larger majority of the world uses Samsung devices over Crapple so you should have a much better chance of locating your luggage.
Yes they can. Not at checkin, but once a tag is out of bluetooth range of ot’s owner for 15 minutes, antistalking apps can detect it and make it beep.
They can be detected with a simple antistalking app. The bag COULD then be separated form the others.
Given the impending start of the alaska airlines beta test of electronic bay tags…aren’t these the same thing as air tags but a different ecosystem of tracking? (Can’t wait to be part of this test next month).
This isn’t about safety. It’s about knowledge and information ownership. Not to mention liability for the airline at plausible deniability being called out by the savvy traveler.
Remember that the airline could claim anything with not providing clear accurate data on cancelations. Then expertflyer came along and empowered travelers to get the right info.
This is no different but wrt luggage.
Air new Zealand is a great airline but it's wrong not to allow Apple tags but it allows other devices such as your laptop (ect) in your luggage,
So really the company needs to reconsider its rules about Apple Tags.
Richard Bayliss
Brisbane Australia