What's Your Experience w/ AirTags in Checked Luggage

[macgabe]

Thinking outside the box here. Wouldn't a barcode / QR code system work just as well? Stick a QR code on luggage - preferably all faces. All cameras [airport cameras and scanners join platform and report data] watch out for QR and report to Big Brother. Bingo job done no need for flakey wifi. All for the cost of a 10 cent sticker.

 

[iGeneo]

Thinking outside the box here. Wouldn't a barcode / QR code system work just as well? Stick a QR code on luggage - preferably all faces. All cameras [airport cameras and scanners join platform and report data] watch out for QR and report to Big Brother. Bingo job done no need for flakey wifi. All for the cost of a 10 cent sticker.

1. What if obscured by other items
2. Good luck getting airports coordinated
3. No tracking outside airport
4. 100 additional reasons this won't ever work

 

[fischersd]

Thinking outside the box here. Wouldn't a barcode / QR code system work just as well? Stick a QR code on luggage - preferably all faces. All cameras [airport cameras and scanners join platform and report data] watch out for QR and report to Big Brother. Bingo job done no need for flakey wifi. All for the cost of a 10 cent sticker.

Umm...the AirTags don't even have wifi. Bluetooth and Ultra-Wideband (the latter is for precision finding).

Not duplicating any of the notes iGeneo made above, but do you really think airports want you to know where your bags are all of the time? (actually, I'm surprised they didn't make this illegal - be a little handy for terrorists to know when a bag is actually on an airplane).

Really don't see any upside for the airports in implementing such a system.

 

[macgabe]

@fischersd @iGeneo You're both missing the bigger picture (and yes fischersd thanks for the correction i misspoke : bluetooth).

When a crime is committed police trawl CCTV and piece together a route, despite the difficulty of facial/body recognition - obviously more complex than a barcode.

Why? Because sight works long distances, is free, doesn't interfere and is easy to read.

It's used for tracking cars in speed traps, or here car parks use number plate readers to open barriers.

Airport conveyor belts are designed to overcome problem of obscured tags - it's how luggage is read already.

Time will come when cameras are always on - it's a power problem - and then visual spectrum communication will reign supreme. There are already billions of cameras and scanners in use today and this number is growing exponentially.

It's also how all parcels are tracked and delivered so the system is already up and running. Luggage is just a big parcel.

 

[fischersd]

@macgabe - you still haven't demonstrated what (if any) upside their is for the airports to do this? There needs to be a benefit for them to make an investment in providing this service.

...and don't really get you including the crime, tracking cars scenarios - you're going to put a soccer ball sized QR code on the side of your bag so the police can help you find it when it goes missing from the airport, by using CCTV footage?

 

[macgabe]

@macgabe - you still haven't demonstrated what (if any) upside their is for the airports to do this? There needs to be a benefit for them to make an investment in providing this service.

...and don't really get you including the crime, tracking cars scenarios - you're going to put a soccer ball sized QR code on the side of your bag so the police can help you find it when it goes missing from the airport, by using CCTV footage?

The upside for the airport or whoever is handling the luggage is exactly the same as it is for Amazon or UPS when they provide tracking information to the customer. They need that information for themselves already to automate the delivery and they might as well share it with all parties concerned to provide value-add. If UPS didn't do it people would go elsewhere. Strange as it may seem sometimes businesses prosper by providing better services to customers. We track airplanes and parcels so why not parcels on airplanes. Wouldn't need to be any larger than a standard Amazon label. And yes wouldn't that be great if the police used their tech to help the public recover stolen goods? Why is that such a weird concept!

 

[fischersd]

The upside for the airport or whoever is handling the luggage is exactly the same as it is for Amazon or UPS when they provide tracking information to the customer. They need that information for themselves already to automate the delivery and they might as well share it with all parties concerned to provide value-add. If UPS didn't do it people would go elsewhere. Strange as it may seem sometimes businesses prosper by providing better services to customers. We track airplanes and parcels so why not parcels on airplanes. Wouldn't need to be any larger than a standard Amazon label. And yes wouldn't that be great if the police used their tech to help the public recover stolen goods? Why is that such a weird concept!

Use case isn't the same at all....and tracking information is limited to the courier depots. Amazon tracking is an absolute joke and pretty much pointless.

People want to have an experience to what they may be able to get with the AirTags - where they have an approximate location of the bag at the airport, when they've boarded the plane, etc.

Zero upside for an airport doing this...if anything it's a security exposure (as I noted previously) - it'll only be a customer service drain as problematic customers task their resources whining about where their bags are currently.

3rd parties leveraging Apple's FindMy network could allow cooperation with police one day - but your QR code idea is just not there.

 

[parseckadet]

United already puts barcode stickers on multiple sides of your bag when you check it in. Why do you suppose that is? Because their system scans those codes at various points to track your bag as it moves through the system. So they already have this capability, but they're not letting customers access that data. They don't want their customers knowing where their bags are until they pop out at their destination. Considering that providing such information would make for a better customer experience, that's an indication that the airlines have reasons for not sharing it.

 

[macgabe]

United already puts barcode stickers on multiple sides of your bag when you check it in. Why do you suppose that is? Because their system scans those codes at various points to track your bag as it moves through the system. So they already have this capability, but they're not letting customers access that data. They don't want their customers knowing where their bags are until they pop out at their destination. Considering that providing such information would make for a better customer experience, that's an indication that the airlines have reasons for not sharing it.

My point exactly. The day they realise they can charge an extra 10 bucks for "baggage tracking" is the day this becomes accessible to everyone.

 

[James_C]

My AirTag worked well on Holiday to Corfu (Greece). I got confirmation my luggage was with me before the plane took off. When we returned I could see my luggage had made it back (still on the plane) when we got to the terminal.

Useful for 'did my bag make it' anxiety which is a bit of a problem in the UK at the moment as some airports in the UK are short of staff and your luggage does not always make the flight you are on.

 

[carbphrek]

I use them to see where my bags have traveled. Just flew nonstop from San Francisco to Tampa but my checked back went to Las Vegas on a different plane but it made it to Tampa a bit later than me. I thought I took a screenshot of my AirTag hanging out in Vegas, hope it had a fun time.

 

[Bogstandard]

I had one loose in my checked, and one loose in my carry on.
luckily I was in and out of the UK before the giant luggage avalanche at Heathrow in mid june, so no experience.

 

[basher]

I normally tuck it away inside the suitcase, all hidden. It tracks it just fine with having no issues. I'm sure you can monitor the location throughout the flight as long it's connected to your iPhone via Bluetooth. The connection may not be that stable and may not be that reliable until the connections pick up.

Did you disable the speaker on the AirTag?

 

[lesliegolf]

My Airtags saved the quality of my golf trip to Ireland.

Ran into travel issues and my clubs never made it to DUB. They were stuck in LHR.

I used the AirTags to share the exact location with some friends at the airline I fly who shared it with others to realize it was stuck and customs clearance.

I used the Notify if Found Feature to be notified when a device was near it. That was a great help. It was updating every 30 mins or so and even more when it worked its way back to the gates.

The Notify if Found Feature let me know when my clubs got to DUB many many hours later but before our first round of golf. When they arrived, I called baggage claim and they said they were not scanned yet as there. I mentioned I saw them via Airtags. They let me in with a group of people who had no idea when their bags got there. First thing she said was which of you has Airtags? She let me scamper around to get my bags.

This knowledge was peace of mind and helpful.

I was on a Golf Association tour and by the time the group heard my story (all of our tour coordinators were trying to tell me at the airport I would not see my clubs for days if not the whole trip) and they saw me walk onto the bus with an Amazon package of a foam roller many began to order Airtags via Amazon and heard back from a few thanking me because they ran into golf club problems at LHR.

I ran into golf club problems again and LHR and SFO but was nice to keep up to date on their location and whereabouts.

All my luggage has them and when they get lost that can be quite a handy thing.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

A plane acts like a Faraday cage, and can block many signals. (There aren't any windows in the cargo hold) And I'm sure that some planes block signals better than others.

But, so far they have kind of worked better than the baggage tracking on Delta. I was on a flight earlier in the year and the return flight didn't get me a notice that Delta loaded my bag, yet the AirTag was 'with me'. Outbound, the AirTags showed they were in the main baggage sort at ATL, which gave me some angst, but after opening the Delta app, saw they were loaded (I then turned on notifications in the Delta app🤦🏻‍♂️). It's not perfect technology because reality, but it can be a powerful tool to keep your stuff with you. Just not likely in planes, trains, buses. On reflection, the experience was 50/50. Delta won one round, and Apple won the other.

I'm sure they will really help in the baggage claim. A decade ago, or more, someone grabbed my main suitcase and headed for the door. If not for the eagle eyes of my wife, they might have gotten away with it. They also claimed they 'mistook your suitcase for theirs' and yet went out with one that didn't look anything like mine. Hmm... Dementia, or deliberate.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Did you disable the speaker on the AirTag?

Is that possible? Hmm. I'm going through the 'Replace the battery on Pinky's Keys soon' dance. So far, I think I've gotten that on most of the AirTags I have. *sigh* (Is that message real? I seem to remember hearing that it was a potentially bogus message)

 

[brewc99]

Just returned from a trip to Italy/Greece. My experience was that the Airtags worked reasonably well when inside my bags throughout the airport, but not when on the plane (YMMV). I was mostly interested in whether the bags made it on the flights I was on. Helped to see that my last leg of flight, the bags were left behind

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Just returned from a trip to Italy/Greece. My experience was that the Airtags worked reasonably well when inside my bags throughout the airport, but not when on the plan (YMMV). I was mostly interested in whether the bags made it on the flights I was on. Helped to see that my last leg of flight, the bags were left behind

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I forgot to mention that the baggage trailers that they haul the bags around are also pretty good Faraday cages too. I hate it when the baggage loaders don't scan my bag. I swear they do it on purpose.

 

[Whigu]

Thinking outside the box here. Wouldn't a barcode / QR code system work just as well? Stick a QR code on luggage - preferably all faces. All cameras [airport cameras and scanners join platform and report data] watch out for QR and report to Big Brother. Bingo job done no need for flakey wifi. All for the cost of a 10 cent sticker.

We kind of have all what you need but they won't work together... Airports have lot's of cameras and tile has QR code thingy now: https://tcrn.ch/3dxES3Q

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Thinking outside the box here. Wouldn't a barcode / QR code system work just as well? Stick a QR code on luggage - preferably all faces. All cameras [airport cameras and scanners join platform and report data] watch out for QR and report to Big Brother. Bingo job done no need for flakey wifi. All for the cost of a 10 cent sticker.

You must not travel much. Having a suitcase arrive without a huge scratch, dirt smear, dent, etc is a miracle. I once saw a suitcase come down the baggage chute looking like it had been duct taped closed, with clothing still spilling out of it. Nice baggage handling there. 5*!

And stickers are easy to smudge, rip, scrape. *shrug*

 

[MikeDr206]

Really, once you’re on the plane, you don’t want to know that your bags didn’t make it on the plane until just prior to landing. Because there‘s nothing you can do. Ignorance is bliss.

Now, once you land, you want to asap, so you don’t have to wait around the carousel for a bag that will never arrive.

I‘ve stopped Delta baggage notifications for this reason. I’d rather be blisssfully unaware for a 10 hour intercontinental flight and enjoy myself, rather than learning my bags are in the US still while I’m on my way to Europe. Nothing can be done.

the key about having information is that the information has to be actionable.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Really, once you’re on the plane, you don’t want to know that your bags didn’t make it on the plane until just prior to landing. Because there‘s nothing you can do. Ignorance is bliss.

Now, once you land, you want to asap, so you don’t have to wait around the carousel for a bag that will never arrive.

I‘ve stopped Delta baggage notifications for this reason. I’d rather be blisssfully unaware for a 10 hour intercontinental flight and enjoy myself, rather than learning my bags are in the US still while I’m on my way to Europe. Nothing can be done.

the key about having information is that the information has to be actionable.

True, but I had the experience both ways. One trip the AirTags were supposedly left behind at the main baggage handling system and Delta said they were in the place, and another trip said they were on the plane (well, tarmac), and Delta had no scan of them.

I can see the logic in your post though. What are you going to do if it really looks like your bags aren't on the plane. I seriously doubt that a flight attendant would/could stop the plane because your/my baggage appeared to be left behind.

Their 'tracking service' depends on the people loading the plane to scan EVERY bag, and then their IT system to process the scans and get the data to each app user. One skipped bag scan could make someone freak the heck out and yes cause a distraught and panicked trip. (I know, I kinda freaked out a little when it happened to me.

The service leads customers to trust that everything is being done properly all the time. It raises the bar for Delta's contracted handler crews.

Yeah, funny, now that it's over...

 

[shaown]

its super useful if you apply some pragmatic logic

 

[JWGold]

I travel with firearms so AirTags are a Godsend. I put one in each hardcase containing a firearm. Recently, there was some confusion as to the status of my luggage when I arrived at the destination airport. I used the FindMy app and was able to see my bags in a certain section of the airport. The baggage handler went and looked and sure enough, they had been set aside in a special handling area.

 

[JoyfulPlantLady]

I took several flights in August and had pretty much the same experience as iStorm. I kept it inside a luggage tag. At home I keep it attached to my handbag.