Travelers track their own bags for lost and delayed baggage all over the world
Katherine Scott and Tim Biggs
Hundreds of bags were delayed at Hamburg Airport last month. A global shortage of baggage handlers has resulted in a spike in the number of delayed or lost baggage. Photo: Getty Images
Lost and delayed baggage continues to plague the airline industry amid soaring travel demand and a widespread shortage of baggage handlers.
Several airlines have taken extreme steps to contain the crisis, with US carrier Delta Air Lines this week flying with delayed baggage, and no passengers, from London to Detroit. Icelandair, meanwhile, puts its own baggage handlers on flights to Amsterdam to ensure baggage is dropped off at the city’s overwhelmed Schiphol Airport.
Amid horror stories about lost and delayed bags, travelers are turning to baggage tracking devices to try and make sure they can find their belongings, even if airlines can’t find them.
Shane Miller used Apple AirTag to find his own delayed bag at Melbourne Airport, after waiting a week to be contacted by the baggage company.
Earlier this month, cycling tech consultant Victoria Shane Miller went viral after recording her lost luggage trip on YouTube.
Miller’s baggage, which contained more than $6000 worth of cycling gear and personal items, went missing after flying to Melbourne from Europe. Airmen often have Apple AirTags tracking devices in their luggage just for this scenario, and can track their bags as soon as they land.
“I tried calling the airport helpdesk number provided all week with no answer. I knew where the bag was as soon as it landed in Melbourne and as soon as they moved it to their office. I gave them a week to get the bag delivered to me, or call me . They didn’t do it.” Miller said.
In the video, Miller demonstrates how he can use AirTag to locate the exact location of a lost bag, trace its whereabouts to Melbourne Airport and to the offices of baggage handling company Swissport.
“There are many other bags in the Swissport office. I was only there to pick up my bag and once I had it I got out of there immediately before further questions were asked,” he said of the successful retrieval of his bag. mission.
Tracking devices have become a new technology that many travelers must have thanks to their ease of use and relatively low prices.
For those with iPhone 11 or later, users can track tags with high precision up to about 60 meters, but more importantly for luggage, you can still monitor them even if they are lost or stolen.
Apple leverages its global ‘Find My’ network, spanning nearly a billion devices, to find lost items.
AirTags that are marked as missing can connect to nearby iPhones to find out their location, and display them on your phone’s map wherever you are.
The Apple AirTag costs $45 and lets you track the location of your bag using your iPhone.
But AirTag, like most Apple products, requires you to have an iPhone or iPad to set up.
Android users still have options, including the platform-agnostic Tile tracker. The brand pioneered Bluetooth tracking nearly a decade ago, and today produces a variety of travel-friendly trackers, including sleek design luggage tags for suitcases and passport holders, and sticker trackers for electronics or wallets.
Tracking technology still has a ways to go. AirTags and Tiles are primarily designed to find keys and other objects that you misplaced but are still nearby.
Tile luggage tags cost $25 and work on iPhones and Android phones.
While they can help locate lost or stolen items that may be from another country, they rely on pinging other internet-connected phones nearby to do so. Those with valuables might consider more expensive GPS-based trackers, such as GEGO GPS, which come for a monthly fee, but can adapt to GPS and cellular networks for constant tracking.
Bluetooth-based trackers are relatively inexpensive. AirTags retail for $45 while Tile trackers are only $25. Both are great for quickly locating misplaced objects nearby, or tracking down items that have fallen further afield, and should last a year or more on battery.
Smart or connected baggage was once touted as the thing to change air travel, but airlines started banning these bags in 2017 due to safety concerns about the lithium batteries they contain.
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