AirTags are a must-have for travel, and not just for finding lost luggage

Apple’s AirTag item tracker has become a fan favorite for a number of reasons. Whether you’re trying to find your keys Who are youPositive If you’re somewhere in the house, or an F1 racer trying to find a stolen bag, AirTags can get the job done.

Another use case for AirTags has also quickly emerged: tracking your luggage while you travel. This specifically refers to checked luggage, which airlines are notorious for losing, and then lying about losing… but I also have another thought.

Airtag stories on the go

Since AirTags were released in 2021, we’ve seen a few stories of how they’ve been used to track lost luggage. In one case, a Florida airline employee was caught with over $15,000 in stolen goods thanks to the AirTag. Another story saw a newly married couple returning from their honeymoon using Airtags to track down lost luggage.

There was also a brief controversy when German airline Lufthansa said it was banning Airtags from checked bags, and called the item tracker “dangerous goods”. The airline eventually retracted the statement, but without further details. Why It was announced once before.

CNN Apple’s AirTag details yet another case highlighting airline negligence with checked baggage. In this case, a United Airlines passenger was told that his checked baggage was left behind, but was safe at a “distribution center.”

However, despite this claim, passenger Valerie Szybala has seen AirTags in her luggage traveling throughout Washington DC, from local malls to residential areas and other locations.

Essentially, Szybala opted to have the bag delivered directly by United Airlines rather than having to drive back to the airport to pick it up. This delivery service is expressly handled by a third party with whom United Airlines contracts:

What he didn’t count on was “crazy weather” and the “explosion” of Southwest Airlines. Although she flew through United, her stopover was through the Southwest hub. So it came as no big surprise when she arrived in D.C. to learn via her United app that her bag hadn’t made it.

Actually, the bag reached DC the very next day on 29th December. But it will not happen before January 2 that he will get this hand. She accepted United’s offer to have the bag delivered directly to her home instead of going back to the airport to pick it up in person. “There I made a huge mistake by handing it over to a third party,” she says.

szibala entered On Twitter her luggage travels through Washington DC, stopping at McDonald’s, a local mall and staying at an apartment complex for several days.

In the end, the luggage finally returned to Szibala. She credits AirTag for helping her track her bags and uncovering some of the misinformation provided by United Airlines. She encourages anyone traveling now to put an AirTag in their luggage:

For Szibala, the story isn’t over yet. “I think United should be held accountable for these practices,” he told CNN. “Is it the norm that people are allowed to take the luggage of passengers home? I guess they have to give me an explanation. I don’t think I would have gotten it back if I hadn’t had the airtag, posted a viral tweet or gotten media attention.

His advice to travelers? “A tracking device is very useful if you have any type of connection. Take a picture of the contents – I wish I had a list of things in my bag. And if they say they’ll deliver, don’t take it for granted – just say you’ll pick it up, even if the airport is two hours away.

9to5Mac’s Tech

I’ve traveled a lot in the past year – over 40 flights in 2022 and a dozen so far in 2023. As someone deep in the Apple ecosystem, I knew from the start that I’d be carrying an AirTag in my luggage — either I checked bags or had it on me as hand luggage.

In addition to helping locate lost items, I another fun use case For Airtags for Checked Baggage. Once I land at my final destination, I use the Find My app on my iPhone to look for my AirTag-equipped bag on its way up to the luggage carousel.

This gives me time to get to baggage claim and stay for the things I need to do instead of rushing to baggage claim and standing around aimlessly for 20 minutes. For example, I often stop to get coffee and pick up my rental car keys while monitoring the location of my checked bags on my iPhone.

Have you made AirTag a part of your travel process? Has Apple’s Item Tracker Been Useful? Tell us in the comments.

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