I have a prediction: Airlines won’t ackowlege that personal trackers as an effective means to track luggage becuase they’re trying to figure out how to force you to buy their own trackers.
Frankly I’m trying to figure out how a system that even allows for luggage to be lost without any accountability is allowed to exist in two thousand twenty fucking three
Easy: doing so would cost too much money, for not enough profit gain.
Aka, there isn’t enough competition between airlines
I’m still trying to figure out why they don’t already use trackers. RFID tags are dirt cheap and it’s 20 years old technology. They already have a process where they add barcode stickers at checkin, slap some RFID in there too.
They certainly can and do use a tracking system.
I get notifications from Delta every time my bag moves once it’s checked in - loaded, unloaded, what pickup.
There’s nothing really wrong with barcodes. NFC/RFID would be a logical upgrade though, and just has to integrate into the existing system.
You have to change a lot of equipment to make it useful. Most major airports have very complicated machinery that uses the barcodes, which feeds into the baggage handlers. I don’t know how they fix that machinery to make BLE worth it.
They don’t have to convert their entire luggage handling setup to RFID, just use it to augment their lost luggage detection.
Add RFID readers at strategic points and feed their data into a computer, which in turn feeds it to a replicated database. When a piece of luggage is lost look in that database to see where’s the last RFID blip. Also very easy to let the customer see their luggage positions on a website.
I think you mean BLE. As far as I understand it, RFID doesn’t have any particular advantage over barcodes for tracking luggage.
Barcodes need line of sight with scanners and close range. RFID detectors can sense tags at larger distances and just based on general proximity.
BLE is also an option, comparison to RFID would depend on setup particularities. RFID would be the more natural choice for throwaway, recyclable stickers that just need to store a short “dumb” ID.
I don’t know how air tags even work. So they have a cellular connection or something? How are they able to be tracked?
Crowd sourcing. AirTags and other similar trackers emit weak, short range Bluetooth beacons that any iPhone can quietly detect and report along with where they were when the beacon was seen. There are privacy implications for sure, but it works.
They use a combination of Bluetooth and nfc and maybe some wideband spec (though I think the wide and stuff is just for when you go in searching) . Basically anytime it’s near another iPhone, the iPhone picks up the tag ID and sends it in.
If it detects a lot of checkins to a phone that isn’t on the same Apple ID, the AirTag will make noise (as an anti-stalking measure)
I believe a recent patch also allows android to report in status, or maybe that’s coming but still in the works. Not sure.
Android won’t track airtags, but will allow 3rd party tags to work via “find my phone” (becoming “find my device”). They have coordinated with Apple however for anti stalking measures. Both can detect longer term presence of each other’s tags, and sound a warning. Apparently they have delayed the release, to allow apple to implement the protocols properly before they do.
Google’s are simple BLE beacons. They ping out periodically, and any android phones nearby note and report its existence and strength (along with their location).
They’re Bluetooth beacons. Basically they transmit a very low power signal that any nearby iPhone (I think Android phones do it too now, but I’m not certain) can pick up. When a phone receives the signal it sends the information about the tag and the phone’s current location to the central server. You can then track the tag from there.
Happened on a recent flight with me. Company told us luggage was still on the origin airport, someone had an air tag and vehemently asked them to do a double check, and they miraculously found where it was supposed to be in the first place…
On a recent trip we just went up to the youngest looking baggage worker, showed them, asked very nicely, and they walked back and found it. Tipped em 20 bucks for 5 minutes of effort. They were super nice.
The airline was less than helpful, actively saying the bag was lost.
Take photos of your luggage before checking them. That way you can show the employees exactly what they’re looking for.
Luckily our bag was a very distinctive color with a large brand logo but yep
Tipped em 20 bucks
So we’re paying an extra baggage fee now?
The airline was less than helpful, actively saying the bag was lost.
The young baggage worker is the airline. They are a representative of the company.
The employee was an airport employee, not a specific airline employee.
I was under no obligation to tip, I didn’t mention money until he hustled, was very nice, and accomplished the task. I invented the idea of giving him money for his help, I was never prompted.
A fee is not a tip. A fee is mandatory, and issued prior to service, a tip is optional.
This guy saved a day of my vacation and I decided that fortunate exchange with him was worth 20 dollars at least, and he was thankful for the exchange.
You have no clue what you are talking about.
They tipped because they got an individual baggage handler to go find their specific bag for them…
That wasn’t their job, they did it out of kindness. Kindness can deserve a tip. There was no obligation
We tipped under no obligation, the guy specially went out of his way for me, and I thought that was special.
The guy literally salvaged a whole day of vacation for me
Happened to me on a recent trip to a country well known for crime.
Your luggage is lost sir, you’ll have to fill in a form.
My luggage is about 15m away behind that wall. Here, see this map. Go get it.
10 min later: Oh your luggage is here sir. Terribly sorry.
Not sure if incompetence or shenanigans but I got my luggage back.
I’ve heard the fix for lost luggage (in the USA) is unironically to put a flare gun or starter pistol in checked luggage (note, you do have to declare it and ensure it’s properly stored). Why? The airlines get their asses reamed by the ATF if they lose it. If I’m not mistaken, the same laws about firearms in checked luggage apply to a flaregun as they do a Browning M2. If they’re lax enough about following firearm laws to lose a flaregun then they’re lax enough to lose a high-caliber, fully automatic heavy machine gun.
I might be wrong, I’m not an expert here and every airline has their own rules on top of the federal ones. But I have flown with firearms and they always had to be in a separate, locked, hard sided case. I don’t remember any part of the check in process where I would have been able to put the case back in with the rest of my luggage. I definitely do not recommend just plopping your suitcase up there and saying “hey there’s a flare gun next to my socks” unless you have a lot of time to kill.
I probably should have been more specific by what I meant when I said, “properly stored”. I think you can put anything into the hard-sided case with the flaregun as I’ve heard photographers (as someone else mentioned), musicians, tech enthusiasts, etc will get a pelican case, put their cameras, computers, instruments, etc into the case with the flaregun. You’re right that you can’t just dump it into a dufflebag and call it a day, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that you can’t put a dufflebag inside the container with the flaregun, as I’ve heard they’ll tell you that it needs to be independently checked and stored in the luggage compartment.
To put it another way, the case isn’t transporting your clothes, it is transporting your flaregun and you’ve just happened to use any extra space to pack your clothes.
I don’t remember any part of the check in process where I would have been able to put the case back in with the rest of my luggage.
That’s odd. I’ve flown with a pistol several times and it’s always been the other way around. After TSA does their check the locked pistol case gets put back inside a piece of my checked luggage. What have they done with yours? Just tossed it on the conveyor belt like its another piece of luggage?
Just tossed it on the conveyor belt like its another piece of luggage?
Yeah, they just tagged it like another piece of luggage and sent it down the line. One airport it got spit out with my luggage in the baggage claim, another I had to pick it up from the lost luggage office.
Honestly I never thought about putting it in with my luggage. Partially because that’s where I had the ammo stored and wasn’t sure they could be in the same container even if the firearm was secured in it’s own. I hate being in airports enough as it is so I try to follow the instructions to a T.
I just wish airtags didn’t require an apple device. Is there even an alternative to these tiny little things?
Samsung has its own “Smart Tags”. They should be better than Tile, since they rely on the Galaxy network and many more people have Samsung phones than Tile devices, but it’d be nice if Google released one compatible with all Android devices, instead of being stupidly tied to a specific brand.
Google announced just that earlier in the year; a tracking platform backed by any device with Google Play Services. A number of companies have announced support - including Tile, Pebblebee and Chipolo - but in typical Google fashion it’s not launched yet.
but in typical Google fashion it’s not launched yet.
And is likely to get shut down in a year or two…
Tile is the closest but it has a much smaller user base since it depends on people having the tile app installed. Airtags pickup on most iphones since most people have “Find My” enabled.
If you’re a tinkerer there’s a project called OpenHaystack that lets you make your own tags that leech off Apple’s Find My network. I’ve got a couple dozen of them at this point and they work flawlessly.
I’m a tinkerer but I have terrible tech skills. Do you think a project like that is beginner friendly?
Kinda? It’s fairly polished, but it does require a computer (or VM) running MacOS, a compatible microcontroller to act as a tag and a TTL adapter to program it. The programming itself is handled by the OpenHaystack software though.
https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack#how-to-use-openhaystack
It will take a while, but once google launches its Find my device network. You will have plenty of alternatives that work on android.
They are waiting on Apple to add compatibility. It would be until year end by their press info. Source: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-google-partner-on-an-industry-specification-to-address-unwanted-tracking/
There are standalone GPS trackers that report its location via a cellular connection. Typically they are used to track pets and the elderly in case they get lost, you might be able to find them relatively cheap at pet supply stores, but they do require a continuous paid subscription to work. Though they do have the benefit of working anywhere that has a cellular connection without relying on having specific brands of devices nearby.
If you don’t need remote tracking, GPS trackers that only log to internal memory also exist. Those don’t require a subscription because they only need to listen for GPS signals and not transmit.
Oh I’ve looked for a while, as I am not a fan of apple software, but these things are amazing. True innovation. I think the only reason apple is the only ones with something out there like this is because they have the infrastructure for it. Samsung or internet providers are others in the position to do something like this, but I’m still waiting
They aren’t some GPS tags, which would just gobble through the battery, they ping the nearest apple device. You can spoof an air tag with an esp if you are into that, but you still need an apple device. The real magic is again, the infrastructure. Luckily for me, my wife has a mac =P
So innovative it’s just a Tile. They do have the advantage of having really good coverage in the US, but I don’t see the innovation.
So I have a Mac and an iPad but a pixel phone and I’m about to do some international travel. I passed on getting a tile because of the smaller network. Do you think airtags have been useful for you without having an iPhone?
My wife has an iPhone, but I have an old iPad hooked to her account. I can see where all the air tags are, and locate them or activate the noise function. For traveling, there’s no real benefit to having an iPhone vs an iPad.
The main bonus that the newer IPhones have is the ability to locate them like a homing device. If you’re within 30 feet, it will actually tell you which direction and how far away it is. Like a compass, it points you towards the air tag, letting you get to within a foot or so to find it. For locating a lost item at home, it’s much easier to use the iPhone.
But for gps tracking, the basic Bluetooth check in network with apple devices gives you the location of all the devices, within a few meters or so.
Airlines are a disgrace to the gift of flight.
Nice job, you took human flight, something once hailed as breaking the chains imposed on our species by the gods above, and in the name of profit made it the most tedious and insufferable thing imaginable.
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You want a good flight experience? No problem.
You want a good flight experience that is also cheap? No sir.
The airlines just cater to the market, if people were able and willing to pay double, things would be vastly better.
If people could pay double, things would cost double. Quality likely wouldn’t change.
Things would not get better, they’d just charge more to increase profit margins. Haven’t you ever lived under Capitalism before?
People already pay double, and more, for business and first class. They get a much better experience than economy fliers. The problem with flying economy is that it’s a race for the cheapest ticket, so they’ll keep cutting service and comfort as long as people still buy tickets.
If people stopped buying economy tickets because the experience isn’t acceptable, then it would improve.
