Where now what it might be like is: "Oh no my baggage is lost at XYZ airport at your terminal" and that accountability is somewhat forced now because they can't just say it wasn't found or it is 'in transit' when it really isn't.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/19/what-travelers-need-to-know-...
With another European airline I recently waited exactly one day less than the three weeks required for them to deliver a child seat. That’s almost three weeks of not having one to safely transport my child, no support or compensation. Since I was returning to my country of residence the credit card company also didn’t refund.
Why not just buy a new one and charge the airline for it?
For a baby car seat, probably not worth it. For other things it might be but the receipt is missing etc.
At the end it's a damage you have to face for them not doing their job right.
That seems pretty unlikely; the receipts now go to your email where you'd have to delete them intentionally.
In my case, I think they deliberately bumped my bag for paying cargo, because they saw my billing address was near the destination airport and assumed I would be fine "at home". They didn't know I was going to a wedding, and that said wedding was several hours drive away, so delivering my bag a day late to the destination airport wouldn't end the problem. They still paid out though.
You already need to insure higher values anyway if you want to be entitled to a reimbursement, so this would set a nice minimum that encourages customer friendly behavior.
The frequent flyer program is oftentimes worth more than the airline, and it’s a currency with no rules where the airline can do pretty much whatever they want with its value. It’s insane.
Maybe hiring more McKinsey consultants can fix it!
Now JetBlue codeshares with AA. Worried.
Still, it's my stuff, so I'm going to keep putting AirTags in every bag I travel with. I'm sorry, but.. what are they going to do? Ban me from the airline?
Um, yeah.
why do you think that you're special, and that you can blatantly ignore the rules? I don't agree with the rule, but if you brazenly ignore it, and they catch you, they have every right to ban you from future flights. Just look at what they did with the mask people who started trouble. Bam, permaban from flights. You wanna push your luck go ahead, but don't cry if it happens to you.
I made no suggestion that I should be able to shirk the rules while everyone else deserves to get caught.
You're welcome to point and laugh at me if Lufthansa bans me and I have to stop putting AirTags in my bags so as not to be banned by other airlines, should they choose to adopt such an anti-consumer stance as well.
I have no real issue with taking a calculated risk, the kinds of calculated risks we take all day every day. Surely you don't carefully read the terms of carriage on every airline ticket you purchase. I know I don't. I trust that the market will more or less treat us reasonably, and if one vendor does not, I can find another which does.
> unobtrusive tracker that has no known problematic failure modes, and which contains a battery that is within the checked baggage limits comports with?
You generally are not allowed to carry lithium batteries in checked baggage. So your phone's lithium battery is not a problem as long as it's in your pocket.
The failure mode you forgot is "sets fire to itself and other objects."
The "AWAY" bags that used to be on all the YouTube videos and which had charging banks had to have a way to pluck the charging bank off the bag if the bags were gate-checked. (Applies to other brands too).
Mind linking to the relevant regulations that say that? The ones that I turned up[1] says that batteries are fine as long as they're in an installed device.
This is absolutely not true – guidelines from e.g. FAA and IATA are extremely clear that devices are permitted in both checked and carry-on baggage. There are some restrictions around bare cells, e-cigarettes etc. but for the most part these devices are no problem.
"Detect airtags nearby" is an app you can download.
Again, I think its a dumb rule. But don't think you are special and can just ignore it forever with no consequences.
But you also say "it's a sellers market" which would imply high demand where they can afford to lose a few passengers (which would be true based on basic economics). So I suspect this is what you intended to say, unless I'm really misunderstanding something.
This is kind of amazing to hear. Roughly the last 10 flights I've been on have been completely full.
If they find out you put an air tag in your luggage they’ll report you for having lithium batteries in your luggage and push to have you placed on Do Not Fly lists. Now you cannot fly ANY airline for the rest of your life. You will never travel anywhere by air again, unless you have some kind of private plane. Basically, you’re SCREWED for the rest of your life.
Is that what you want?
(26) Baggage equipped with lithium battery(ies) must be carried as carry-on baggage unless the battery(ies) is removed from the baggage. Removed battery(ies) must be carried in accordance with the provision for spare batteries prescribed in paragraph (a)(18) of this section. The provisions of this paragraph do not apply to baggage equipped with lithium batteries not exceeding:
(i) For lithium metal batteries, a lithium content of 0.3 grams; or
(ii) For lithium ion batteries, a Watt-hour rating of 2.7 Wh.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-I/s...
2. The relevant authorities[1][2] seem to say that batteries in checked luggage is fine as long as it's in install equipment, so you're not violating any regulations that would get you reported.
[1] https://www.iata.org/contentassets/6fea26dd84d24b26a7a1fd578...
I thought they have the no explosive cr2032 or thereabouts…
You have a point where he may make multiple stops which may include the personal addresses of folks also on your flight. But I can’t imagine you have enough ability to match a person with an address this way.
Does that actually happen to people still? I thought it was just a 90s meme. I get a push notification every time they move my bag anywhere. 'Accepted into the system', 'loaded onto the plane', 'unloaded off the plane', 'popped out at the carousel'. Seems pretty bullet proof these days.
2022 was an anomalous year since the airlines ramped up their schedules without having support staff at the airports to handle it. The statistics seem to indicate a tripling of lost luggage rates.
My math professor is flying once a month to Europe from the US for the past 20 years. He told me about this statistic he built from his trip history and I thought he was exaggerating.
On my 10th trans-Atlantic trip of course I lost my luggage.
At Heathrow, it'd mean 20,000+ people a day with lost luggage (if they all checked luggage). You'd need more than the entire taxi fleet of London to get their luggage to their hotels.
Really doesn't pass a common-sense check.
https://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/pages/how-it-works
They say a 3 month search, but if you read around you’ll see 5+ days and your bag is basically gone. They say .03% of all checked bags end up lost and then unclaimed. How many must get lost to reach that unclaimed number?
I was in Greece once dealing with lost luggage. The airline threw it on a ferry and told me to run on and look/grab my bag when it got to the island I was on. I guess that’s some effort lol
And, this time I had AirTags in my bags which ended up being super useful for tracking.
https://newsrnd.com/business/2022-07-08-travel-chaos--5-000-...
Edit: improved source and removed misleading numbers from previous article
Hah, if you're in the United States you should be fine. Federal law forces the airlines to reimburse you, even for just delayed baggage [0].
Last year my bag was delayed a few days on a trip to the mountains. My airline paid the cost to replace all of the clothing and other material in my bag. I think it ended up being ~$2100 worth. I bought items comparable to what I had brought, e.g. a lot of high-quality thermal clothing, some board games, chargers, etc, and I got to keep all of it.
[0]: https://www.transportation.gov/lost-delayed-or-damaged-bagga...
Enough of a mitigated safety risk that the CR2032 that the AirTag uses is small enough to be exempted from the lithium battery rules.
On her first flight home, she missed her flight, but her luggage “made it.” She was able to track the bag all the way to the American West Coast, and apparently the workers at the airport even found it helpful in the “last mile” of retrieving the bag.
On her second flight, Lufthansa lost the bag on a flight to Helsinki. They were apparently huge dcks about it, but again she was able to accurately track and eventually retrieve it.
AirTags are one of those devices that really surpass their advertised usefulness. I’m encouraging everyone I know who travels to get some.
I do wonder about the workers who must be getting those automated “yo a tracker is following you” anti-stalking messages on their iPhones, though.
There is no way that people are going to stop putting AirTags in their luggage, at least not while airlines are still constantly losing luggage and fighting people on reimbursement.