'Hello, this is your luggage calling...' -- will lost luggage soon be a thing of the past?

[jashermd]

Hello,

Apparently a new luggage-tracking system using radio chips attached to luggage is being trialled at Heathrow. Supposedly your luggage will be able to tell the system where it needs to go and will even send you a text message when it arrives in baggage claim. The hope is that this will improve baggage tracking in airports and make lost luggage a thing of the past.

It's being trialled on Emirates' London-Dubai route, so perhaps Mary-J will be able to give it a go and provide a report on whether the new system lives up to its promise. I must admit to wondering A) how they will attach the chips to the luggage so that they do not fall off, and B) if they are not removable how they will ensure that they are reprogrammed every time you travel (otherwise your luggage will always end up in Dubai).

Of course, if they really wanted to do a trial by fire they'd be testing it on one of BA's routes (any one would do) -- BA has the worst lost luggage record of any European airline, and most of the luggage is lost at Heathrow.

Right now I subscribe to i-Trak in hope that it will help me retrieve my luggage on the day it inevitably goes missing -- when you fly as much as I do it's not a question of 'if' but a question of 'when' (though supposedly business and first-class luggage is less likely to go missing).

Cheers,
Julian

[CMDAVILACLI]

Wow,... I will be interested in finding out how well this works, and if it does, when the airlines will all jump on board... and then, of course, begin charging for this service! What is I-trak?

cmdavilacli

[jashermd]

Hi,

I hope it works too -- it would be so nice to avoid that anxious post-flight wait to see if your luggage made it or not. It's not so bad at the end of a trip when you're going home, but it would be awful to lose it at the beginning of a trip.

I-trak is a luggage tracking system which maximises your chances of finding your luggage if it does go missing. It's the only programme which includes the airlines' internal telex system as well as the usual phone, fax, and email options. It's pretty inexpensive -- I've registered my bags with it but have yet to put it to the test (the only time I lost a bag was on a business trip to New York back in the days before i-Trak existed). It's worth looking into if you travel a lot.

Another tip is to take photos of your luggage with a digital camera if you're travelling with one -- it will make it easier to file the lost luggage claim if your luggage goes missing. Admittedly I often forget to do this but I know people who swear by it.

It also helps if you can say that your luggage has some distinctive feature (yet another reason not to get the same black suitcase or duffle that a million other people have). Mine has flourescent green locks -- they clash a bit with the nice brown Tumi material but I can spot them a mile away.

Cheers,
Julian




Message Edited by jashermd on 02-15-2008 06:09 PM

[christian07]

It's a good thing that the airports are doing serious measures to if not totally eradicate at least minimize luggage mix ups. It's like your trip won't be complete if your luggage won't be lost somewhere either at your arrival or departure. But the program is just about to be put on test, right? Lost luggage will be around for still quite a while, in my honest opinion. But I'll keep a close to this initiative. Thanks for the info! It gives hope.

[CMDAVILACLI]

Thanks for the info on i-Trak.

I too have terribly ugly attachements to my Tumi luggage - Shocking pink ID tags.... they make it easy to find in the sea of black suitcases. I also have attached a six inch woven luggage tag that is embroidered with: MINE - NOT YOURS!

cmdavilacli

[jashermd]

Hi,

I've seen a few bags with the 'mine not yours!' tags on them -- they're pretty funny

The radio tag system is being trialled for 3-4 months, and if the reviews are good it will be implemented on a wider scale. Heathrow is a particularly bad airport for missing luggage (apparently due to its sprawling layout and relatively antiquated infrastructure) so if it works here it should work well in other airports.

Cheers,
Julian

[maylinglai1]

This is fantastic. I've never stopped to think about how odd how much technology exists and still the common problem of lost luggage has yet to be completely erradicated. It would actually be pretty cool if you could attach a gps to the bag that would tell you exactly where your bag is at all times. Given my expereince with lost luggage and poor - potentially misleading - answers from staff in the past, I would be a natural consumer for such a product. How nice would it be to be able to tell the attendant you know exactly where you luggage is and where they should look to find it!!

Vey exciting! Thanks for posting.

[jashermd]

Hello,

A new set of statistics for lost luggage was recently released, and apparently more bags are getting lost than ever before (hence, I suppose, for the desire to trial this system). TAP AIr Portugal now has the dubious honour of being the airline with the most lost bags per passenger flown, outstripping BA who have now fallen to second in the halls of shame. But BA continues to make headlines, with a large number of bags disappearing over the past few days due to a major luggage snafu in their Terminal 4 at Heathrow.

Cheers,
Julian

[kyshel]

The baggage "issue" was on our news tonight, as well--some sort of computer glitch?
Maybe you'll need to change the thread title to "Hello, this is your luggage calling for help!!"

[jashermd]

Hello Kyshel,

Was there another luggage issue, or was the story you heard also about BA?

Speaking of lost luggage, i've always had the strange urge to go to one of those lost luggage auctions just to see what actually happens to lost luggage. I read that most lost luggage in the US eventually ends up in in werehouse in Alabama; apparently most lost luggage in the UK ends up somewhere in the middle of England where it is eventually auctioned off. There was an article in TimeOut where one of their reporters went there and bid on some of the bags and then tried to sell the proceeds on eBay -- it was pretty funny.

What surprised me was the sort of stuff which ends up in the lost and found areas of airports, trains companies, and bus companies -- you'd think that someone would notice if their artificial leg, prosthetic eye, or enormous surfboard went missing. There was a segment on the news which followed a man who went to one of the lost and found depots to claim back a missing briefcase, only to find that they had two other briefcases of his which had gone missing years ago.

Cheers,
Julian