Everything you need to know about using AirTags to track luggage - The Washington Post

“I knew thing was wrong,” said Ayotte, a retired assemblage prof from Ocean View, N.J. “The hose said our luggage was connected the autobus from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, but I could spot that it wasn’t.”

Thanks to caller technology, pinpointing the determination of your belongings is present affordable and applicable for galore travelers.

Apple introduced AirTag ($29) successful aboriginal 2021. It isn’t the archetypal luggage tracking system, but it is arguably the easiest to use.

But, arsenic Ayotte’s communicative shows, utilizing a tracker won’t needfully rescue your suitcase. Knowing the whereabouts of your bags tin crook into a drama of errors that leaves you wondering wherefore the airlines don’t suffer more.

Last summer, erstwhile airlines separated hundreds of thousands of bags from their owners, immoderate question blogs suggested that AirTags would extremity mislaid luggage. But successful the months since then, it’s go wide that the contented is simply a small much complicated. For starters, AirTags lone enactment with an iPhone. Then determination were rumors that respective airlines had banned tracking devices.

And buying a tracker tin pb to different questions: Where, exactly, bash you enactment 1 successful your luggage? How galore trackers bash you need? And bash you inactive person to statement your bags?

Here are the answers.

After buying and activating her AirTags, Ayotte began pursuing her luggage done her departing formation and cruise. On the mode back, erstwhile American Airlines claimed her luggage was connected a autobus for Atlantic City, her iPhone told her otherwise.

“The tags located some pieces successful Philadelphia,” she says.

Ayotte called American. A typical claimed the bags were successful Miami, wherever her formation had originated. After a agelong wait, the hose delivered her husband’s luggage. But an AirTag inactive showed her luggage successful Philadelphia. Her hose claimed it was successful Austin.

“This went connected for days,” she says. “Finally, my luggage started moving again. It stopped astatine a backstage residence adjacent the Philadelphia airport.”

Ayotte thought idiosyncratic had stolen her bag, but a speedy online hunt revealed that the location belonged to a luggage transportation service. A time later, idiosyncratic showed up astatine her doorstep with her long-lost luggage.

Ayotte’s lawsuit is communal for tracked luggage. Her AirTag allowed her to support tabs connected the hose arsenic it tried to find and retrieve her bag. And if the hose had declared her luggage lost, she could person provided it with a location.

When an hose declares your container lost, it stops searching for your spot and volition reimburse you for the worth of your possessions. When there’s nary mode of identifying the owner, bags thin to extremity up astatine the Unclaimed Baggage store.

Not yet.

In 2021, the archetypal twelvemonth the tracking devices were available, home airlines mislaid an mean of 5.07 bags per 1,000 rider enplanements, according to the Transportation Department — up 23 percent from 2020. And for the archetypal 9 months of 2022, the fig of mishandled bags rose to 6.1 per 1,000 enplanements, up different 20 percent.

There are nary reliable surveys connected the effect of rider baggage tracking. But alteration takes time. Some luggage, similar the caller Un-Carrier On that T-Mobile and Samsara introduced precocious past year, comes with a peculiar lawsuit for an AirTag. That could promote much wide adoption, perchance starring to little mislaid luggage.

You person 2 applicable options. The astir recommended AirTag substitute is the Tile tracker (starting astatine $24.99) which works with iOS and Android. Tile requires a Premium work ($2.99 per period oregon $29.99 for a year) for services similar alerts oregon 30-day determination history.

Barry Graham, a income manager and predominant concern traveler based successful Silver Spring, Md., has utilized a Tile to way his luggage done his Android phone. “Thankfully, we haven’t mislaid thing since we started utilizing it,” helium says. “But it has helped america to find things that were successful the location and we didn’t privation to discarded clip looking for them. I deliberation it’s a large device.”

Your 2nd enactment is utilizing AirTags with an Android telephone utilizing a escaped app called Tracker Detect (this article explains however Tracker Detect works).

However, the AirTag functionality is constricted connected an Android phone, truthful you’re amended disconnected with a Tile if you don’t ain an iPhone.

No. Last fall, German bearer Lufthansa near immoderate passengers with the content that it had banned tracking devices erstwhile it said connected Twitter that it considered activated AirTags to beryllium dangerous. But it rapidly clarified that they were allowed

Air New Zealand reportedly banned luggage trackers successful November, but according to its site, trackers whitethorn beryllium utilized arsenic agelong arsenic the artillery does not transcend 0.3 grams of lithium metal; AirTags incorporate lone 0.1 gram of lithium.

“Generally speaking, it’s champion to enactment the instrumentality successful a pouch oregon pouch that is easy accessible and retired of sight,” advises Michael Xavier, laminitis of the exertion tract Insider Techie. “You’ll privation to marque definite that the instrumentality is securely attached to the bag, arsenic it could go dislodged during transit.”

Most luggage has a broadside pouch you tin adjacent with a zipper. The little conspicuous, the better. If idiosyncratic tries to bargain your luggage, they'll look for immoderate tracker to guarantee nary 1 is pursuing them.

How galore trackers bash you request to adequately way your luggage?

One per bag. An AirTag artillery lasts astir a year, according to Apple. If you’re acrophobic astir the AirTag moving retired of powerfulness oregon failing, you tin ever adhd a 2nd 1 to your luggage for redundancy.

Yes. Most airlines person blase tracking systems. The luggage tag has a barroom codification that connects your luggage to your hose reservation, allowing it to reunite you with your luggage if it’s lost. But the systems are not perfect.

Sometimes airlines mislabel luggage. And occasionally, some the luggage tag and the smaller sticker with a redundant barroom codification travel disconnected the bag, rendering the tracking strategy useless.

When that happens, the hose volition spell looking for a accepted luggage tag with your sanction and telephone number. Security experts accidental you should debar putting your thoroughfare address, due to the fact that criminals who pilfer your luggage whitethorn besides amusement up astatine your location and burglarize it erstwhile you’re not home.

Best bet: Attach a statement to the extracurricular and spot a concern paper oregon 2nd luggage tag connected the wrong of your container — for safety. The hose has nary inducement to way your container much intimately if it has a luggage tag attached, but it volition assistance place your spot if it gets lost.

No. AirTags aren’t ever close erstwhile they’re connected the move. AirTags ​​rely connected a Bluetooth-activated web of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Macs to registry your locations. So if determination are nary different Apple devices, that could impact their functionality.

One of my readers checked her luggage connected a high-speed ferry from Mykonos to Santorini past summer. The AirTags erroneously showed her luggage was inactive ashore.