AirTag again exposes lies told by airlines about lost luggage
A Canadian man recounts how only an AirTag got him his luggage back after United Airlines lost it and persisted in lying about where it was.
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
Lobbying is easy: "we'll give you free first class flights if you don't pass any laws against us"
Cause somehow we've been convinced that if something somehow works once, in one specific scenario - then it must in its entirety be ok for all eternity
(as long as it makes money of course lol)
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.
I could see airlines banning the use of these before that ever happens. If I’m not mistaken one or two already have.
I don't know how air tags even work. So they have a cellular connection or something? How are they able to be tracked?
They use a newer low-voltage Bluetooth radio that has a very limited range. When another Apple device like an iPhone, iPad, laptop, etc. is in range then that device will ping Apples servers with an updated location for the air tag in question.
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.
They use a low power Bluetooth (BLE) technology to send beacons that any iPhone can pick up and relay to Apple. They only work because many people have iPhones.
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.
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.
It must be in a locked, hard sided case. You let TSA inspect it, then you get to keep the keys and they do not. It's a common(?) trick for photographers with thousands of dollars of camera equipment to put a starter pistol in the camera case.
A flare gun is essentially a 3d printed single use .410 shotgun.
One we have is more the size of a 12 gauge shell, just a lot less kick.
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 flew American Airlines with a gun and it had to be in a hard locked case that I was able to put in my luggage to be checked. I had the keys. I had to pick up my luggage at the help center.
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?
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.
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.
Tile is garbage. I had multiple die without warning or notification, so I switched to airtags even though I have to track those with my iPad.
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.
Chippolo is making one for Google's find my network that works just like Apple's network. Can't comment on the tracker itself because it's a preorder, but theoretically it could be just as strong with the amount of Android devices around
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
Samsung's SmartThings tracker is apparently just as good, strangely enough
Apple would make so much money by making such an AirTag, but maybe they want you to buy an iPhone too…
Chipolo is making some that will work with Android FindMy
I love my Samsung Galaxy SmartTag!
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.
People chased the lowest fares possible too though. "Hey, I can save $5 by sitting in this even tinier space where they charge for taking a piss! I can hold it for 3 hours."
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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.
The glory days of air travel were before deregulation and they were much more expensive. Now they are cheap and as pleasurable as going on a bus. Actually prices have been going up significantly recently but the shitty conditions remain.
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My dildo.
Our dildo.
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On my way home from Spain as I type this, AirTags in luggage as always.
Haven’t had to rely on them at all due to loss luckily but I do like having them in our luggage.
Fortune favors the prepared. Better to have them in your luggage and never need them than to need them and not have them.
my iPhone was telling me that my AirTag was showing [the luggage] live in Toronto," said Sih. "It would update every few minutes when it would ping off someone's phone."
The way this works creeps me out
It's not that as bad as it seems. The way it is set up is actually very privacy-minded with the use of cryptography. I would encourage you to read more about this.
The primary safety concern is stalking. For example when a stalker puts an AirTag on your belongings or vehicle. iPhones can detect unknown airtags moving with you. Android devices should gain this capability in the future.
We had some issues with sensitive equipment being left behind at people's homes, so someone suggested putting airtags in the cases so we could easily find them. There was an email explaining this was being done.
Cue 2 weeks of employees getting "unknown tracker alerts" on their phones and asking WTF was going on.
I believe they already can detect unknown airtags. But they aren't usable in the Airtag network.
I don't think it is "lying", it sounds like their tracking system is broken. No one is talking to Air Canada and updating the system so when they check it it still says DC.
Representatives from both United Airlines and Air Canada promised to attend to the luggage and get it to him as soon as possible. "Unfortunately," says Sih, "no one did."
Well that is just poor service.
Seems weird to describe this as lying—does the author think that UA is deliberately depriving this person of his luggage? It seems obvious that their system for tracking luggage is flawed and showing incorrect information. I can’t imagine any scenario where this would be intentional.
I think they just don’t care. I think that they’re instructed to do as told, and nothing else. Security is pretty tough there (maybe not security, but the fines if someone finds out that you did something you mustn’t do by company policy) so I can understand why everyone was like ”but the computer says..!“
Yeah I think that’s what it is. Not a priority for the company which has built ineffective tracking systems and a bureaucracy that disincentivizes employees from actually solving problems in that system.
You’ve been living under a fucking rock then 😂
Why do you say that?
I agree with you. Based on the info, the Airline was communicating information they believed to be true based on their tracking. Sometimes mistakes happen, and based on the volume of luggage, and some air lines being understaffed... It happens unfortunately.
Ghv