Passenger's AirTag tracks 8,000km detour of Air Canada luggage

AppleInsider

An Air Canada passenger discovered their missing luggage was on a different continent after a flight, with an AirTag showing it was over 5,000 miles and an ocean away.

AirTag on a bag.

Paul Kliffer flew with his wife from Mexico City to Victoria on the return leg of a journey in November, but like many passengers, their luggage wasn't at the terminal when they arrived. However, following a growing trend to include an AirTag in their luggage, the bag was found to have failed to make it onto the plane.

An enquiry to Air Canada to claim for the lost luggage that was still stuck at Mexico City International Airport had the representative assuring it would be sent to the Kliffer's home in due course. However, after three days of checking, there was no progress on the situation, reports Global News.

"I went back out to Victoria and they again reiterated there was noting they could do except send a note to Mexico City," Paul Kliffer explained.

Two weeks later, he checked the location of the AirTag and saw that the bag had moved, albeit in an entirely wrong direction. Instead of moving from Mexico City to Victoria, the bag was suddenly shown in Find My as being in another international airport, in Madrid, Spain.

Further attempts to get assistance from Air Canada were apparently futile, as the passenger claimed the airline would "escalate the file up to a more important stage" and that they would make contact in 48 hours. "That never happened," he adds.

When asked by the report about the luggage, Air Canada regretted the delay and said they had told the customer they were moving to compensate them. On being provided a screenshot of the AirTag's Madrid location and pressed why it had given up on finding the bag, Air Canada declined to respond.

AirTag has become a thorn in the side of airlines when it comes to lost luggage complaints, including the apparent lack of action in some cases.

In April 2022, luggage containing sentimental objects from a wedding was found to have traveled from South Africa to Germany, instead of the intended destination of the UK. Following social media shaming, the missing bags were eventually received.

Another passenger discovered his bag went missing in Melbourne Airport in June, and in relocating his luggage, discovered a lost bag graveyard in a baggage handling firm's offices. The affair was then posted to YouTube.

In what was seemingly an attempt by Lufthansa to prevent similar stories, the airline temporarily banned AirTags as a dangerous item that needed to be turned off during flights. After widespread criticism in October, Lufthansa relented.

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lkrupp

Time for re-regulation and a few huge class action lawsuits. Time for criminal penalties for executives from whom these policies flow. 

Money talks and bullshit walks. Hit ‘em in the pocketbook and your luggage will suddenly, miraculously, show up on your doorstep, I guarantee it.

22july2013

Perhaps someday, perhaps in our lifetimes, there will be tourism to the Moon or Mars. In that case, lost luggage will sometimes accidentally end up in those places. The point I'm making is that the distance that a misplaced item of luggage travels is not really relevant. Lost is lost regardless of the distance. Who cares if it's 5000 miles away (Spain), 250,000 miles away (the Moon) or 250,000,000 miles away (Mars)?

jayweiss

22july2013 said:

Perhaps someday, perhaps in our lifetimes, there will be tourism to the Moon or Mars. In that case, lost luggage will sometimes accidentally end up in those places. The point I'm making is that the distance that a misplaced item of luggage travels is not really relevant. Lost is lost regardless of the distance. Who cares if it's 5000 miles away (Spain), 250,000 miles away (the Moon) or 250,000,000 miles away (Mars)?

Your logic is flawed. Your luggage would NEVER end up going to the Moon or Mars because of weight limitations on flights off the planet. 

Where “lost” luggage ends up us simply incompetence on the part of airlines and baggage handling systems at airports. Unless the luggage tag on your bag has been removed/lost it is clearly possible for it to be scanned and then routed to its original destination. 

I use AirTags when traveling so I can know where my luggage is. During my last trip JetBlue sent me alerts that our bags had been loaded on the plane with us. I was able to confirm this with the AirTags. 

eriamjh

Airlines track bags by scanned barcodes.   They only know the last time and place a bag was scanned.  Their system is not designed to cope with customers who actually can tell them where the bags actually are.   They are dumbfounded and behind the curve.   Also, it probably is highlighting the problem with incompetence, bag theft, and plain outright mismanagement of the situation.

Imagine if everyone used an airtag and somehow could send airtag search info to the airlines, as in let them actively track the bag.   The industry can't afford to implement such a system.  Instead, it just needs to listen to customers and work actively to help them.  They also cannot afford this.   It's cheaper to pay a bag claim.

davidw

This reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and Elaine had a run-in with a skycap about tipping, when they were flying back to NYC.



Toward the end of the show, Elaine (and Jerry) are the only ones standing in front of a NYC airport baggage carousel, still waiting for Elaine's suitcase to show up. After giving up and about to leave, there's a short clip of a Honolulu airport baggage carousel going around with just one suitcase (with a lei draped over it) and no one around, with Hawaiian music playing in the background.  

dewme

lkrupp said:

Time for re-regulation and a few huge class action lawsuits. Time for criminal penalties for executives from whom these policies flow. 

Money talks and bullshit walks. Hit ‘em in the pocketbook and your luggage will suddenly, miraculously, show up on your doorstep, I guarantee it.

Be careful what you ask for. The FAA and/or TSA could do to AirTags the same thing they did with luggage locks. They could, like the luggage locks, require tracking/location tag makers to provide TSA with a way for them to read or at least detect the presence of all tags in use. This capability would allow TSA to ensure that checked bags are always on the same aircraft as the passenger who checked the bags. This is a valid security concern. They could also use their ability to read tags as a secondary bit of information for baggage handling tracking systems.  

If you’re not familiar with TSA luggage locks, they require the lock makers to provide a way for TSA to unlock the lock using a “special” physical key that TSA provides to their agents. Well, at least as a primary access method. TSA agents also have a secondary access method to unlock locks that do not meet TSA requirements. It’s called a bolt cutter. They use them all  of the time and without hesitation.

It’s just a matter of time before the FAA or TSA whips out their “security wild card” and the social media “gotcha moments” arising around mislaid bags-with-tags become a thing of the past. Think it’ll never happen? You may want to reconsider that the next time you shuffle across the filthy floor at the airport security checkpoint in your socks. All it takes is a single incident or hypothetical threat assessment to make it happen.

macgui

I'm very fortunate. In all my many many years of air travel, I've only needed a carry-on. Early on, I used one piece of luggage, but learned to carry what I need now, and buy what I need later, when I get to my destination. 

My luggage has never gone missing, but using only a carry-on streamlined my airport exfil. Standing at the carousel waiting for a suitcase was a huge waste of my time. If I had to use a suitcase these days, I'd probably use an AirTag for the novelty as well as being prepared for luggage going astray.

coolfactor

Package tracking is nearly flawless for companies like FedEx. Airlines should be mandated to provide the same type of tracking. Each time a bag code is scanned, the customer can be notified proactively, and the activity placed onto a tracking log that the customer can check at any time. This is such common sense, it's a wonder why airlines don't offer it yet.

Monday, Jan 16, 3:33pm — Bag scanned at Check-In Count
Monday, Jan 16, 3:40pm — Bag scanned for loading aboard Flight XYZ
Monday, Jan 16, 3:45pm — Bag loaded aboard Flight XYZ
... etc.

neilm

coolfactor said:

Package tracking is nearly flawless for companies like FedEx. Airlines should be mandated to provide the same type of tracking. Each time a bag code is scanned, the customer can be notified proactively, and the activity placed onto a tracking log that the customer can check at any time. This is such common sense, it's a wonder why airlines don't offer it yet.

Monday, Jan 16, 3:33pm — Bag scanned at Check-In Count
Monday, Jan 16, 3:40pm — Bag scanned for loading aboard Flight XYZ
Monday, Jan 16, 3:45pm — Bag loaded aboard Flight XYZ
... etc.

FedEx’s business is moving packages, so to be successful they have no choice but to do it well. For the airlines, on the other hand, baggage handling is a necessary evil that costs them money. If they could find a way not to have to do it, they would.

That said, I’ve been flying for many decades and can assure you that baggage handling is much more reliable than it used to be. This is because of technological innovations such as bar coding and automated scanning.