We all know the sinking feeling of waiting at the luggage carousel at the airport, watching everyone else retrieve their suitcases, until the last few sad-looking cases do several more desperate rounds waiting for their owner, while your bag seems to have gone walkabout.
Airlines losing luggage is unfortunate and frustrating. It is reported that 1% of all worldwide luggage was mishandled in 2012, costing an estimated $2.6bn.
That problem could one day become a thing of the past. New airline bag tags that can be programmed with mobile phones could soon be introduced at airports. This means less paper labels wrapped around your luggage handles, and the ability to keep tabs on your bags.
It could also one day mean that if your luggage does go missing, you’ll receive a text informing you that it hasn’t made its intended destination, but you can get it delivered to your home or hotel instead.
As well as making it easier for passengers, it is good for the environment, by abandoning excessive paper waste.
The bag tags are designed by Vanguard ID Systems and are embedded with RFID technology, near-field communications and an electronic paper display. It enables travellers to use a phone app to code the tag with a destination, for example CDG for the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France, and have it display on the tag. The RFID chip then transmits the bag’s location.
If this can gradually be deployed in all airports, the fear of losing your suitcase and all its enclosed treasures will be history. And with the stress of travelling, flying and excessive security checks, this could be one less thing for us to worry about.
