In recent years, many major airlines have improved their ability to track checked bags throughout the travel journey using technology like NFC scanning. But the process of finding mishandled bags did not keep pace. That changed in late 2024 when a number of carriers rushed to be the first to adopt Apple’s recently released option to share the location of AirTags and other Find My network devices.
Apple’s decision was particularly timely. When the technology giant released AirTag to the market in 2021, it quickly became a “must have” travel item for anyone checking a bag. Momentum built in 2022, as passengers returned to longhaul travel in surprising numbers, overwhelming understaffed airlines and airports after the pandemic. While passengers could see exactly where their AirTag-equipped bags were located, airlines had no official means of accessing that location data and in many reported cases refused to even acknowledge the information when presented with it.
The release of Apple’s iOS 18.2 brings with it the capability to share a private link with third parties, most notably including airlines. The feature was originally announced in November 2024, with an initial list of 18 airlines included in Apple’s press release.
As of 19 December 2024, Apple-focused blog 9to5Mac reports that 13 airlines have thus far enabled the functionality, with United Airlines being the first out of the gate. Others include Delta, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Turkish Airlines, Aer Lingus, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, Eurowings and Iberia.
“[A]pple’s new ‘Share Item Location’ feature will help customers travel with even more confidence, knowing they have another way to access to their bag’s precise location with AirTag or their Find My accessory of choice. They can easily and securely share that with us in the United app, and our team can use the location information to find the bag and get it reunited with its owner much more quickly,” said United chief customer officer David Kinzelman.
When a bag is mishandled, passengers can use United’s app to file a delayed baggage claim and insert the link generated by Apple. This allows the airline’s employees to view the location of the bag on a map, which should help to cut down on situations where the airline’s systems say the bag is in one place but the real-time Find My network data says otherwise.
Delta has also integrated the ability to paste a Find My network link directly into its iOS app. “Item location sharing is completely optional, will automatically end as soon as a customer is reunited with their bag, can be stopped by the customer at any time and will automatically expire after seven days,” notes the US major.
While Apple and various airlines have said that the functionality allows authorized users of the AirTag link to view its location on a map, the feature appears to stop short of harnessing the ultra-wideband capabilities of the AirTag and recent iPhone models. This feature would be particularly helpful to airlines during operational meltdowns leading to massive piles of bags, allowing the airline to pinpoint a bag’s exact location among thousands of bags.
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Featured image credited to United Airlines
