A magician and juggler for a cruise line, David Deeble opened his suitcase and realized that his clothes, the stuffed rabbit and the juggling pins were missing.. He discovered six hours before the ship’s departure from Singapore that he had the wrong black wheeled bag. Who had his bag?
As luggage is increasingly indistinguishable, travelers try many ways to set their bags apart, like tying bright ribbons on the handle or slapping on fluorescent stickers on the side. Now, some companies and airlines are developing a digital alternative to the paper tag, not only to find lost bags, but also to make check-in quicker.
Air France-KLM is working with FastTrack Company, a technology firm based in London and Amsterdam, on a tracking system that works through a smartphone app.
“Our aim is to take the stress out of travel and put you in control of your bag,” said David van Hoytema, a co-founder of FastTrack. "The system consists of two devices. A digital luggage tag will replace a paper version. A tracking device inside a bag will tell the owner its location through a smartphone app, using Bluetooth when a traveler’s phone is near the bag, and GPS and G.S.M. cellular technology when Bluetooth is out of range. Travelers flying any airline will be able to use the tracking device."
Air France will have it available to travelers by the end of this year, said Carole Peytavin, the airline’s customer experience director.
Airbus is working on a suitcase with an embedded digital luggage tag that uses a cellular connection plus GPS for tracking. The device, called Bag2Go, is in a trial phase and will be available in the near future.
The airline industry hopes it will help ease what is one of the biggest headaches of air travel — the lost bag. Some 26 million bags are lost every year. While most are misdirected, airlines and customers say that a small portion is taken by mistake. Airlines are looking for a way to reduce the incidence of such mix-ups.
“Because many bags look alike, we encourage customers to check their claim check number when they pick up their bag,” a United Airlines spokesman, Charles Hobart, said via email.
Ric Fleisher, an entrepreneur, he flew to London to speak at a conference. Mr. Fleisher had a luggage tag on his tan bag, but that wasn’t enough to keep another traveler from walking off with it.
“I just came with the clothes on my back so I had to go to Marks and Spencer; I got a cheap shirt and a change of underwear,” he said. “I was a little perturbed.”
Now Mr. Fleisher takes no chances. Shortly after the incident, he tied two colored ribbons — one red, one with yellow stripes — to his bag handle, and when he eventually went shopping for a new bag, he chose one in bright blue. The eye-catching color also helps speed up his stop at the baggage carousel. “If I can see my bag when it comes out I can grab it quickly, and I don’t want it to be mistaken by anybody else,” he said.
A couple of years ago, Doug Howard, the chief executive of an information technology security company, who travels a couple of times each week for work, checked into his hotel around 10 p.m. with what he described as a “standard black bag that 90 percent of America travels with.” When he opened the bag, it was full of women’s clothes. With a 7 a.m. breakfast presentation looming, Mr. Howard called the airline and some hours later someone from the airline came to his hotel and exchanged Mr. Howard’s suitcase for the bag he had inadvertently taken. Hreceived fresh clothes in time for his breakfast meeting, but the incident left such an impression that he decided to make one of his company’s promotional giveaway items a brightly colored wrapper for bag handles.
“When you feel the pain, you feel the necessity,” he said. “I figured I wasn’t the only one in the world who had that problem.”
adapted from The New York Times
