Flying. Should I put some AirTags in my luggage?

[GGD]

Maybe instead of thinking that it's for theft detection, how about the more useful function of figuring out if you bag is still on the plane, or already on the carousel or somewhere in between when you arrive in baggage claim. And maybe when you're passing that bathroom on the walk to baggage claim, you'll have a clue about how much time you'll have.

BTW: Which of those three airlines did you decide on? Hope they do a good job for their first impression.

[SurfMacJpMtb]

If you can afford a four-pack then I would go for it, put them in your bags, backpack, purse, and or carry-on. Why not, they seem to work. We have four and have distributed them between our bags when traveling. No issues other than the notifications when we leave our bags behind in the hotel room. Pull up the Home app and you know generally where your bags are located.

[Fritz]

wow! that is a story. No wonder I don't like to check.
I wonder what she paid to have her bag checked and tour the area.

[gadje]

I fly United.

[RAMd®d]

so hopefully less change of luggage getting lost


Yes.

And if it is lost, you have a leg up on telling the airline where it is, because there's a good chance they won't know, telling you "Well, it should be..." and you saying "And that's why we're having this discussion, because it isn't".

As far as theft goes, who gives a fsck if it's stolen and a thief does or doesn't discover the AirTag— it's stolen.

ODDS are the luggage will be gone, gone through, and what isn't valuable, abandoned, with the thief keeping any goodies they find, long before anybody can legally do anything about that.

And they will probably find the AirTag at that point and toss or destroy it.

There are stories of successful recoveries of stolen luggage, but those are on the side of smaller odds.

The silver lining is knowing that one's luggage is or isn't on the airline or MTA.

[modelamac]

gadje wrote:
Flying for work soon (domestic) and I was thinking to put an AirTag in my checked luggage and one in my backpack. I should always have possession of the backpack, so maybe that is not necessary, but why not? I have several unused AirTags.

any risk this could trigger some TSA device and actually make things worse?

My granddaughter (19 yrs) accidentally put an AirTag in her luggage because it was attached to house keys. It caused no problems and paid off because the airline sent her bag to a different destination. She went to the airline counter at the airport after finding no baggage and got compensated for short term needs while waiting for her luggage to arrive 3 days later.

[Michael]

I put them in our bags last summer when we went to Europe and we were hearing all the stories about missing luggage. It was comforting to see the bags go from one plane to the other as we did. But, the best was when we landed at ATL and they had listed the wrong carousel for the flight. As everybody was standing around, I saw the Airtags down the way. I went several carousels over and there were our bags going around and around. I got them and went back to the original carousel and told folks that our luggage was coming in on a different carousel. I've done it on several trips since then and will again when we go to Amsterdam in a couple of months.

[gadje]

I am at the airport now and I already started tracking my checked bag.

[d4]

My daughter lost one of her ski gloves a week ago. Practically brand new. $50 wasted. Can't AirTag everything

[NewtonMP2100]

.....we all come with some baggage but an AirTag may not always help.......to find the source.....