Some searched for the summer of lost luggage last summer. Cases were more numerous than ever, but to share in the disaster, some travelers took advantage of Apple AirTags to save them. Now Lufthansa airline wants to force passengers to disable these signs and become a useless helper.

summer chaos. Last summer, strikes and chaos paralyzed European airports. Two years after the pandemic, there was a desire to travel, but strikes and high demand caused systems to collapse. Among the results: an increase in passenger baggage loss.

where are my suitcases. As reported in The Guardian, 6 out of 1,000 bags were lost (at least temporarily) on US airlines in April 2022. That was 67% growth there and 24% worldwide, with 8.7 out of 1,000 bags not arriving on time. According to insurer Mapfre, chaos is also striking in passenger compensation, which grew by 30% compared to 2019.

AirTag to save. In April 2021, Apple introduced their AirTag, an object finder that became a minor sensation despite having some issues. People have used their electric scooters to avoid losing their wallets, dogs and even children at Disneyland, but one of their most frequent uses is to precisely locate lost luggage.

dangerous goods. Lufthansa, the airline, put AirTags in the same category of electronic devices as mobile phones or laptops and stated that their batteries must be removed before flying, as they are considered “dangerous goods”.

And they also transmit data.. In the German newspaper WirtschaftsWoche, those responsible for Lufthansa stated that “due to their transmission function, these pagers should be used in flight in a similar way to mobile phones, laptops or tablets, etc., if they are in checked baggage”.

But is it illegal then? The question didn’t seem entirely clear. By Ethan Klapper of The Points Guy, a popular travel tool, was told by a spokesperson that this has not changed and that Lufthansa continues to allow the use of AirTag.

However, on Lufthansa’s own official Twitter account approved That the airline has agreed to prohibit enabled AirTags in baggage dangerously and it is necessary to turn them off.

Confusion, confusion. However, measures appear difficult to implement without a (comprehensive) inspection of each passenger’s baggage. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Berlin’s Brandenburg airport stated that they do not ban locators like AirTags and it would be normal not to remove them from the trunk. Even so, he suggested that the airport complies with each airline’s rules and therefore active locators found in baggage on a Lufthansa flight can be omitted from that baggage.

Picture: friend Jad