8/28/16, 10:04 AMAirlines, Trackers Aim to Prevent a Travel Nightmare: Lost Luggage - WSJPage 1 of 6http://www.wsj.com/articles/more-ways-to-find-lost-bags-1472057903?mod=djemlogisticsIn a world of endless tracking, passengers find it infuriating whenairlines not only fail to deliver checked baggage, but also confess theydon’t know where the bag is. Help is finally arriving.Airlines are spending millions of dollars on new technology to catchup to tracking culture. American and Delta can now tell you whenyour bags are loaded and unloaded through their apps. And travelershave options, too, with new luggage location-trackers you pack withyour socks and new smart bags that have trackers built in.Airlines world-wide accounted for 23 million pieces of lost or delayedluggage in 2015. Most bags were eventually returned, but not beforetheir disappearance ruined lots of vacations, weddings or businessmeetings. The rate of mishandled bags improved by 10% last year, butstill translates into one lost bag on every flight of 150 people.Delta Air Lines is the first to switch to all baggage tags embedded withradio-frequency ID (or RFID) chips in the paper—very thin panelsabout the size of a business card. Your bag broadcasts information toreceivers instead of having optical scanners try to read the bar codeprinted on the tag. Think of it as a toll tag for your luggage.The upgrade is costing Delta $50 million this year and the systemlikely will be turned on by the holidays, says Bill Lentsch, Delta’ssenior vice president of airport customer service and airlineoperations. Delta agents are already printing RFID tags, which costalmost 10 cents each compared with a few pennies for a regular papertag. The airline is also in the process of installing receivers all overbaggage-handling facilities, from the belts behind ticket counters toThis copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visithttp://www.djreprints.com.http://www.wsj.com/articles/more-ways-to-find-lost-bags-1472057903LIFE TRAVEL THE MIDDLE SEATAirlines, Trackers Aim to Prevent aTravel Nightmare: Lost LuggageDelta and other airlines improve how they track luggage; new products like Trakdot, LugLocand the Bluesmart bag let you track your own| |Updated Aug. 24, 2016 3:05 p.m. ETBySCOTT MCCARTNEY8/28/16, 10:04 AMAirlines, Trackers Aim to Prevent a Travel Nightmare: Lost Luggage - WSJPage 2 of 6http://www.wsj.com/articles/more-ways-to-find-lost-bags-1472057903?mod=djemlogisticsthe loaders that move bags into planes.So far, RFID tags are read by receivers 99.85% of the time, Mr. Lentschsays. With bar-codes, optical scanners read the tag at roughly a 90%rate, so one of every 10 bags has to be manually sorted, a time-consuming process that can lead to bags missing flights.Delta already has the lowest rates of mishandled bags among thebiggest U.S. airlines, and the carrier expects a 10% improvement withRFID tags. The new system will allow better tracking of the bag’sjourney and more information fed to passengers about their bag’slocation. “We have this desire to drive our defect rate to zero. Weknow that’s going to take an awful lot,” Mr. Lentsch says. The RFIDtags will save Delta money with fewer baggage deliveries and claims toreimburse the value of lost items.Other airlines are testing a permanent bag tag issued to top customersthat can be loaded with a passenger’s information, either for opticalscanning or RFID. Qantas, Lufthansa and others have tried devices,about the size of a bagel, that attach to bags and can be programmedfor each trip.Alaska Airlines is three weeks into a trial of electronic bag tags with500 customers, a spokeswoman says. JetBlue has 60 prototype tags itwill start handing out at the end of this month that can beprogrammed by the airline’s smartphone app and display a bar code.This eliminates the need for a customer to go to a kiosk to print apaper tag.Baggage manufacturers, tracking companies and some entrepreneursare separately bringing out products for travelers who want do-it-yourself tracking. I tested some and found plenty of bugs. But someDelta Air Lines is spending $50 million to install an RFID-based luggage-tracking system. PHOTO:JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES8/28/16, 10:04 AMAirlines, Trackers Aim to Prevent a Travel Nightmare: Lost Luggage - WSJPage 3 of 6http://www.wsj.com/articles/more-ways-to-find-lost-bags-1472057903?mod=djemlogisticsdelivered reassurance for fliers worried whether their bags made it.Trakdot and LugLoc are two devices about the size of a wallet that youput in your suitcase. Both connect to cellular towers and can signaltheir approximate location to you with an app.Jason Kijek, a frequent traveler who often flies with a lot ofconnections and has had multiple experiences with bags lost, had aTrakdot in his bag when he checked it from San Francisco to Krakow,Poland, with connections in Philadelphia and London. When he got toKrakow, the bag wasn’t there. Mr. Kijek informed British Airways thathis tracker showed it was in Philadelphia, where he’d connected fromAmerican Airlines.The bag got to him within 24 hours. He doesn’t know if it arrivedquicker because he knew its location, but he had peace of mindwatching the delayed bag fly to London and then arrive in Krakow,where he picked it up without waiting for a phone call from theairline.Placing the Trakdot in your suitcase allows you to follow your bag’s location with a smartphoneapp. PHOTO: DENISE BLOSTEIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNALThe LugLoc, like the Trakdot, is about the size of a wallet, connects to cellular towers and tracksluggage from within the bag. PHOTO: DENISE BLOSTEIN/THE WALL STREET8/28/16, 10:04 AMAirlines, Trackers Aim to Prevent a Travel Nightmare: Lost Luggage - WSJPage 4 of 6http://www.wsj.com/articles/more-ways-to-find-lost-bags-1472057903?mod=djemlogistics“Overall the product works well,” he says.The trackers have downsides: They require annual service fees, andmay not work in absolutely every country. Aaron Liao bought severalTrakdot devices, one for each of his bags, and paid for the lifetimetracking service, which made his total cost about $100 per device.(Trakdot no longer offers plans longer than one year.) He figured thatwas good insurance after an airline lost a suitcase with about $3,000worth of stuff in it.When he lands, his devices update their location, confirming his bagsare onboard. “I
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