Apple wants to help airlines find your lost luggage

It’s a forlorn scene: after a long flight, you watch as each and every passenger departs the baggage area while you stand idle, waiting for your suitcase to appear on the belt. A walk to customer service takes place soon after. Many people have experienced landing at one destination, while their bags end up in another. About 6.9 bags per 1,000 passengers were mishandled in 2023, according to SITA, an IT provider for airlines. Of those mishandled bags, about 5% were reported as lost or stolen. Now, Apple wants to help you find your lost luggage. Apple is unveiling a new feature where users will be able to share an Air Tag’s location with third parties, like airlines. In the Find My application, users will be able to generate and share a link to an Air Tag’s location as part of the “Share Item Location” feature. The new service will be integrated into airline customer service at 15 carriers, including Delta and United, according to an Apple news release published on November 11. Passengers who attach an air tag to their luggage will be able to share its live location with the airline, helping people track their luggage while flying — and find it if lost. Usually, an Apple user can see the location of their Air Tags in their Find My application. Now, users will be able to create a live-updating link that they can share with others. The link will lead to a website that will display the Air Tag’s live location on an interactive Apple map. Users can disable the link at any time, and it will automatically expire either when the user is reunited with their Air Tag, or after seven days.<br/>