Worrying about whether your bag is getting to the right location might just be a little less traumatic with a new feature.
We’re beginning to see tracking technology make a dent on our lives, and while it has some playful purposes and some nefarious ones, the idea of personal trackers is meant to be useful. Simply put, track the things that matter to you.
When we’re travelling, tracking can be incredibly important, thanks in part to just how easy it seems to be for airlines to lose our luggage. It’s no wonder so many have adopted throwing an AirTag in their luggage for fear it goes missing, or that the airline is less than knowledgable about a bag’s location.
Fortunately, there may be some relief on the way, at least if you fly with one or two of the domestic and international carriers found in the country.
This week, Virgin Australia has announced bag tracking is supported across its domestic and international routes, providing tracking support on the Virgin Australia app for travellers.
The idea is surprisingly simple, and doesn’t rely on personal tracking technology as you might know it.
Rather, it comes from the stickers we’re all used to tearing from our luggage the moment we’ve returned home, or have maybe left on as a badge of honour.
These tags are covered in numbers and barcodes, and go through the mess of conveyer belts and checks before they’re loaded on an aircraft, and again when they’re taken off. And now Virgin is switching on the location of your bag as it goes through this labyrinth of checks, and sending its location to an app on your phone.
“Australians find comfort in the ability to track food deliveries, postal deliveries, technology, even their heart rate, all via apps, and it made sense for travellers to be able to do the same thing when flying Virgin Australia,” said Paul Jones, Chief Customer & Digital Officer at Virgin Australia.
The idea is something Virgin has been testing over the past year, and it’s not alone, with Air New Zealand rolling out similar technology last year, as well.
Simply put, travellers with access to airline baggage tracking will be able to log on via the app, with the airline linking the luggage numbers to your account, and having different checkpoints send different notifications to the app.
That could include when a bag is checked in, when it’s loaded onto the aircraft, if it has been transferred to an international partner airline, and if the bag is now available for collection, with a note on which carousel you can expect to find it at.
