iPhone Feature for Tracking Lost Bags With AirTag Expands to JetBlue

[MacRumors]

JetBlue today announced that it now supports the iPhone feature that makes it easier to share the location of AirTag-equipped baggage at airports.

iOS 18.2 added a new feature to the Find My app that allows you to temporarily share the location of an AirTag-equipped item with others, including employees at participating airlines. This way, if you have put AirTags inside your bags, the airline can better help you find them in the event they are lost or delayed at the airport.

Here is how JetBlue explains the process:

Customers who place an Apple AirTag or Find My network accessory in their bag can now choose to securely share its location with JetBlue's Baggage Service team, helping the airline reunite customers with their belongings more quickly.

To share an item's location, customers can generate a Share Item Location link in the Find My app on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This link can be provided to JetBlue by scanning a QR code in the baggage claim area or by working with a crewmember at the airport's Baggage Service Office. JetBlue crewmembers will use the temporary link to help locate and retrieve bags found within JetBlue stations or other contracted facilities.

Other airlines that already offer the feature include American Airlines, Delta, United, Air Canada, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, and more.

iPhone, iPad, and Mac users running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 or later can generate a "Share Item Location" link in the Find My app. Anyone they share the link with can then view a web page with a location of the item on a map. The page will automatically update with the item's latest known location.

Apple said it worked directly with airlines to put systems in place to "privately and securely" accept the "Share Item Location" links. Access to each link is "limited to a small number of people," and airport employees are required to "authenticate" to view the link by signing into their Apple Account or partner email address.

The item's location stops being shared "as soon as a user is reunited with their item," or automatically expires after seven days.

Article Link: iPhone Feature for Tracking Lost Bags With AirTag Expands to JetBlue

 

[Veinticinco]

“Airport employees are required to "authenticate" to view the link by signing into their Apple Account or partner email address”.

Yeah, like that is going to happen. Not to mention that every baggage reclaim counter I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter has been noticeably deficient in the available human being department. A badly photocopied form and half-chewed pen isn’t prone to authenticating an AirTag link.

 

[snak-atak]

Wondering how many people place their AirTag on the outside of their bag as a luggage tag? Wouldn’t it be safer tucked inside their bag? Or does that make it harder to track?

 

[ppj845]

Airlines need to pay me to use my AirTag to help them tracking my bag.

 

[ossifer]

Airlines: “we’re so bad at managing your bags which we charge $50 each for, that we need customers’ help in finding them”…

 

[ZipZilla]

I started doing this after a trip to Egypt where a bunch of people lost their bags. It is a game changer for keeping track of your bags. I would add a Public Service Announcement that people should book 2 hours for domestic connections and 4 hours for international

 

[vegetassj4]

Thanks JetBlue, now how long will I have to wait to actually get my bag back?

 

[svish]

Good to see more airlines supporting this. Will be very useful if the checked in baggage ever gets lost. But it might be better to keep the AirTag inside the bag instead of just being strapped outside.

 

[JohnC1959]

Wondering how many people place their AirTag on the outside of their bag as a luggage tag? Wouldn’t it be safer tucked inside their bag? Or does that make it harder to track?

I always think the same thing. I think the only way outside is better is if you have metalic luggage

 

[snak-atak]

I always think the same thing. I think the only way outside is better is if you have metalic luggage

It seems more like a marketing ploy but the photos of AirTags like the one on this article always show it dangling outside of the bag. That cannot be good for the tag to be knocked around like that. Heck, my regular luggage tags get demolished during normal travel, I can’t imagine it being any other way on the AirTags.

 

[patjem]

It's a very good development that IATA also supports. Missed bags are also for airlines a very costly business (although the irony is that the bags usually gets lost at the airport, which is another "company")

It's wasn't that long ago that these PIR's (Property Irregularity Report) were sent via some very old data connection.

 

[Doctor Q]

“Airport employees are required to "authenticate" to view the link by signing into their Apple Account or partner email address”.

Yeah, like that is going to happen. Not to mention that every baggage reclaim counter I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter has been noticeably deficient in the available human being department. A badly photocopied form and half-chewed pen isn’t prone to authenticating an AirTag link.

American Airlines lost my suitcase. When I talked to the two employees in baggage claim, showing them that Find My located the bag somewhere nearby, they said they aren't in charge of helping with that, and nobody who could help me was available. I had to wait for them to deliver my suitcase to me the next day at my hotel, a huge inconvenience for me and an avoidable expense for them.

The technology worked, but the airline staff didn't.