United, Delta, and Air Canada Will Begin Supporting Find My for Lost Luggage This Week

[MacRumors]

Starting this week, the U.S. and Canadian airlines United, Delta, and Air Canada are rolling out support for iOS 18.2's new item location sharing feature to help track lost or delayed baggage, according to Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak.

The feature allows you to temporarily share the location of an AirTag with others, including employees at select airlines. This way, if you have put an AirTag inside your bags, the airline can better help you find them if they are lost or delayed.

Apple previously announced other airlines that will support the feature "in the coming months," including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, Aer Lingus, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Iberia, SWISS, Turkish Airlines, and Vueling. More airlines are "coming soon."

iPhone, iPad, and Mac users running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 can generate a "Share Item Location" link in the Find My app. Anyone they share the link with can then view a website with a location of the item on a map. The website 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 recipients are required to "authenticate" to view the link through either 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 at any time the item's owner decides. An item's shared location automatically expires after seven days.

iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2 were released last week following beta testing.

Article Link: United, Delta, and Air Canada Will Begin Supporting Find My for Lost Luggage This Week

 

[nadador]

I hopes this works as well as it promises to. I've read too many stories about airlines losing or misplacing a bag, the passenger knows precisely where it is from a planted AirTag, yet the airlines seemingly had no means (or willingness) to use the passenger's knowledge to locate and retrieve the bag.
It does seem to be in everyone's interest to utilize this technology to better reunite passengers with their possessions when items don't end up where they should.

 

[TheLisnakFactor]

I hopes this works as well as it promises to. I've read too many stories about airlines losing or misplacing a bag, the passenger knows precisely where it is from a planted AirTag, yet the airlines seemingly had no means (or willingness) to use the passenger's knowledge to locate and retrieve the bag.
It does seem to be in everyone's interest to utilize this technology to better reunite passengers with their possessions when items don't end up where they should.

I agree. There are only real benefits to this. The tracking from airlines is terrible and this can really help make sure airlines get us our luggage when an accident occurs.

 

[CharlesShaw]

"Hmmm, Apple Airlines."

 

[0815]

Just in time for the xmas chaos ... Love 'Find My', hate how airlines keep loosing our luggage, so yes, this will be an improvement, hope the airline personal on the ground knows how to use it, they usually play dumb with stuff like this.

 

[nfl46]

As long as it works as intended, then this will be great!

They will get their real test in the next week -- busiest time of the year.

 

[Apple_Robert]

This could be a win win for everyone involved. Hopefully, it doesn't come with too many punches in the face (security and customer) experience.

 

[joecomo]

I am genuinely surprised - in my experience all airlines do not give a **** about lost items on board.
(Lost Luggage might be different - as there they are liable)

 

[icanhazmac]

Of course AA lags behind.

 

[gluckett]

Of course AA lags behind.

They're probably still trying to find a way to charge an extra $50 for the service...

 

[smithrh]

They're probably still trying to find a way to charge an extra $50 for the service...

Well, they already contract out lost luggage to another company (with the stupid name of Chargerback), so either AA would have to convince Chargeback to use it and/or Chargerback would have to decide to do it themselves.

Chargerback, as one might expect, sucks. I lost an iPhone on an AA flight and with FindMy could absolutely locate it and between AA and Chargerback they "just couldn't find it." So I wiped it and moved on - luckily it was an older iPhone I only used for tunes on flights, but it still sucked that I knew exactly where it was and the could not/would not retrieve it.

 

[gluckett]

Well, they already contract out lost luggage to another company (with the stupid name of Chargerback), so either AA would have to convince Chargeback to use it and/or Chargerback would have to decide to do it themselves.

Chargerback, as one might expect, sucks. I lost an iPhone on an AA flight and with FindMy could absolutely locate it and between AA and Chargerback they "just couldn't find it." So I wiped it and moved on - luckily it was an older iPhone I only used for tunes on flights, but it still sucked that I knew exactly where it was and the could not/would not retrieve it.

I didn't realize that. Last time they lost mine it was a disaster. Went home for Christmas one year and didn't receive my luggage until the morning I was leaving to return.

 

[svish]

Good to hear this. Hopefully this will reduce lost baggage cases. Waiting for it to be available with all airlines in the coming months.

 

[pmhparis]

Well, they already contract out lost luggage to another company (with the stupid name of Chargerback), so either AA would have to convince Chargeback to use it and/or Chargerback would have to decide to do it themselves.

Chargerback, as one might expect, sucks. I lost an iPhone on an AA flight and with FindMy could absolutely locate it and between AA and Chargerback they "just couldn't find it." So I wiped it and moved on - luckily it was an older iPhone I only used for tunes on flights, but it still sucked that I knew exactly where it was and the could not/would not retrieve it.

Losing less luggage would only diminish the amount of "lost" luggage ends up in chargerback employee's homes or that chargerback sells to https://www.unclaimedbaggage.com.

 

[patjem]

I'm looking forward to reading success numbers from SITA or IATA or the airlines about this great feature.