Apple will soon let you share an AirTags location with an airline, making lost luggage a thing of the past
- Apple will soon let you securely share an AirTags location with an airline
- Now that we have different airlines on board, we hope to be able to reunite lost luggage with an AirTag in it more quickly
- “Share Item Location” will launch later in 2024 with iOS 18.2
If an airline has ever lost your luggage, Apple may have announced the best news possible. And this is one that really made me wish it had arrived months earlier.
As part of iOS 18.2, expected to launch in December 2024, Apple is giving AirTags and FindMy a significant upgrade that will likely be music to many ears. You can now securely share your AirTags location with a specific person, but more importantly, with a business.
With ‘Share Item Location’ you can easily and quickly generate a shared URL with the AirTag location, a map and the timestamp. Why is this so useful? If you are already in the habit of carrying an AirTag in your luggage, and if it gets lost, you can share this URL with an airline, for example – like United or Delta, among others – in the hope of getting it back faster. The map viewable via the URL is similar to seeing the AirTag’s location in the FindMy app, and can be accessed via a browser.
In fact, “Share Item Location” was designed from the start for a trusted person or an airline, in that Apple works with many airlines to let a user share this link if a piece of luggage goes missing. These airlines include United and Delta Airlines, as well as Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Vueling at the time of writing.
Like someone whose luggage has been lostIf an airline is better equipped to handle and understand an AirTag and the location it’s pinging to, things will be a lot better. The goal here is that the AirTag’s location, as well as the technology airlines already have in place, can help put an end to lost luggage… or at least enable a faster return.
David Kinzelman, United’s Chief Customer Officer, said in a statement: “We know many of our customers already travel with AirTag in their checked luggage, and this feature will soon make it easier for them to securely share location information with us . helping our customer service agents work more efficiently and give our customers greater peace of mind. We plan to initially accept Find My item locations at select airports, with the goal of rolling out the service systemwide in early 2025.”
It’s great that United is taking the time to integrate “Share Item Location” and the data it will bring into its systems. When this launches for the carrier in early 2025, they will likely be inundated with questions. Delta is also enthusiastic about the new solution and hopes it can close the gap.
In addition to individual airlines preparing to launch Share Item Location, SITA, which operates the global baggage tracking system WorldTracer, is working to build out support for the feature. Considering it’s used in more than 2,800 airports around the world, this is good news in the quest to reunite luggage.
Analysis: This is a win for customers
One of the biggest frustrations I had when my luggage got lost was that the AirTag in it allowed me to see where it wasbut that also meant I could tell when it was going somewhere that was the opposite of what a customer service representative would tell me. I couldn’t share my AirTag’s location outside of screenshots; I just spoke to them or wrote to them in an email. It was frustrating because I had the information and saw my luggage moving the wrong way while being told something completely different from the airline.
I really don’t think this feature can be rolled out fast enough, and while my hope is the same as in recommending an AirTag, is that you never have to use it to track down your lost luggage, at least the airlines will be better equipped to reunite you even faster. So yes, when AirTags go on sale again for Black Friday 2024, you should get one for every piece of luggage you own.