Knowing German I read through the sources. This article is pretty misleading.<p>The [primary source](<a href="https://www.watson.de/leben/urlaub%20&%20freizeit/879935671-airtags-im-flugzeug-koffer-erlaubt-oder-verboten-lufthansa-aeussert-sich" rel="nofollow">https://www.watson.de/leben/urlaub%20&%20freizeit/879935671-...</a>) is a slightly clickbait article asking the questions: "Are AirTags allowed in checked luggage?".<p>They reached out to Lufthanse asking them. They responded: "Luggage trackers are electronic devices so they have to be turned off when the luggage is checked".<p>It is unclear wether they really understood how AirTags work and that they are not active trackers.<p>There are a bunch of other magazine echoing this response but I have yet to find an official statement by Lufthansa explicitly banning AirTags.
Note that the reason for airport mode is a courtesy to cell-phone carriers. It's not any air safety issue. Rather, 300-500 cell phones all trying to contact the next cell tower, multiple times per minute, would wreak havoc on cell service.<p><a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/51015-cell-phone-use-on-airplanes-airplane-mode-thanksgiving-travel" rel="nofollow">https://www.inverse.com/article/51015-cell-phone-use-on-airp...</a><p>At one point, when both cell phones and laptops were new, there was perhaps a risk to the airplane's electronics. Modern cell phones have been steadily tuned to reduce interference with other electronics though - good thing, otherwise you couldn't use them in a modern home with its dozens of connected devices. And modern avionics have been shielded to protect them from outside electronic interference - also a good thing, otherwise the next terrorist could simply turn their laptop on. The ban on electronic transmission is one of those regulations that was a response to technology at a particular point in time but now is largely vestigial. You can tell because it's rarely enforced, and yet bad things do not occur just because you forgot to turn your phone to airplane mode.
The cat is out of the bag.<p>There is no way that people are going to stop putting AirTags in their luggage, at least not while airlines are still constantly losing luggage and fighting people on reimbursement.
This is going to have the opposite of their intended effect. People are now going to be more interested than ever in AirTags precisely for luggages thanks to them.
I was able to determine that someone with the exact same bag had taken mine from baggage claim and retrieve it from them before they left the airport with it. We both had much better vacations as a result. I’m going to keep mine in my luggage, sorry.
what a joke, I guess that's one way to deal with their terrible luggage handling..
I've been now waiting since a flight on August 20th to receive my "lost" luggage from them. I guess policy like this is easier than fixing the actual issue.<p>The only update I've gotten is this email two weeks ago, their hotline and website are completely useless. Via DeepL<p>> Good day,<p>> We apologize that you have not yet received your luggage and for the inconvenience this has caused. We regret that we are currently unable to meet our standards for a smooth travel experience.<p>> Why are there delays?<p>> There are currently massive logistical and personnel failures and bottlenecks worldwide, which are delaying baggage handling in particular. The world of flying is highly interconnected. We are dependent on our global partners here and are thus confronted with numerous challenges.<p>> We are working hard to ensure that all delayed baggage is delivered within the coming weeks.<p>> If you would like to check the baggage status yourself, please use the baggage status page only. Our telephone service centers will not be able to assist with any questions regarding your baggage.<p>> Kind regards<p>> Your Lufthansa Team
“ Lufthansa claims that the transmission function needs to be turned off during flight when in checked luggage, just as is required for cell phones, laptops, etc.”<p>On my phone, turning on airplane mode seems to disable the cell and wifi radios (with wifi able to be toggled back on) but Bluetooth defaults to staying on.
IATA guidance is "Any tracking device with a transmitting function must automatically shut down when inside the aircraft." The cargo tracker industry has already dealt with this. Cargo trackers are usually GSM devices with GPS receivers. Those have to turn themselves off when in flight, and that seems to be working OK.[1]<p>For low-power devices that don't turn off, there's DO-160() Section 21 Cat. H evaluation [2].
This is the EU standard for equipment intended for use aboard aircraft. Emissions must be
very low for that.<p>Apple AirTags emit a ultrawideband signal for location, and use low-energy Bluetooth for local communication. Whether that can pass Category H evaluation (the toughest spec, OK next to an antenna) or even Category M evaluation (inside the cabin) is a good question. Not sure about UWB.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/the-agency/faqs/cargo-tracking-devices" rel="nofollow">https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/the-agency/faqs/cargo-tracking...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://do160.org/emission-of-radio-frequency-energy/" rel="nofollow">https://do160.org/emission-of-radio-frequency-energy/</a>
It’s almost as if Lufthansa are admitting they are a terrible airline with awful practices like silently cancelling the return leg of flights if you don’t make the outbound. This happened to me on the way back from Germany, I can’t imagine they still do this but I found them extremely unhelpful and this sort of behaviour reinforces my feeling they think you’re lucky to be travelling with them.
Just wait until AirTags have accelerometers in them too (capturing all the abuse to bags)!<p>Seriously though, I'll be surprised if Apple puts any serious resources into future versions of the AirTag, given the amount of bad PR[0] they've generated for Apple, and how allergic Apple is to bad PR.<p>From the perspective of Apple, the cost to benefit ratio doesn't seem to be there, especially for a product that is a rounding error on their balance sheet.<p>[0] <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?q=airtag+track" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?q=airtag+track</a>
My bags have air tags in them… just by default when I travel.<p>My kids are tagged when traveling. Elderly in laws at times.<p>This rule makes them look like they know they’re terrible/ don’t want to get caught.
Airtags are great for tracking luggage. Last time I travelled I put one in both of my checked bags and was able to track them as they moved around the airport and onto the plane. My phone in the passenger cabin was even able to receive pings from them during the flight when the bags were in the cargo hold. I have had my luggage lost before and Airtags give me great peace of mind that my luggage is headed to the destination and that if my bags do get lost I can hopefully help direct the airline staff to exactly where they are. I’ve never flown Lufthansa but this ban wouldn’t stop me anyway. The benefit is too great.
There are two kinds of bags: carry-on and lost.<p>I first read the above quote on a site dedicated to techniques on packing only one bag per person on a trip of any length - and it’s been a mantra ever since.<p>So much easier to skip baggage claim and walk out of the airport.<p>I still put an AirTag in the carry-on - helps in case it gets stolen at the hotel/etc.
Funny they even sell them in their own shop:
<a href="https://www.worldshop.eu/de/apple-airtag-ortungsgeraet-1er-pack-1764022/" rel="nofollow">https://www.worldshop.eu/de/apple-airtag-ortungsgeraet-1er-p...</a>
Seems like a silly argument. But just for fun, Apple could add a "timer to on" functionality to the AirTag, so you can turn it off temporarily and it'll turn on by itself after X hours. So turned off first, and around when you land, have it automatically turn on.<p>Call it "Travel Mode" just like what 1Password calls it, as it's a defense against the same entity: adversaries.
Huh. I don't check luggage much and, at least with United, their checked baggage app tracking system seems pretty good. But I've been tossing in an AirTag on the few occasions I've checked luggage in the past year or so and it seems to work pretty well as a backup tracker.
> Note that the reason for airport mode is a courtesy to cell-phone carriers. It's not any air safety issue.<p>It was when it was introduced. In today's modern airliner there is not much risk but earlier equipment was not built to withstand this kind of interference. Sometimes you could even hear GSM buzzing through the audio of the pilots speaking, on the airband. It was also a certification issue.<p>Today it's not a technical issue anymore in the western world, and some airlines even permit the phones to be used while in cruise (they provide their own 3G/4G access point on board with satellite backhaul - at a huge markup of course!). Though WiFi is more popular. Airlines that don't still prohibit it for what I believe are more social reasons (and the issue with them swarming cell towers indeed)<p>It's a bit similar to the issue happening now with radio altimeters and 5G. Many airliners still have older radio altimeters that aren't built to deal with 5G interference (in this case from the ground though).<p>The amount of RF energy coming from a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon is absolutely minimal though, it's for this reason that they can run for months on a button cell. A cell phone can transmit 1-2 Watts of energy.
An airline that actually cared about customers would figure out a way to temporarily provide all bags with an Airtag (or equivalent) and encourage customers to track their bags.<p>Or at least, encourage customers to provide their own Airtags.
Contract terms that are unfair under EU law have no legal or binding force on consumers. As long as the unfair term is not an essential element of the contract, the rest of your contract (but not the unfair term) remains valid. This means, for example, that you won't have to give up your gym membership just because one clause in the contract is unfair.<p>EU countries must make sure that consumers know how to exercise these rights under national law, and must have procedures under which business may be prevented from using unfair terms.<p>Throughout the EU, national authorities are in responsible for enforcing EU consumer protection rules. If you feel that a particular trader is repeatedly breaching these rules, including at a cross-border level, you should report your case to them.<p>If you feel that particular contract terms are unfair, you can seek advice from:<p>- National consumer associations - for advice on problems in the country where you live<p>- European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) - for help with cross-border disputes
If transmissions truly are a problem, I would hope they’d protect passengers and vehicles (e.g. faraday cage luggage compartments) rather than hoping customers do not leave dangerous devices such as AirTags in their luggage.
This is exactly why I’m so opposed to government bail outs - even though it was repaid in most countries (famously Austria chose the worst way to save them, give them free money to not repay).<p>It would have been nice to see this massive company (with monopoly on many routes in Germany) broken up and under new ownership competing for customers, rather than treating them as a massive burden.
I remember sometime back Lufthansa had an Ad for indian audience where an old gentleman is saying to his grandson how Germans are very serious people, and he wants to avoid lufthansa.<p>Then he tries it anyway and is pleasantly surprised by their hospitality.<p>> Lufthansa isn’t exactly a customer-friendly airline,<p>Finally that ad makes sense to me. It was a coverup for their extremely bad customer service.
Lol Lufthansa is the absolute worst when it comes to lost luggage... Last time we flew with them they not only lost our luggage, but the luggage of every single person on the same connection (about 50 people). It seems as though they are actually simply incapable of figuring out how to keep track of luggage.<p>And of course allowing airtags would make that even more obvious.
Why we don't have some international passive RFID luggage tag that all airports could automatically scan is beyond me. I mean the amount of luggage that still gets lost and every few years a screwup creates such a backlog that they give up and dump them figuring compensation is easier than sorting it all out. It's ridiculous.
Why don't they try something new and adopt the same technology. Clip a tag to the bags' handles at check-in and have readers on planes and throughout the airport. Lost luggage should be a thing of the past after that. You don't even need to rely on people physically scanning it with a barcode reader.
Why don't airlines offer a baggage insurance system? Have a separate check in area for the bag, where the value has to be declared with a staffer verifying said things were in the bag, the bag is sufficiently durable, and charge a large amount for the service. Then maybe ID verification on pickup. $300 a bag would keep this an option just for people moving their cameras and stuff.<p>Or let Fedex open a check in counter at airports with advice on how to receive packages at nearest fedex office?
Not that they need any sympathy, but it seems unjust towards apple to be targeting a specific product from a specific company, rather than say a blanket ban (no device that will transmit Bluetooth). I wonder if this will boost the market for airtag competitors.
For all the people commenting "How would they know?", AirTags are scannable by NFC readers and identify themselves as an AirTag.<p>You can test this yourself by downloading the NFC Tools app on your iPhone (or one for Android) and doing a read on the AirTag.<p><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nfc-tools/id1252962749" rel="nofollow">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nfc-tools/id1252962749</a>
Strange idea, instead of finding a way to ban technology that makes you look bad — maybe instead be customer friendly, offer free tags and add clear real-time map of where the customer’s luggage is currently and is expected to be.
Oh Lufthansa… the reason why I stopped carrying more than 1 backpack when taking the plane.<p>They permanently lost 1 item, among all the other times the luggage would arrive well after me. They reimbursed me a tiny fraction of the lost value.
This is the dumbest thing they could have done - Streisand effect is in full swing after this. "What doesn't Lufthansa want us to see? What are they hiding?"<p>THANK YOU LUFTHANSA for making people actually hold you accountable for the ungodly shitty practices most airlines hold themselves to without recourse. Enjoy the bed you've made for yourself.
If you want better baggage treatment on airlines, just stick a gun in checked baggage.<p>I have found that putting a gun in my checked baggage and declaring it gets my bag VERY special treatment. It gets special tagging and individual handling. Drop off in a special area. It doesn't go on the carousel, I have to go claim it with ID etc. Best part is this costs nothing. I know some photographers that learned this trick and check some camera gear this way, thousands of dollars of camera airlines don't care about (baggage thieves do) BUT you stick one cheap gun in there and declare it suddenly that bag gets VERY special treatment.<p>This assumes that you are legally allowed to posses the gun at both ends. You must declare the gun at check in and it must be in a approved lock box. Do your research before attempting this.
How are they even going to know if there is an airtag in someone's luggage? Are they particularly obvious on an x-ray or is there some kind of specialised detector?
I left my AirPods case in my seat, realized walking toward baggage area, wouldn’t let me go back to get them.. assured me someone would go get them for me… I filed a claim, they said they couldn’t find them there… now I see my AirPods case in an apartment complex in the Bronx… nothing I can do….
I’m pretty sure that this ban is impossible to enforce, because it’s not just AirTags that use the Find My Network — AirPod cases and other Apple devices have the same functionality. Someone who knows more about the technicals of the Find My system might disagree, but it seems the airlines would have to literally ban carrying Apple devices in your luggage.<p>This also seems to indicate that a “workaround” would be to drop a spare Apple accessory with Find My capability in your luggage. Again, I could be wrong, so hopefully someone with more domain expertise can correct me!
Lessons from recent lost luggage:<p>1. Fly direct if you can.<p>2. Insure your luggage.<p>3. If you must connect flights, stick with one airline, leave a 2-hour gap between flights and fly earlier in the day so you don’t end up in a dodgy hotel.<p>4. Put important stuff in hand luggage, incl. warm tops and underwear.<p>5. Use an AirTag.<p>Recently waited a month for my luggage after a missed Vueling connection due to striking baggage handlers. The airline claimed it was due to a “technical issue.” Wish I had bought an AirTag. You’d be surprised how the cost of small items add up…
Not sure what would be the motive for the airline to hide that the bag is lost. If it's not waiting for you at the baggage claim, you know it is lost, airtag or no airtag. Also not sure what good it does to the user either, to know in which particular hall of which particular terminal the luggage is right now.<p>Much more useful outside of airports.
A forward-thinking airline would not ban airtags and the like — they would <i>REQUIRE</i> them. Then offload some of the tracking to the customers.<p>This is obviously simply the airline trying to cut down on bad social media posts, as it is a lot less dramatic to post "I flew from Frankfurt to New York, and two days later where is my bag?" instead of "I flew from Frankfurt to New York, and two days later why is my bag in Hong Kong?<p>And with the ban, what are they going to do, refuse to load any bag that scans as an NFC? Send it but charge extra to collect it? Kick you off the plane? What happens when you have other luggage items that require it?<p>It also seems like this could be easily defeated with a feature that would put the AirTag to sleep for X hours after put in the luggage (set X to long enough to get to the airport and in the air, but shorter than when you are supposed to arrive).
The author states:<p>>"While some airlines provide baggage tracking, it’s awesome to always know exactly where your checked bag is."<p>Can someone say which airlines provide baggage tracking and it works exactly?<p>It's amazing that in 2022 baggage tracking is somehow too exotic for carriers as a matter of course.
Isn't it a case of false information?<p>I thought the tags communicated with nearby Bluetooth devices that have gps, which there should be none active nearby lost luggage... so people would scream that their luggage is somewhere around while the location is in fact outdated?
How does this help me when luggage is lost? I imagine standing at the lost luggage counter pointing at my phone screen: „But it’s there! Look!!!“, and the poor soul at the counter can only say „yes, we will get it to you asap“.<p>I totally get the peace of mind aspect, knowing where it is. But I don’t believe it helps me getting my luggage back if it is „lost“.<p>Imagine the worst case: the luggage fell down some escalator somewhere during transit. Or somewhere on the runway. And you then see it lying THERE! I SEE IT! How would the lost luggage counter contact a person picking up the luggage from there? I don’t think there are processes in place for this.
Having always had airtags in every checked bag for my wife and I for years now, we'll never go back. Has helped us in numerous situations not to mention peace of mind.<p>Good luck preventing me from putting one in there. We're not going back.
This feels like one of those policies those idiots at work came up with.<p>Like: let’s disable Chrome’s password manager because of a Cisco leak.<p>Ok, back to password + time of the year.<p>You’re not solving an issue. You’re just making people find workarounds.
Do they realize how many these these days have small batteries in them? Shavers, tooth brush, etc - that almost always are checked. Not to mention the coin cell batteries.<p>Are they really planning on banning every battery in luggage AND Enforcing it? That seems like a recipe for a bad time.<p>Don't get me wrong, there is a reason for some of the rules. The galaxy note 7 will be forever known as the fire phone. Cheap shitty hoverboards similarly caught fire with regularity.<p>But is there a single story about an AirTag catching fire?<p>This entire thing doesn't make sense.
> <i>it just can’t transmit, which of course renders it useless</i><p>Because, what, it's impossible to program things like this to start transmitting after an N-hour radio silence?
Operationally, I can see one reason why airlines would want to ban AirTags in luggage. AirTags default to beeping when they're away from the owner's iPhone. Found this out the hard way when leaving car keys with a valet parking once; came back to the keys in a drawer and beeping loudly; valet reported they had been like that all day. Presumably it's also a pain for baggage handlers and security folks who handle the bags.
"However, practically speaking, I can’t imagine it poses much of a risk of fire, or anything else."<p>Writer seems to not understand turning off transmitters is not about fire risk but electromagnetic compatibility with flight instruments. Hundreds of RF sources of different quality each with their own spurious emissions add up, but whether they seriously affect those instruments is still debated.
Our last trip we put airtags in all of our checked luggage. When we arrived at our destination before collecting our bags, 1 of the airtags showed it was still at the departing airport! Lucky for us it was not correct, and for some reason the airtag didnt update. So in this instance they caused more harm than good, but if your bag is missing it seems very helpful to have it tagged.
> If you must pack your tablet, mobile or laptop in your checked luggage, be sure they are <i>completely turned off</i> (not in "hibernate" or "sleep" modes).<p>Mentioning hibernation is inaccurate. The whole point on hibernation is to save the OS RAM to disk/SSD so that the machine can be completely powered off and unplugged without losing work.
In One Mile At A Time (OMAAT) has a fairly battered reputation in the wider frequent traveller community - see [0]<p>Credit card shilling, affiliate links, undisclosed financial interests. No thanks.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34608772-post4698.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34608772-post4698.html</a>
There could be non-cynical motives for airlines not to want customers to be able to track their baggage. Getting weird enquiries about whether bags have been stolen because they are in some unexpected non-airport location, when it's just a place the airline uses to handle delayed baggage, is probably troublesome for them.
> This is specifically because of the transmission function. Lufthansa claims that the transmission function needs to be turned off during flight when in checked luggage, just as is required for cell phones, laptops, etc.<p>Can anyone confirm/deny whether Airtags can interfere with aircraft navigation and communication systems?
If airlines adopt this more generally maybe Apple will create a feature to turn off air tags for a length of time. Ie: don't transmit for the next 6 hours but then start again. That would make this ban look quite ridiculous.
My airtag in my luggage saved my ass last week. Was able to efficiently explain the issue to Delta & got my bag within 4 hours delivered straight to my hotel. I will not be travelling without one
How will this apply when a 3rd party slips an airtag in to track the traveler (ex. SO, PI, stalker)? This seems like a great way to potentially mess with someone they don't want flying around.
They simply do not want people to know where their bags really are.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGrQZ2QVxoE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGrQZ2QVxoE</a>
Flew to Bulgaria late spring these jokers managed to lose my bags both ways... I could see why they wouldn't want this. Learned to pack some clothes in my backpack just in case now
My thoughts: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/shorts/tQIdxbWhHSM" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/shorts/tQIdxbWhHSM</a><p>s/NVIDIA/Lufthansa/g
Wow… AirTags on your luggage? What an incredible idea, lol.<p>Really though… can someone who knows what they’re talking about (or a pilot?) tell us if the transmitting excuse is a cover or BS?
This decade is really the year of shitty customer service isn’t it. They’ve just given up. Airports and planes are going to be miserable places for the foreseeable
Makes me wonder what system US security agency has for these. Can they ask Apple to disable them for certain areas or by device if you happen to be a target of interest?
That was already brought up in August. Original source is an article in Wirtschaftswoche. As it's paywalled you might also get to the article at ifun: <a href="https://www.ifun.de/lufthansa-apple-airtag-an-fluggepaeck-nicht-erlaubt-193593/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ifun.de/lufthansa-apple-airtag-an-fluggepaeck-ni...</a><p>More or less what they are saying is that Airtags are not allowed, but they don't enfoce a ban. You won't get anything more official. And that's not german at all - try arguing with TSA agents about rules.
Next AirTag software update: when any nearby phones indicate they are in Airplane mode via Bluetooth (which they can do because bluetooth isn't blocked in airplane mode), put all nearby airtags on standby for an hour). Apple can figure out all the nuances. Or they'll add cheap pressure monitors and determine tag is on an airplane. Repeat. Your move, Lufthansa.
TL;DR: Lufthansa argues that baggage trackers fall in the category of portable electronic devices, and are therefore subject to dangerous goods regulations issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
> This is specifically because of the transmission function. Lufthansa claims that the transmission function needs to be turned off during flight when in checked luggage, just as is required for cell phones, laptops, etc.<p>While this is negligible and I can see a lot of people saying "Well who cares it's just one" if you imagine a lot of interference from a lot of baggage with them on a flight.. I haven't tested, but personally I would prefer to be safer rather than sorry.<p>It's also worth noting this is a de-facto rule for US domestic flights too. All carriers, switching to airplane mode is a federal requirement on U.S. domestic flights.<p>Edit : I found an article saying they were compliant with US but no sources.. <a href="https://thepointsguy.com/news/bag-tracking-apple-airtag/" rel="nofollow">https://thepointsguy.com/news/bag-tracking-apple-airtag/</a>