Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Had I been BA I would have accepted the role of AirTags, and with a few cheap access points could have provided really granular information inside the BA App or via AirTag's software.
Fact is, there's
already plenty enough information based on extremely reliable technology. Every bag passing through LHR gets dozens of scans (which in turn generate a baggage message, a pinpoint of "I'm here") throughout their journey, and the success rate is >99.8%. And this is worldwide, BA's got 70% of their stations by volume already set up like that. No need to reinvent the wheel. What is needed is to strong-arm the SITAs of this world to agree to pool the data in a single location.
AirTags could be useful for out of gauge equipment, especially mobility aids. That's something I would agree to, no airline should ever misplace a wheelchair.
Originally Posted by
binman
This is nonsense! Just flown LHR to SYD on Delta. This means I was required to collect and clear bags at LAX and check them in again. Aside from being able to track the bag in the absolutely superb Delta app, both in LAX and SYD bags were delivered in under 20 minutes.
In LAX I arrived at 1749 and cleared immigration 18:09 to find bags on the belt. In SYD ground staff made an announcement on board giving carousel number and that they would take 20 minutes. This was exactly what happened.
Qatar have an issue at LHR but BA performance is just pathetic and worse they just don’t care!
Delta is an interesting case study. Back in the early 2010s their baggage performance was beyond shocking (there's/used to be DoT data available publicly). Then they started investing massively on three things:
- technology. They wanted ALL of their stations (mainline at least) to have Baggage Reconciliation Systems by 2018, meaning no more bingo sheets.
- tracking. they wanted to have tracking of all of their bags in the mainline network. They selected one partner and rolled it out worldwide. Where some airports already had a BRS, they basically overlaid one on top of the other, so that a bag is "zapped" twice. Not exactly cost-effective, but it did the trick and solved the issue I was referring to earlier in terms of SITA or the like saying "this is my baggage data, I won't give it to you unless you give me X or Y"
- ways of working. They applied the same level of care they give to passengers... to bags. In other words, if a passenger is connecting and is running late, normally the airline try to expedite their journey. The same doesn't happen for bags. They introduced short connecting bins, like BA has, but moreover they became proactive in managing their connections. If, say, you're sat in Atlanta and flight DL123 arriving from LHR is 30 min late and has 20 bags at risk of missing the connection, they'll send an extra driver to pick up those bags and rush them to their onward flights. They also have tail-to-tail transfers in the US, which the muppets in charge over here don't want to agree to.