jsguyrus

Somehow I don't think this is going to save any time. Have you seen the long lines of people that cant work the check in kiosks or manage to get a boarding pass in the app? On top of that, the Geek Wire story lists the cost at $70. I'm sorry, I am not paying $70 so Alaska can be "more efficient".

djp98374

Couldn’t you GPS your own bag?

ASA_1

I’d rather have the tracking feature to be able to know my bag made it on the plane, similar to what delta offers. The print at home bag tag solves the problem Alaska is trying to address here, albeit with paper.

notquiteaff

I used that when they offered a 500 (?) mile bonus. Haven’t really don’t it since then.

jsguyrus

I use an Air Tag if I have to check a bag, works well.

anhuang19

Wasn't this trailed back in 2016? I wonder if they switched the supplier for the tags or not.

elCheapoDeluxe

Given we have the self print tags in the plastic pouches - the incremental case for this being a convenience is pretty small.

That has been a nice feature on UA (and AA?)

Lux Flyer

For UNMRs the only advantage is you could then use automated scanners to detect their location, but again would still require installing those scanners everywhere at your airports/gate areas which I'm not sure the efficiency of that. Or you have it ping whatever electronic device your FAs/GAs are using (similar to how Tile works) but again not perfect if UNMR is somewhere those devices aren't present which they presumably would be if they're lost by the airline. But if it's still going to require manually GA/FA intervention to utilize the electronic tracker, not sure how advantageous it would be over a wrist band.

As for pets in cargo. Have any airlines even resumed taking pets as cargo? My understanding is they almost all universally stopped it when COVID began and haven't brought it back for "COVID" concerns but really because it was a good excuse to get rid of a program that gives them too much liability and bad press.

Not sure that would ever be a thing. Part of the layered security approach to airports is physically verifying ID when a bag gets checked in. Lot less chance someone is going to want to put a banned item in a bag or check their bag with a nefarious purpose when they know it's going to easily be traced back to them or has to be manually handled by an airport employee before being entered into the baggage system. Would be creating massive security risk if you could directly enter your baggage into the baggage handling system.


They do, it doesn't show every scan but most major ones, i.e. accepted, loaded on plane, loaded off plane, transferred to new plane, arrived at baggage claim. However they do have so much more scan data. Baggage handling systems are pretty advanced now and almost every intersection where a bag can be routed somewhere generates a scan data point, in addition to employees manually scanning bags (essentially if you're doing something with the bag it should be scanned). Biggest reason a bag gets lost/delayed is when an employee either manually loads it from the baggage belt onto the wrong baggage cart, the entire cart doesn't get brought to the plane for loading, or the label became damaged in some way making it unscannable.

PaperGlider

Interesting.

oh great. It will now sort of match my electronic-license-plate that I don't need. https://reviver.com/

All sarcasm aside, I don't know what bugs me more about this, a) I don't see much benefit to me, b) I am concerned about more apps and tech complexity. c) the fit of the guys pants in the video.

PaperGlider

Maybe this will take care of 2 birds with 1 stone...can the other side of the tags say "MVP 100K"?

anteater

I would rather AS spend the resources to fix the UG processor.

🤙🏻🍹

sfozrhfco

Yes...tried and failed...

https://news.alaskaair.com/guest-exp...onic-bag-tags/

sfozrhfco

For $100 extra, you can get a tracker to track the tag You get a $50 discount if you help check in the bags of 10 other customers each time you fly LOL

StrandedinLA

Only if it comes with magically skipping the bag drop line in seatac

James91

Why on earth would anyone actually want to do this?