Yup. When they were having the lifetime service deal I picked up some Trakdots. If the system works there's no point to them. If something goes wrong I at least know what's up--something the airline likely doesn't. I figure I'll be more likely to get it if I know what's going on.

Thanks for the post.
Even though we have never lost luggage in previous trips, I purchased the Trakdot at the end of June.
Used it on our summer trip in August.
It worked as expected. Except I forgot to place it in my luggage (left in my hand carry) at ORD and ultimately our luggage missed the LHR-ZHR connection. (Seriously pissed at myself for not placing in the checked bag).
After that, it worked perfectly.
It tracked ZRH-HKG. (Went silent in Japan as anticipated). Picked back up in LAX-PHX-ORD
Product works as expected so far.
As far as the bluetooth functionality, it has an indicator as that shows near/far but I could never really get a good sense of how close the bag was to me.

Tile
 

I heard some people raving about Tile, as a device for locating your lost luggage. Anyone on this forum use it or have an opinion if it's worth the money?

Looks like you need to count on another user to have the app running on their phone when they happen to be within 100 feet of your luggage with the app running. which will give you a one-moment-in-time view of where your luggage is/was.

Sounds like a bit of a longshot unless they get a seriously critical mass of users. Perhaps $25 is worth the low probability, but given that I've never lost a bag in 25 years of travel, I won't be buying.

We have Tile, I have one on my keychain and have actually found my keys using it! (they were in the back of the car where I had set them down to get groceries, not in the house when I was looking for them later) One other time we realized the keys were NOT left at a store (we thought they were) instead they were in my laptop case, in a pocket I never use. I also have one in my backpack and suitcase. The batteries are not user replaceable, we just got our new replacement tiles. I really like it.

i was intrigued to see if anyone else used Tile and finally found this thread :-) as people have alluded too, it wont get your bag out any quicker, but for me, it definitely avoids any need to stand waiting for your bag amongst the people who insist on standing up close to the belt for 20 minutes!

Their userbase must be pretty widespread. over '200 users nearby' when i opened the app in heathrow last week. I guess there's a bit of hope if it goes missing, you may see a blip somewhere at some point in time?

I wrote this up on it if anyone wants more info http://triphacker.co.uk/tileapp

it's also a heck of a lot cheaper than the new smart luggage options out there, which on the gadget show a couple weeks ago got mediocre reviews on the features they have!

Depends. How many years would you like to track your luggage? 10 years = 10 Tiles.

Anyone know if Tile uses a lithium ion battery? I just received a four-pack for Christmas and was considering throwing a Tile into a bag and checking the bag. But I want to make sure there are no issues here. With airlines banning smart luggage such as Away, it's unclear to me what is and isn't allowed.

Cheers,
LBBZman

No, it's a CR2016 coin battery. Potentially lithium, but definitely not Lithium Ion.

Excellent. Thank you.

Trakdot / Traccom
 

Anybody else find it seriously annoying to receive this email from "Traccom" - which appears to be the successor company to Trakdot (no long operating) ?

For those of us who bought a Trakdot, and they stopped supporting it ... why would we sink good money after bad, and buy a Traccom ?

I’ve used these smart locks before, these guys are going a global mobile tracker. It was 99$ coming out oft the gates for the initial kickstarter, but now higher. IF it works as indicated, could be quite cool.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ps/description

There is the Tile Pro nowadays, and the Tile Pro's batteries can be replaced easily without changing the Tile.

So now it would be more like this:

10 years = 1 Tile Pro+10 batteries.

I'm expecting that Tile may see an increase in purchases upon Apple releasing its AirTags product.

The problem with the Trakdots is not the company but the technology. It used 2G data technology and when that went away there was no way for the gadgets to talk to anything. The only possible "support" would be a 100% replacement of units, something they certainly couldn't afford.

I didn't pay much attention to Trakdots, but it didn't seem to have as much traction as the bluetooth-using Tile stuff; and the Trakdots batteries most commonly would die within 3 weeks or less IIRC, something that put it closer to on par with GPS-based trackers (with their own issues too) when it came to battery life than with the bluetooth technology used by Tile.

The way Tile plays out -- and the likely way Apple's AirTags will play out too -- should really make people think about privacy issues and also how they may even be unwittingly playing into a surveillance state and crowd-source stalking when using this kind of luggage+ tracking technology. The battery life of Tile trackers is closer to 1-3 years rather than closer to 1-3 weeks.