For my first post here (hello!), I thought I should discuss something that has been bothering me for quite some time: baggage tags. Yep, those barcode-sporting, omnipresent identifiers whose little siblings have been staining the back of my passport and now its cover for longer than I desire.

Now we know that mobile boarding passes are nothing new for major airlines. They had smartphone apps that display boarding passes for the past few years. Technology permitting, iOS users can now take advantage of arguably more enhanced boarding passes with PassBook. What puzzles is why haven't airlines come up with a way to integrate the baggage reclaim tags into their apps? From what I have been able to dig up, baggage tag format has been standardised amongst IATA, airlines and airports. Apart from the number plate, they have the name of destination airport, departure time, IATA code of the destination airport, airline code and flight number and passenger's name + surname.

I can't speak for all airlines, but for those I have flown on (BA, United, Iberia, AA, Delta, KLM currently spring to mind), specifying whether I am checking in any baggage is part of normal check-in process. As such, at least theoretically, if I do have bags to check in, it should be possible for the electronic version of the tag to be generated in advance. It can be downloaded to my phone at the same time as the boarding pass. Then, when I am dropping the bag(s) off at the airport, the paper version is printed and affixed.

Recently, I heard of an airport that allows you to pre-print your baggage tags at home before showing up at the airport. So my idea isn't so crazy after all. I also seem to recall Delta having a feature in their mobile app that lets you track your bags while you fly. However, to go so still requires a passenger to scan in their paper baggage reclaim stub, so it falls short of what I envisage. Likewise, in the present day and age where the vast majority (subject to correction here) of people resort to paper boarding passes, it is unlikely that an airline will invest in R&D to make mobile boarding tags happen any time soon. I do not expect it to ever be a key differentiator between airlines. But getting over this hurdle is a substantial step towards paper-free travel, which is the direction I believe the airline industry, as a whole, is moving in.

Sorry if this was the most boring thing since the last time you watched paint dry, but it's a topic that is rarely discussed, so giving it a bit more limelight is a good thing. You never know what things may lead to...

Welcome to FlyerTalk. I'm going to move your post to our Travel Buzz forum, where there just may be an eager group ready to discuss this often-sticky matter.

l'etoile
sr. moderator

I'm a little confused as to what your actual idea is. You will always need something physically attached to your baggage to identify it. If you want to go paperless I believe that RFID tags are the future. Qantas has had them a few years on domestic routes and they work well. But paper tags still need to be available for infrequent flyers. If the airline industry could agree on a standard, RFID could become more widespread.

Apologies for the confusion. Yes, the paper baggage tag would still be attached. What I am after is for the electronic equivalent of the reclaim stub that is given to the passenger when he/she drops off the bags to be available in airline's mobile app in the same manner as a boarding pass already is. Doing so would need an overhaul of the industry towards a new standard in the manner that widespread adoption of RFID would.

I appreciate that some passengers still insist on having a paper boarding pass, to which the reclaim stub is affixed, even when they do use the app for frequent flyers to check-in, check flights status, etc. Much the same, some people don't have apps on their phone, are not frequent flyers and just want a boarding pass. There will always be this category of people. However, airlines should heed feedback from people who do use the latest and greatest technology and fly with them a lot. It's this kind of people who help drive innovation and provide ideas for improvement. Incorporating just the boarding pass into a mobile app, but leaving baggage part behind, seems like a job half done. A shortcoming of thinking, if you will.

This makes little sense.

Most airlines have the ability of mobile boarding passes, people can choose if they want to use their phone or whatever or print a paper one. They scan their phone at security and at the gate. So saying they will invest to make mobile boarding passes happen any time soon is just wrong, they have already invested the time and it is a reality on many airlines in many locations.

Luggage tags can never be paperless. They need to physically attach something to the bag so as it goes through the process the tag is read and it gets on the right plane and it's tracked. You don't need a copy of the tag on your device, as your device is not being checked.

You get a claim check when you hand a bag to somebody to check it in. Any other way, printing them ahead or whatever is ripe for fraud the only way to make sure a bag was checked is to tag it and give the proper receipt when it's accepted.

What you are suggesting would require them to somehow get you the reclaim check on your phone after you drop off your bags, and before they close the door of your flight and the phone has to be shut off. That isn't something I think they will want to spend any time with at all given that it's no extra thing for them to print the reclaim check, it's just at the bottom of the luggage tag. I think you are proposing a solution to a problem that nobody else considers an issue.

My bad with a typo there, I meant mobile baggage tags. Original post has been corrected.

I am not suggesting (or at least not meaning to) that baggage tags that are attached to bags are useless and should go away. I am talking about the reclaim stub.

Not necessarily. Unless I am mistaken, the information on a baggage tag (and its corresponding reclaim stub) is static. It does not change with time unless changes are made to the flight itself. So, in effect, an electronic copy of the tag can be generated as soon as the flight is booked.

The workflow that I am suggesting -- just to clear up any confusion -- is like this:

1. I book a flight
2. When it comes to checking in, I specify that I have baggage to check in and indicate number of bags.
3. I complete the check-in process, go to the app on my phone and download the boarding pass and the reclaim stub.
4. I show up at the airport with my bags, hand them over to the check-in desk agent who scans my mobile boarding pass and the reclaim stub.
5. He/she prints the hard copy to the baggage tag and affixes it/them to my bag(s)
6. Off I go to security, lounge, etc.

If printing stuff at the airport was never considered an issue, why did airlines start to allow people to print their own boarding passes at home? Why did they bring mobile apps with boarding passes functionality to the masses? While it may not be an "issue" per se, it is definitely added convenience and thus value. Speaking frankly, I am more likely to lose or forget the location of a small rectangle of paper than my phone.

You can not and should not get a reclaim check until you hand over your bags.

Otherwise you will just board a flight never checking a bag, and when you get to your destination claim your luggage was lost, you handed it in, see you have a claim check, pay me money.

Claim checks can only be issued when the bag is turned over.

Boarding passes are completly different than luggage tags when discussing printing at the airport.

Every bag needs a tag, and every bag tag will needed to be printed at the airport. There's no real way around it, they have to be standardized and having somebody print a tag on an ink jet printer and leaving the bag out in the rain causing the ink to all run is not ever going to happen. No amount of mobile use will ever change the fact that for the foreseeable future, bag tags need to be printed on a printer at the airport. As that has to happen, printing a claim check at home will do nothing to change the volume that has to be printed at the airport. Won't change the people needed, won't change the counter space needed.

Boarding passes are totally different. You don't need to attach a boarding pass to a piece of luggage when it's handed over. Allowing people to print boarding passes at home or at a kiosk has considerably cut down on the staff needed at the airport, and in many cases the lines at the airport.

If you have trouble holding on to your tags, have you considered sticking them to the back of your phone?

Agree this makes sense, but the big difference is that while checking in can be automated (except international flights), the acceptance of baggage must be done by a human. Therefore incrementally the saving to the airline and tone savings to a pax, would only be marginal,unlike the issuance of electronic boarding passes. Get rid of the human factor in baggage acceptance, and I am onboard, otherwise it's a nice to have, or take a picture of them w your phone.

Piece of cake. Airline can check whether they printed a corresponding baggage tag at the airport where you started your journey. Problem solved

If I am not happy about sticky mess on the back of my passport and its cover, do you think I will be OK with the same on the back of my phone case?

OK, so how about this:

1. Arrive at the airport. Go to a bag drop off area.
2. Scan the electronic baggage reclaim stub from your airline's app
3. Hard copy of the corresponding baggage tag is dispensed. Attach it to your bag, confirm and let the baggage belt take it away.

Fully automated, no need for human intervention (unless there are problems) and convenient.

When you check a bag, you have a human checking your photo ID. Same when boarding an intl flight. I think it is mandated that there is this check in place. If this could be replaced w a scanner vs a human then you would be set.

Nothing to stop a bag tag being printed, and ditched in the nearest trash can instead of putting it on a bag on the belt.

Whether human vs scanner that checks your ID shouldn't make much difference as long as combination of ID and boarding pass results in printing of the tag that is affixed to your bags.

Same is true in the current day and age. In circumstances you describe, it won't matter whether your reclaim stub is physical or electronic. So it is not a valid argument against introduction of the latter because the passenger will not be any worse off than they are right now.

You are reckoning without our good friends the TSA. Technically you could walk through security without Thousands Standing Around.

The passenger is not the person who would be worse off, it is the airline who would be, with fake claims.

Right now, either your luggage tag is printed at the desk, attached by the agent, and the bag put behind them on to the belt, or the bag tag is printed at the kiosk, where the agents are monitoring them being put on to bags, and you are then sent into the bag drop line.

Techie,

Thanks for posting your thought process. Definitely some food for thought. There are lots of ways to improve the curb to plane experience. Always interesting to talk about them.