Lost Luggage?
 

Hello.

I am a fellow frequent flyer and am fearful of lossing my luggage, so much so that tend not to check luggage and take only what I can carry on the plane. I am also a MBA student at San Francisco State University and as part of my entreprenual class, a group of students are proposing a GPS type device that can be used with luggage to track any luggage that is lost.

I am appealing to the graciousness of the members of this site to get any feedback on such a product. We are doing a feasibility analysis to see if there is actually a market for a device that will help track where your luggage is at all times.

Questions:

How often do you fly?
Do you usually check your luggage?
If you do, do you have a high fear that it will get lost?
Would you be interested in purchasing a GPS type device to track lost luggage?
How much would you be willing to pay for such a device?

I would be extremely grateful for any feedback on the topic. Feel free to answer any or all of the questions and give any suggestions or comments on the topic.

Thank you so much!!

Candace

It would be very interesting to have a GPS type device installed in your luggage for you to track. Doesn't the GPS type device MUST have direct line of sight to at least THREE different geo-synchronous satellites for it to work? That means, if the baggage is inside a building of whatever type or in an aircraft, it would not be locateable.
Is there some technology that would get around this?

HJ

You're (roughly) correct about GPS - it ain't gonna work in this scenario. Cell towers, now, that might have something. But I think the best you could do would be about "Terminal C in CLE", so I'm not sure how helpful it would be.

Interesting concept, but I think you would have a number of problems to overcome.

I fly a couple times a month. Probably 50% of the time I gate check bags because of regional jets. Rarely do I check bags on larger planes. An exception would be checking dirty laundry on trips home - if it gets lost for a few days no big deal. Only lost bag I have ever had was MDW-DTW when I checked in for a standby flight 10 minutes before the door closed. Bag made the next flight and was delivered to my house that night.

I really have no fear of my bags being lost. First, the percentage of truely lost bags is incredibly small. The media reports their "millions" of bags lost, but these are really just delayed, rerouted, etc. They turn up eventually. If I am outbound where I could not buy necessities easily, I make sure I have a days worth of clothes in a carry on.

Bags are bar coded and scanned every step of the way, so typically the airline knows where they are. If you make sure your name/address/phone is both inside and outside of the bag, they will still be able to find you if the barcode falls off, the agent typed DFW instead of DTW or something like that. For international trips I also include my complete itinerary in the outside pocket - and the address tag says "itinerary in top outside pocket". These are free ways to make sure my bags find their way home.

On the technical side, "seeing" three satellites was noted. If you went with cell phone triangulation, you might have issues with different phone networks around the world. You would also have the issues with being in the bowels of an airport with poor signal strength.

I assume you would also need a transmitter to let someone know where the bag is. Now you are into FAA and FCC (and other world wide equivalents) regulations on transmitters and electronic devices in aircraft.

Now, if you could apply this concept to my dogs I might buy it. On my trip two weeks ago they decided to escape from my housesitter and ended up getting arrested by the local police. They had to spend the night in the police station before I tracked them down and arranged for my housesitter to pick them up. Having a computer display showing them "moving north on Elm street" would save tons of time, stress, and potential injury to them. Of course my German Shepherd would just develop a jamming device to counteract it, like she has defeated several types/heights of fence and gate latches. She even managed to take off her ID tag before the adventure.

I wonder how the airlines & the authorities will take to having several hundred active GPS receivers on a flight. Might cause a few problems.

I don't know if the GPS devices will effect airline navigation and communication, but I doubt it would work because the FAA always plays it safe. Also, I think it would be cheaper in most instances, for most frequent fliers and airlines to just replace whatever is lost. In all my time travelling, I've never lost luggage, just had it delayed a few times.

I don't know if the cost/benefit analysis would work for an individual customer. I don't think I would pay above $20 to use such a product as I usually check-in bags and don't have a fear of them getting lost. Although, my luggage has been delayed several times. If this could somehow be incorporated with existing portable GPS devices, then I might consider it.

If you could plant a small device on your luggage (or someone ;) or something), and track it via a portable GPS device, that would be cool.

An RFID chip in the luggage makes more sense. It is much cheaper and can be scanned remotely. It could be registered to you much like the chips they implant in pets. The airline wands your bag at check in, records the number in their system and on your ticket. If the chip is part of the bag, they could not fall off and it could help with security ( a quick check before leaving the arrivals hall could help prevent bag theft). A chip reader could scan the luggage at multiple points (load/unload/transfer, etc). Much like the bar codes now, but orientation of the bag or tag would not matter and it couldn't fall off.

I agree - an RFID chip would make more sense. Since all bags (supposedly) are scanned for explosives, why can't they be scanned for the chip? :confused:

In fact, I have never lost a bag. Sometimes delayed, but it arrives the next day. Many times, my (checked) bag arrives at the destination before I do! :eek:

That's happened to me and I've always wondered about it too, especially considering bags are supposed to fly with the passengers. Other than that I've had bags delayed as well, but never lost - doubt the OP's idea has any legs

I fly about once a week, and try to do everything in my power not to check a bag. Last year, I checked my bag 10 times and it was misplaced 2 of those times. The first time, I got it back in less than 24 hours (though it was delivered to the lobby booth of my apartment building, which promptly closed for the weekend. I had to get the super to open it up for me, and he was not happy about it) and the second bag I got back about 50 hours later.

As for some sort of system to know where my bag is, I don't really think it would do me much good. After all, I'm not going to get on a plane and fly and get it. I suppose if you think that the airlines are so clueless as to have no idea where you bag is (which is, I suppose, a possibilty) you could use it to inform them of where to look. But generally, I wouldn't pay any extra to get a GPS for my bag.

I do transcon's every week. Not interested as I never check luggage. I (and most of the road warriors I know) carry-on not because of loss, but for speed and flexibility. You ever get your checked baggage at SFO? I'm off the plane and halfway home to San Jose before they get around to offloading the luggage. In San Jose, I routinely get upgraded from Denver, and on that 757 I'm off and in the car quickly enough that as I drive past I can still see people lned up in the plane to get off.

If I get a good tailwind to ORD and there's space, I can jump on the earlier connection to EWR. I can get a message when I land at DIA re-routing me to IND rather than DSM. Or.... like today.... I can dig out a clean shirt when the bozo in the seat next to me spills his red wine on me enroute to CLT for my connection to TRI.

D.

Recent experiences over the last year makes me think that such scanning is not done by all airlines. When bags were delayed on a UA/UX itinerary, UA was able to locate quickly (in one situation with a missed connecction, they were able to retrieve my luggage so that I could have it overnight ^^^). However, in cases with bags delayed when US was involved, they seemed to have no idea where the bags were. "They usually arrive on the next flight" was the best they could do. In one case, they did arrive on the next flight, but it took their #$$%&# delivery service over 6 hours to deliver them to a hotel about 10 miles away from the airport (of course this happened the night before a wedding).

I had another experience last week with luggage delayed from not making a connecting flight, and I am considering filing a compliant with the DOT. Other than very slightly impacting the stats for the airlines, I don't expect much to come from it. Are others on the board filing such complaints? From DOT's site, http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/problems.htm, the process appears to require a call, letter, or e-mail with flight details (I expected there to be an online form to complete, but that must be too efficient).

I added in numbers:
1. Atleast twice a year for leasure. Sometimes I go on business trips, though it's now and then.

2. Yes, but I do pack important items in carry-on.

3. Not really. If it does, the airline will compinsate me, and if I have more than 1 suitcase, I pack all items evenly incase one does get lost, I still have 1/2 my cloths.

4. Sure, if it's cheap and legal.

5. If it's sold at Wal Mart 9meaning it's cheap. No more than $30.00 CAD).