One of the most common AirTag use cases is for tracking luggage, and Apple shipped a great feature in the last year that helps airlines recover lost luggage faster. Now, per a report at travel publication Skift, that feature has just gotten a key upgrade.
Apple has improved how lost AirTag location gets to airlines, starting with Delta
If you use an AirTag for tracking luggage, you can now privately, temporarily share an AirTag’s location with select airlines to help that airline’s staff find the lost bag fast. Airline support has been rolling out all year.
And now, it seems, Apple has been working behind the scenes to make the feature even more effective.
Adriana Lee writes at Skift:
Apple has expanded its role in travel with a new integration tool developed with Delta Air Lines, enabling AirTag location data to flow straight into Delta’s baggage systems. Completed within the past few weeks, the API builds on Share Item Location, a feature released last year to help airlines find lost AirTagged luggage. The new tech allows detailed location data to flow directly into the airlines’ back-end, reducing the number of manual steps previously required by workers.
The report explains that Apple’s newly developed API doesn’t seek to replace existing airline baggage systems, but rather it integrates with them.
As part of the testing, Delta’s Ramsey Hammad says that Apple was taken behind the scenes over several occasions at “some of the world’s busiest airports.”
The tool was developed in partnership with Delta, but it is not exclusive to that airline, and as such we should expect to see other major airlines roll out support in the future.
How AirTag’s location sharing feature works for luggage
... continue reading