Recommend AirTags for Pack/luggage transfers

[Kasee]

We had our bags transferred each day on our Frances and were very pleased with the service. However, while we were walking to Fisterra, our bags were picked up by the wrong taxi company and were delivered to a different hotel. If we hadn’t been able to see where the bags were using the Find My app, no one would have been able to figure out how the mixup happened or where our bags ended up without major detective work. Fortunately, it was a ten-minute walk for us to go and retrieve our things.

 

[John Sikora]

I'll second that. Airtags are a really great invention. Once, while I was walking, I checked to see where my luggage was. The app told me that it found my bags about 200 yards from where I was. Apparently, the timing was just right and the bags were passing me as I walked to my next destination.

 

[Susan Peacock]

Agree…. Found mine in the airport when it was lost.

 

[Linda Murphy]

We had our bags transferred each day on our Frances and were very pleased with the service. However, while we were walking to Fisterra, our bags were picked up by the wrong taxi company and were delivered to a different hotel. If we hadn’t been able to see where the bags were using the Find My app, no one would have been able to figure out how the mixup happened or where our bags ended up without major detective work. Fortunately, it was a ten-minute walk for us to go and retrieve our things.

Sounds like an awesome idea and would take away the what-if fear knowing you can electronically track your bags.

 

[mla1]

The tags are great! As is the "find my...." app!

But the tags are not failsafe. When my step-daughter was flying with her dog (in the hold) from Canada to France, the tag that she had left in her dog's crate said -- as the plane was taking off -- that her dog was not on the plane. After an interminable wait of several hours, the flight crew eventually confirmed that the dog was on the plane and not somewhere in the bowels of the Montreal airport. And indeed she was - but it was a nerve-wracking flight. When they got home, and tested the tag it was working fine. The tags she had put on her other luggage had also worked well the whole time.

Does anyone know what would make a tag not work properly or interfere with it being able to work?

 

[Robo]

They sound like a great idea. I'm just researching them.
It seems they use bluetooth and so only have a range of 200-400 feet.
Is that correct?

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

There are more posts on AirTags in a recent thread.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/apple-air-tag.76971/

I just posted an idea there on how to use a pair of them to help recover stolen property that I will now repeat (in the quote).

I think this was discussed earlier but AirTags and the like aren't all that useful in recovering stolen property if the tag is removed or disabled. So this might help recover a stolen backpack or luggage; put two in, one well hidden and the other more obvious. The obvious one would likely be removed leaving the hidden one to do its magic. I was thinking that it could be hidden by being sewn behind a souvenir patch or flag.

Perhaps the obvious tag could be a broken one saving you some money but it could also be a functional one not registered on your phone but instead on a phone belonging to a family member back home interested in following your whereabouts.

 

[Travelin'Tom]

They are fun. I was having a cafe con leche along the Camino and checked our backpacks location. Wow they were in a Jacotran van across the street!

 

[NJohn]

They sound like a great idea. I'm just researching them.
It seems they use bluetooth and so only have a range of 200-400 feet.
Is that correct?

We are on the Camino now and have been having great luck with them. When we are a mile or 2 (sorry, around 2 km) away from our town, I start tracking my air tag/suitcase It has taken us right to our accommodations every time. The only time it hasn’t worked is the few times we got to the town before Jacotrans has made their deliveries

 

[Viscount Gumpy of Ol']

The tags are great! As is the "find my...." app!

But the tags are not failsafe….

Does anyone know what would make a tag not work properly or interfere with it being able to work?

The AirTags rely on an Apple iPhone coming within Bluetooth range for them to be able to report their location. In your daughter’s dog’s case it is possible that no iPhones came within range for a period of time.

 

[mla1]

The AirTags rely on an Apple iPhone coming within Bluetooth range for them to be able to report their location. In your daughter’s dog’s case it is possible that no iPhones came within range for a period of time.

Thanks! She was apparently on one of new very large aircraft (the number of which I don't know) -- and we did wonder if the dog's crate in the hold was simply too far away? It was clearly somewhere different than her bags were.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

It was clearly somewhere different than her bags were.

This webpage

Is It Safe to Fly Your Pet in Cargo?

Is it safe to fly your dog or cat in cargo? Will dogs too large for in-cabin pet travel be comfortable in the hold of the plane? Here we discuss what the cargo area is like for your four-legged family, whether cargo is truly a safe travel option for your pet, and how to best prepare your dog or...

djangobrand.com

says

Pets are placed in a climate-controlled, pressurized compartment below the aircraft cabin and kept separate from luggage and other cargo.

 

[JacTx]

Just a thought, would it be beneficial to have an airtag AND a tile tag thingy? That way it would catch more phones? (Not just iphones -if it works that way?)

 

[Pilgrim9]

The tags are great! As is the "find my...." app!

But the tags are not failsafe. When my step-daughter was flying with her dog (in the hold) from Canada to France, the tag that she had left in her dog's crate said -- as the plane was taking off -- that her dog was not on the plane. After an interminable wait of several hours, the flight crew eventually confirmed that the dog was on the plane and not somewhere in the bowels of the Montreal airport. And indeed she was - but it was a nerve-wracking flight. When they got home, and tested the tag it was working fine. The tags she had put on her other luggage had also worked well the whole time.

Does anyone know what would make a tag not work properly or interfere with it being able to work?

What almost certainly blocked the Air Tag's Bluetooth radio transmissions inside the plane was the aluminum floor between the passenger compartment and the pet section of the cargo hold. Since the cargo section was entirely surrounded by aluminum sheet metal, it formed a radio-wave-impermeable Faraday Cage.

 

[Pilgrim9]

Putting an Air Tag inside one's own car helps when one must park on the street, sometimes several blocks away, and then forgets where it is. A downside is the occasional trilling sound emitted by the Tag upon movement. That can be mitigated by wrapping it in sound-absorbing material.

 

[Viscount Gumpy of Ol']

A downside is the occasional trilling sound emitted by the Tag upon movement. That can be mitigated by wrapping it in sound-absorbing material.

It shouldn’t do that. As long as you have your linked iPhone with you, it won’t make any noise.

 

[Pilgrim9]

It shouldn’t do that. As long as you have your linked iPhone with you, it won’t make any noise.

Thank you for that, as I am still low on the Air Tag learning curve.
Being a cheapskate, the closest thing I have to a smartphone is an iPad, which never leaves my residence --> no iPhone or equivalent in car --> occasional trilling sounds from Tag. I can live with that.