Use an Apple AirTag to track your luggage during a flight?
Great news: there are now 30 airlines which will support that.
Let's face it, we all hate losing something. I've spent all morning complaining about losing my good screwdriver – it's something that drives us mad.
Even worse is losing your luggage during a flight. Turning up to a new location sans-belongings is an unnecessary stress, and can even leave you out of pocket in the short term, as you look to replace the essentials.
Fortunately, the Apple AirTag offers something of a solution to this problem. Pop one of these trackers into your bag, and you can track its location on your iPhone with a high degree of accuracy.
In iOS 18, this functionality evolved with the arrival of Share Item Location. That allows users to share the location of their bag for a set time, to aid in locating lost luggage and reuniting you with your things.
It's something which has really caught on with airlines. Saudia – the national airline for Saudi Arabia – has just announced that it is joining the scheme, bringing the total number of supported airlines up to 30.
The full list is as follows:
- Aer Lingus
- Ajet
- Air Canada
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- American Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Breeze Airlines
- British Airways
- Brussels Airlines
- Cathay Pacific
- China Airlines
- Delta
- Eurowings
- Finnair
- Iberia
- JetBlue
- KLM
- Lufthansa
- Pegasus
- Porter
- Quantas
- Saudia Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- Swiss
- Sun Express
- Turkish Airlines
- United
- Virgin Atlantic
- Vueling
That's a fantastic selection of airlines, all offering an innovative technological solution for an annoying problem. The sheer volume of carriers offering support suggests you should have a good chance of flying with one in the near future.
To make use of the feature, simply head to the Find My app on your iPhone. Then, tap on the item you want to share the location of, and hit Share Item Location. Following the onscreen instructions will then create a temporary webpage, which can be shared with the airline to track down your baggage.
The post on Saudia's LinkedIn page – which announced the feature for its flights – suggests that the location sharing ends automatically once the baggage is located, but it can also be stopped manually at any time and will expire after seven days. That should be a relief for anyone who had concerns over the safety and privacy of the feature.
