It is rare for me to discover that I’m unaware of a development in the airline industry here in the US but . . . I am.  It’s bag tracking and it ain’t sexy but it is very interesting.

The Daily Traveler via Brett Snyder Aof the Cranky Flier has this story about US Airways quietly rolling out its own real time tracking system.  Now, each time a bag enters or departs a major entity (primarily an aircraft), it gets scanned and reported into the system.  Delta apparently has this too!

I am thrilled about this for so many reasons.  It’s not perfection in tracking as your bag still could get lost between an airplane and a baggage claim area, for instance.

But now you can see where your bag(s) are and keep things honest about what is going on with them.  It has been my experience that airline employees are particularly untruthful about the location of a lost bag much of the time.  Lost bags are hot button problems for passengers and baggage agents don’t want those problems.

I also think this will actually help to tighten airline responsiveness to lost baggage problems.  It’s a good thing and a system that absolutely should be carried over into American Airlines asap.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax