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Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

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Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#101

Post by biggc »

andy_ppp wrote: post #83

It’s almost as if Lufthansa are admitting they are a terrible airline with awful practices like silently cancelling the return leg of flights if you don’t make the outbound. This happened to me on the way back from Germany, I can’t imagine they still do this but I found them extremely unhelpful and this sort of behaviour reinforces my feeling they think you’re lucky to be travelling with them.

> like silently cancelling the return leg of flights if you don’t make the outbound

I don't know about the "silently" part, but this is standard practice for most (all?) airlines.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#102

Post by toss1 »

A forward-thinking airline would not ban airtags and the like — they would REQUIRE them. Then offload some of the tracking to the customers.

This is obviously simply the airline trying to cut down on bad social media posts, as it is a lot less dramatic to post "I flew from Frankfurt to New York, and two days later where is my bag?" instead of "I flew from Frankfurt to New York, and two days later why is my bag in Hong Kong?

And with the ban, what are they going to do, refuse to load any bag that scans as an NFC? Send it but charge extra to collect it? Kick you off the plane? What happens when you have other luggage items that require it?

It also seems like this could be easily defeated with a feature that would put the AirTag to sleep for X hours after put in the luggage (set X to long enough to get to the airport and in the air, but shorter than when you are supposed to arrive).

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#103

Post by insane_dreamer »

runjake wrote: post #25

For all the people commenting "How would they know?", AirTags are scannable by NFC readers and identify themselves as an AirTag. You can test this yourself by downloading the NFC Tools app on your iPhone (or one for Android) and doing a read on the AirTag. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nfc-tools/id1252962749

Yeah but security scanners don't have NFC readers built into them, and even if they did, the range is too short to be useful the way scanners are built.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#104

Post by cm2187 »

Not sure what would be the motive for the airline to hide that the bag is lost. If it's not waiting for you at the baggage claim, you know it is lost, airtag or no airtag. Also not sure what good it does to the user either, to know in which particular hall of which particular terminal the luggage is right now.

Much more useful outside of airports.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#105

Post by alexnewman »

nostrademons wrote: post #76

Note that the reason for airport mode is a courtesy to cell-phone carriers. It's not any air safety issue. Rather, 300-500 cell phones all trying to contact the next cell tower, multiple times per minute, would wreak havoc on cell service. https://www.inverse.com/article/51015-cell-phone-use-on-airp... At one point, when both cell phones and laptops were new, there was perhaps a risk to the airplane's electronics. Mo…

luckily this happens all the time since people often forget. i know i do.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#107

Post by ghaff »

yamtaddle wrote: post #66
ghaff wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All carriers, switching to airplane mode is a federal requirement on U.S. domestic flights. How many people do you think actually do this. (I mostly do, when I remember.) If it's actually a problem, the FAA would be dealing with it other than hoping passengers individually pressed all the right buttons.

I'd be a little surprised if 50% of cell phone owners even know how to turn on Airplane Mode. Yes, I know it's usually right there on a screen you'd think they'd look at pretty often. I stand by that. Beyond that, several on every flight who might do it, will forget to, and several more just don't give a fuck. Despite this I've never once seen anyone get hassled over it.

How would attendants even know to hassle someone. Yes, there are some people who pay attention to the announcement and some others who want to preserve their battery. But, yeah, I'm guessing well south of 50% turn on airline mode at least in the US--and I'd probably be a bit surprised if Europe were that different. Certainly no one makes a show of caring all that much these days as they did when turning off cellphones was such a big deal at takeoff.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#108

Post by andy_ppp »

hangonhn wrote: post #62
PLenz wrote: post #23

Next headline: Lufthansasa installs faraday cages in all their cargo holds

TBH, that seems the more reasonable way of dealing with it. If they are truly worried about transmissions while in flight, then yeah do that. Once the luggage is on the ground and unloaded the AirTags will still work. Seems like a win win for everyone — if what they say about in flight transmissions is the real reason.

They are just tired of people with lost luggage making their staff go find it… there is absolutely zero risk, the amount of energy involved is minuscule.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#109

Post by yreg »

svnpenn wrote: post #73
rconti wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that it's inconvenient and could be used nefariously. I'm not sure what kinds of worker protections airline staff have in Europe, but I can see why it might be problematic that I'm tracking the employee as they drive their van full of lost luggage to my hotel. Still, it's my stuff, so I'm going to keep putting AirTags in every bag I travel with. I'm sorry, but.. what are they going to do? Ban me from the airlin…

Quoted post unavailable.

They cannot ban all of us.

Re: Lufthansa bans AirTags in checked luggage

#110

Post by polynomial »

yamtaddle wrote: post #74
twelvechairs wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every job, every person, every industry mistakes happen. You can minimise them with better systems but its never going to disappear

The ones that don't suck are happy if you can help them fix their error, though.

Don't bother us, we're trying to help you.
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