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Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 115 posts

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#21
post #14

Classic. Someone gets a lower-level customer service rep on twitter to make a statement based on incorrect and incomplete information about Airtags in compliance with regulation. Media blows it up into this insane thing, that Lufthansa is evil, and doesn't want you to track your bags, so they can lose it with no repercussions. Lufthansa clarifies things (once again, in line with law) - and then the media uses works l…

Lufthansa deserves it. Worst airline I've ever flown (and that's saying something being from Canada).

Yes, I'm sure one anecdotal experience turns it into the absolutely worse airline of planet Earth. Worse than Air Koryo even.

Most customer rankings disagree with you. Which doesn't mean the airline should be free from criticism, of course.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#24
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lufthansa deserves it. Worst airline I've ever flown (and that's saying something being from Canada).

Yes, I'm sure one anecdotal experience turns it into the absolutely worse airline of planet Earth. Worse than Air Koryo even. Most customer rankings disagree with you. Which doesn't mean the airline should be free from criticism, of course.

I mean when they lost our luggage as well as that of everyone else on the same connection they literally told us their computer tracking system was incompatible with that of their partner... On top of terrible treatment at the Frankfurt Airport, children running up and down the aisles for 10 hours straight on the plane, etc...

> Most customer rankings disagree with you

They're higher than expected but not in the top 10 of any rankings I've seen... And dropping...

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#25

I won't be flying Lufthansa anytime soon. I don't want to entrust my life and my baggage to a company so incompetent.

You swallowed the yellow irrational outrage pill. Lufthansa had a customer service rep who (correctly) stated that things with transmitters must have a airplane mode (also true) - without knowing enough about airtags. Now you are assigning an emotional context ("entrust my life", "incompetent") to a simple question of if Airtags apply?

>a customer service rep who (correctly) stated that things with transmitters must have a airplane mode

That doesn't appear to be what they said:

https://twitter.com/lufthansa/status/1578879849577385984

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#26

Is it even possible to ban AirTags? How exactly would that work? Even if you made the cargo hold a literal faraday cage, presumably as soon as you move the luggage the mesh network will be active again and immediately reconcile the location, which is what the user would want anyway.

Possible to detect.

Question would be how much compliance they would get, or mass non compliance that it becomes a hassle to deal with.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#27

Classic. Someone gets a lower-level customer service rep on twitter to make a statement based on incorrect and incomplete information about Airtags in compliance with regulation. Media blows it up into this insane thing, that Lufthansa is evil, and doesn't want you to track your bags, so they can lose it with no repercussions. Lufthansa clarifies things (once again, in line with law) - and then the media uses works l…

Ars has definitely gone downhill, both in-house stuff like this and in the spamming of other Cande Nast junk. What is today's Ars-of-10-years-ago?

Agreed. Unfortunately there don’t appear to be any viable replacements. Ultimately I just read less in general now which sucks. I hate what the internet has become.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#28

I won't be flying Lufthansa anytime soon. I don't want to entrust my life and my baggage to a company so incompetent.

Yeah, you're right - managing PR and a social media presence is a direct correlation to operating airplanes with a relatively stellar safety record:

> (Lufthansa has)"one fatal air crash, one non-fatal crash, and two hull losses noted since 1989" (1)

(1) JACDEC, https://www.jacdec.de/Order/2021_JACDEC_AIRLINE_RISK_RANKING...

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#29

From what I've read Lufthansa never banned AirTags, regardless of what a misinformed customer service person on Twitter may have thought. They clarified their guidelines to say that active transmitters were not allowed in the hold because they couldn't be put on to flight mode (pretty much correct according to ICAO guidelines), and then after all this blew up later clarified their position by confirming that AirTags…

>From what I've read Lufthansa never banned AirTags

"Hi David, Lufthansa is banning activated AirTags from luggage as they are classified as dangerous and need to be turned off./Mony"

https://twitter.com/lufthansa/status/1578879849577385984

I think that's pretty explicit. Official policy somewhere else in the company might be different but it's hard to imagine how folks are supposed to know what is up when they say it clearly like that.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#30
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lufthansa deserves it. Worst airline I've ever flown (and that's saying something being from Canada).

Yes, I'm sure one anecdotal experience turns it into the absolutely worse airline of planet Earth. Worse than Air Koryo even. Most customer rankings disagree with you. Which doesn't mean the airline should be free from criticism, of course.

Air Koryo apparently offers more leg space than most Canadian airlines, and I have a feeling any staff getting caught stealing luggage would be in some deep shit. Food pics look decent too.

I've had decent experiences with "crappy" poor country airlines--oftentimes they compensate with decent food and seats often feel relatively spacious. Probably more likely to crash and die, though.

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