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A company that sells lost airplane luggage

thehustle.co

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Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#61

Post by [deleted] »

paxys wrote: post #50
McDyver wrote: post #31

When it was founded 50 Yeats ago _maybe_ it made sense because technology was not that advanced. Now I'd say it's a company selling stolen goods. Airlines know who is the owner of that luggage. They have the sticker with flight, booking number, they have the contact details of the owner, and most owners put a tag with their contact info on the luggage. They were hired to provide the sole service of transporting the l…

If the contents of the bag are worth $500 the airline isn't spending >$500 worth of effort to track it down and return it to its owner. It makes sense to just reimburse them and move on. Now the question is what happens to the bag floating in the ether. Option 1 is sending it to a landfill. Option 2 is cracking it open and reselling/reusing the stuff in it. There are plenty of ethical arguments in either one's favor,…

[deleted]

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#62

Post by kylehotchkiss »

akshayshah wrote: post #7

Luggage is fairly expensive and easy to reuse - sizing isn’t personal, and most designs are fairly bland. I’m surprised that the bags themselves aren’t a substantial source of income.

You can get a new suitcase at Ross for $50 if you dig around at a few locations. Why buy a used one?

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#63

Post by KennyBlanken »

rnotaro wrote: post #6

In a related note, some canadian passengers found their Air Maroc luggage at a liquidation center in Québec, Canada in even 3 weeks after being lost this month. https://www.bladi.net/colere-royal-air-maroc-perte-bagages,1... https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2024/01/28/saga-des-valises-egar...

So basically, we're at the point where we need to uniquely mark our luggage and then if our luggage is "lost" have an agent who shows up at the liquidation center, identifies it, and then seizes the luggage?

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#64

Post by jh00ker »

cpncrunch wrote: post #42
McDyver wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did. Are you saying 25m bags have absolutely no information on them? Absolutely zero?

I read the article as well, as there is no info on this at all. After some searching I did find the information in a different article about Canadian airlines: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-lug... Air Canada and Westjet both open the bags to look for identifying information so they can contact the owner. Then they donate the bags to charity or dispose of them if they can't locate the owner.…

Samsung makes a nice tag (https://amzn.to/47Wrlcz) for their Android phones.

It comes with a hole, whereas AirTags require you to purchase an additional case accessory for that feature.

It has a button that can be used to find your phone (makes it ring, even if silenced) or launch custom routines (SmartHome actions like turning on lights, etc.).

They're cheaper than AirTags.

They don't seem to update their location quite as often as AirTags, maybe because there are less Samsung devices walking around, compared to iOS devices.

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#65

Post by plasticchris »

paxys wrote: post #60
plasticchris wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once had my check bag lost and it arrived a couple of months later via a courier. This was in ‘08

Okay? The article is talking about bags that weren't found in over 3 months.

Yeah, I was responding to the point about cost. A courier driving for 4 hours to get to me probably cost them at least 500$

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#66

Post by cpncrunch »

seb1204 wrote: post #58
cpncrunch wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the article as well, as there is no info on this at all. After some searching I did find the information in a different article about Canadian airlines: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-lug... Air Canada and Westjet both open the bags to look for identifying information so they can contact the owner. Then they donate the bags to charity or dispose of them if they can't locate the owner.…

Will an air tag help the airline to identify you? That would be rather bad in a privacy sense. I don't think it is easy for you to call the airline and say my bag is in this building etc please give it back to me. my point is that the airline needs to be able to contact you.

>Will an air tag help the airline to identify you? That would be rather bad in a privacy sense

Apple is pretty careful about preventing that, unless you put the airtag in lost mode and enter your phone number.

There are some news stories about people who have had success getting their bags back using airtags. Yes, the airline does give them the runaround, but with a little persistence, and finding local phone numbers for the baggage office at the airport in question, people have had success.

I think it's just useful for extra peace of mind or information when your bag does go missing.

I see Air Canada has launched a feature on their app which actually tells you where your bag is (based on scanning the regular barcode tags). It's really just the info that the airline has, but I think they did that in response to so many people putting airtags in their luggage. Strangely, passengers like to know where their bag is when it goes missing, and quite often the airline's staff aren't that helpful.

I should say that the only time my bag went missing, it was simply because our connecting flight had been cancelled, and the rampies were slow getting the bags off, so we had to wait for an hour and it eventually came out. I only fly about 5 times a year, so I guess people who fly a lot might experience it more often (or, they just have carry-on bags).

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#67

Post by cpncrunch »

jh00ker wrote: post #64
cpncrunch wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the article as well, as there is no info on this at all. After some searching I did find the information in a different article about Canadian airlines: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-lug... Air Canada and Westjet both open the bags to look for identifying information so they can contact the owner. Then they donate the bags to charity or dispose of them if they can't locate the owner.…

Samsung makes a nice tag ( https://amzn.to/47Wrlcz ) for their Android phones. It comes with a hole, whereas AirTags require you to purchase an additional case accessory for that feature. It has a button that can be used to find your phone (makes it ring, even if silenced) or launch custom routines (SmartHome actions like turning on lights, etc.). They're cheaper than AirTags. They don't seem to update their location…

Seems to only work for Galaxy phones, and I have a Pixel 8. I see Samsung's market share is 16% and dropping. It would be nice to have a pan-android version of airtags, and there are rumours of it happening:

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-airtags

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#68

Post by cpncrunch »

victorarevalo wrote: post #51
cpncrunch wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the article as well, as there is no info on this at all. After some searching I did find the information in a different article about Canadian airlines: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-lug... Air Canada and Westjet both open the bags to look for identifying information so they can contact the owner. Then they donate the bags to charity or dispose of them if they can't locate the owner.…

I use Tile for this purpose and they work well. Not as good as airtag, but I don't have an iphone.

The problem is they have a much smaller network than airtags, as much fewer people have a Tile than an iPhone, so I'm not sure how useful it is at actually tracking. What are the chances of a rampie or baggage office employee owning a Tile vs having an iPhone in their pocket?

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#69

Post by cm2187 »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #56

As someone who has been in a similar space, I guarantee you over half of those luggages do have identified owners who simply aren't contactable because they will not answer the phone, check a voicemail, read their email, or open any letter addressed to them. It takes two to tango and nobody knows how to dance.

Statistically, a small portion of those customers may have died shortly after their flight...

Re: A company that sells lost airplane luggage

#70

Post by Mountain_Skies »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #56

As someone who has been in a similar space, I guarantee you over half of those luggages do have identified owners who simply aren't contactable because they will not answer the phone, check a voicemail, read their email, or open any letter addressed to them. It takes two to tango and nobody knows how to dance.

This is a consequences of every communication medium becoming saturated with advertising. How many airlines refrain from ever using customer contact information for marketing purposes? And even if a few do, they exist in the context of a society where such behavior is pervasive. People who want to go about their lives without being hounded constantly to engage in unwanted economic transactions are often unable to fight back any other way other than ignoring communication attempts from entities with an economic desire to engage in commerce with everyone as much as possible.
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