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Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

arstechnica.com

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Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#91

Post by tlogan »

nmilo wrote: post #32
InTheArena wrote: post #7

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…

Then maybe it's time that lower-level customer service reps stop running official company twitter accounts. Maybe you and I see it differently, but most of the world sees a company's twitter account as the official source of information and fast-paced updates. It has as much significance as a press release from the CEO or an announcement on the company website. So if the lower-level customer service rep fucks up, out…

Mistake happens. if the lower-level customer service rep fucks up, you just tweet again saying that it is wrong.

But they said nothing. For about 6 days. And on their twitter accout I do not see: hi so sorry we made mistake. AirTags are allowed.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#92

Post by Mikeb85 »

pc86 wrote: post #52
Mikeb85 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Is AirCanada bad? I have a big flight on there in a few months (honeymoon) and it's gotten rescheduled numerous times but otherwise service has seemed fine.

> it's gotten rescheduled numerous times

Well there you go...

It's bad in the sense that they constantly reschedule or cancel flights, are constantly late and there's absolutely no recourse to getting compensation.

But once you're on the plane it's mostly fine.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#93

Post by endisneigh »

capableweb wrote: post #90
endisneigh wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you distinguish devices that use the sake protocols from the AirTags with the current scanners? There would likely be thousands in an airport at a given time. How would you stop someone from taking out the battery and replacing it after security, or cross airline luggage transfer of devices with AirTags? Enforcement of a ban without customs level scrutiny seems impractical.

The bags travel on a conveyor belt, which passes through a scanner that scans one bag at a time. Whenever there is something detected, you know exactly which bag trigger it and it gets redirected to another conveyor belt.

Sure, but the scanners are to my knowledge not designed to look for something like an AirTag (they are glorified x ray machines). Not to mention that doesn’t cover luggage that’s not checked in, or a litany of other situations like luggage from airlines that don’t ban AirTags.

It would be more difficult to implement than say banning bringing a gallon of water.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#94

Post by poochy »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #73
poochy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially because it sounds like they didn't actually ban 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 Certainly you can understand why people thought they did though, right?

I certainly can! Sounds like there was confusion even within Lufthansa about their own policy, or rather how AirTags fit into a broader less specific policy

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#95

Post by tlogan »

duxup wrote: post #29
danpalmer wrote: post #3

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 i…

If they just replied back and said “oh no - mistake: AirTags are allowed” then there will be no story. But they did not. So I called them and their customer support was not able to tell me. So I started believing that they really will not allow AirTags

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#96

Post by Mikeb85 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #47
Mikeb85 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It is my preferred Airline, but I'm usually flying business so maybe that's the difference

There was nothing wrong with the flight itself. Everything wrong with their online booking/check in system, disorganization at the terminal and lost luggage (apparently due to system incompatibility with a partner airline).

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#98

Post by admax88qqq »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #87
nmilo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe it's time that lower-level customer service reps stop running official company twitter accounts. Maybe you and I see it differently, but most of the world sees a company's twitter account as the official source of information and fast-paced updates. It has as much significance as a press release from the CEO or an announcement on the company website. So if the lower-level customer service rep fucks up, out…

I think you're both right in different ways -- part of the problem is operations... A friend of mine operates social media (at a tactical level) for a very large company and it sounds like they have a good set of operating guidelines in place to prevent problems like Lufthansa has here. Now, most of his job is just replying to the same questions all day long (and he has a small team of people to handle the volume). A…

> but once in awhile something new comes along and he runs it up the flag pole to marketing and/or legal before adding it to his list of approved replies.

Of course one of the reasons everything has to be an approved response and you cant get "plain answers" from companies or politicians for that matter is shitty journalists looking for something they can take out of context and blow out of proportion.

Journalism is it's own worst enemy sometimes.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#99

Post by duxup »

tlogan wrote: post #95
duxup wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 i…

If they just replied back and said “oh no - mistake: AirTags are allowed” then there will be no story. But they did not. So I called them and their customer support was not able to tell me. So I started believing that they really will not allow AirTags

The progression was really strange.

There were some folks in the media who reached out to PR people at the airline, some got "don't know" others were told "that's not our policy" ... but nobody updated the official twitter account for a while.

I agree 100%, just a mistaken tweet could have been solved with a timely new tweet.

Re: Lufthansa abandons AirTag ban

#100

Post by anaganisk »

danpalmer wrote: post #71
croes wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why do AirTags not count?

The guidelines are targeted at phones and other long range transmission equipment. AirTags use Bluetooth and have a relatively limited range, a very low transmission power, and don't really do much at all until they get pinged by another device. It's also been fairly well understood for a while now that Bluetooth is not a concern on flights, and it uses an ISM radio frequency which is specifically set aside so as to…

Even cellular dont, its more to protect towers in path being DDOsd by 100s of people at a time.
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