I had bought an Apple Airtag about a year ago because they were cheap/free or something. Anyway, I throw it in my big checked suitcase for when we travel. We had done like 3-4 trips with it and it’s been fine except for the annoying “Your luggage has been left behind” alerts, but it’s a minor inconvenience. Anyway, on my trip back from Necker, we checked 2 bags on Alaska Air. While waiting at baggage claim, my first bag (which didn’t have an Airtag) came out on the conveyor belt. However, my second bag never came. I looked on the “Find My” app and I could see the luggage was close to me, but wasn’t on me. I assumed that it was in the back, waiting to be put on the conveyor belt. Well, 30 minutes goes by and everyone who was on my flight had gotten their bags and no new bags were coming on the belt.
I then decided to walk towards the blue dot (my Airtag) on the “Find My” app, which was about 20 yards away from me. I walked past the next conveyor belt and then to the conveyor belt after that. I then noticed I had overshot the blue dot. I then backtracked and sure enough, there was my luggage on the 2nd conveyor belt, all by itself. So by mistake, the Alaska baggage folks put my luggage on the wrong conveyor belt.
Now, if I didn’t have my Airtag, would I have eventually found my bag? I’d like to think I would have walked to the neighboring conveyor belts to look for it. However, if they had put it on the conveyor belt that was 3-4 belts away, I most likely would not have walked that far and just did a baggage claim. The airtag also let me know that my checked bag that I dropped off 25 min before scheduled departure in San Juan, PR made the plane when I thought it had no chance. I think I’ll get a few more to put in ALL my suitcases now when I travel.
Also this story – https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airtag-lost-luggage-flight/index.html