Unfortunately, airlines continue to struggle to locate misplaced suitcases despite the overabundance of tracking devices. When it happens, it’s often to the chagrin of the person losing their luggage and having to deal with the airline gaslighting them out of its existence. Apple added a new feature to Find My last month to help with these it-sucks-when-it-happens situations. Share Item Location allows you to share the location of an AirTag with a third party, which will be immensely helpful when trying to prove that an airline lost your bag.
United Airlines is the first major airline conglomerate to implement Apple’s Share Item Location feature for the AirTag in its mobile app. To use it, you’ll need the latest iOS 18.2 update, available for the iPhone Xs and above. The feature lets you generate a shareable link through the Find My app and add it to a delayed baggage report. You can also cease sharing that data before your item is found. The Share Item Location link automatically expires after seven days.
Apple has said the location sharing is end-to-end encrypted, so only you, the user, and the third party can access the link. If you’re flying United, once your bag doesn’t show up on the conveyor belt, you can file a delayed baggage report and link the Share Item Location. The link can be generated via iPhone, iPad, or a Mac. After you submit the report, United will use that link to see where your bag is and, hopefully, pluck it out of whatever vortex it is whirling in. United promises to disable the shared location when you’re reunited with your bag.
I’m curious what the airlines are thinking as they laud the support of a new feature that effectively snitches if they don’t follow protocol to return a bag. United’s press release hones in on the idea that they’re one of the first major airlines to log on to this newfangled way of tracking bags, but not without cheekily mentioning that Apple’s new Share Item Location will “drive a much-improved customer service experience for the fewer than 1% of customers whose bags arrive on a later flight.” That’s from a statistic last year that claimed only a tiny percentage of people ever have to deal with lost bags.
Anyway, that number is still too much. Airlines make keeping your bag on you challenging and charge for the privilege of keeping it near. How dare they pass it off as a minuscule thing that only affects a sprinkling of people here and there. On most of my flights this year, I’ve seen folks who get on the airplane last be forced to check their bags because of a lack of overhead bin space. The bins would probably be sufficient were it not for how much it costs to check the bag from the get-go. It’s a constant lose-lose situation for the customer, so Apple is proud to let its users know it’s introduced a way to help get around the politics of checking a bag.
Over a dozen airlines will start implementing this tracking feature, including most of United Airlines’ partners, such as Air Canada, Lufthansa, and Turkish Airlines. Apple says more airlines will be added over time.
Android users who are wondering how to play this game will have to choose a player. All Android users have access to Find My Device. If you’re using a Samsung device, the company has its own tracking network for the ecosystem. Third-party companies like Tile also let you share a device’s location with another party.
