The Craziness of Lost Luggage: Why you need an AirTag when you have an iPhone? How to get the most out of your trip
The craziness won’t decline even though the busy summer travel season is over. Planes and hotels are full, travelers are facing long lines, cancelled flights, and lots of other travel nightmares. When your luggage goes missing is the most frustrating. You’ve got to somehow track down your belongings that were in the airline’s care and then wait to be reunited — all while trying to enjoy the start of your long-awaited vacation. As far as travel nightmares go, lost luggage is up there as one of the worst.
I am good at losing things with style. I hope you get the reference to “Toy Story”. I add items to my travel bag when there is a product that comes along that allows me to keep track of my belongings.
While I haven’t physically lost my luggage with an AirTag attached, I’ve used it for a few trips and use one on my keys every day. If you’re good at losing things with style or have a habit of misplacing things — and have an iPhone — the AirTag makes a lot of sense. If you want to make your holiday travels a smooth one, you need to spend a bit more and get an AirTag for the peace of mind alone.
In order for the AirTag to be tucked in within your luggage, you do not need an accessory. But considering that it will be attached to your luggage, we think it’s worth the investment of a keychain or loop accessory. We have a lot of AirTag accessories from lanyards to keys that you can modify.
Frequent location updates for your AirTag are possible when you have so many devices around, since it allows for more accurate location tracking. For a rural area of New Jersey versus New York City, there is a different point of view. More devices your AirTag can reach will lead to an accurate location for the AirTag.
And yes, you need an iPhone to use AirTag. You can set it up by holding it near your iPhone and using the on-screen prompts to name it and tie it to your Apple ID. Apple has been issuing updates to address common issues with smart trackers and stalking issues with the AirTag.
Finding Jake’s Luggage on an iPhone or Newer via Precision Finding: An Efficient Way to Track Item Tracking Using AR
On my phone, I can find Jake’s Luggage by selecting it from the Find My app. I could see where my luggage was in real time — still at the front of Newark Airport. And while I didn’t physically have a line of sight on my luggage, I did have peace of mind that it was on its way to meet me at my final destination.
And sure enough, when I checked it a bit later while at the gate, the luggage was closer to the aircraft. By the time I boarded and was in my seat rocking a pair of AirPods Max, I could see that the luggage was safely under me and a little farther back in the plane’s cargo hold — it seemed like I got a better seat than my suitcase. While airplane mode is required on the aircraft, I can see that the luggage AirTag is constantly updating in real time.
While I hoped the carousel would have been confusing enough to use Precision Finding, I could immediately spot my red Away bag. Precision Finding uses augmented reality, or AR, to give you large directional arrows along with distances to find your AirTag on an iPhone 11 or newer. It’s pretty awesome and is a game changer for item trackers to offer such pinpoint accuracy.
One of our favorites is the Belkin Secure AirTag Holder, which physically clamps the AirTag and ensures that it won’t fall out. It will cost less than Apple’s leather loop, and is much more affordable.
The AirTag is able to be used in many instances where you would have otherwise been at a complete loss to locate an item. But a depleted battery can deflate that same life saver if you’re not careful. You probably won’t have to worry about replacing a dying cell for at least a year. Once you reach that 12-month milestone though, you’ll want to monitor the power source’s juice – via the Find My app – on a pretty regular basis.
When using multiple AirTags, you should assign each item a specific name to differentiate them from one another. It is helpful to further distinguish each tracked item with a symbol, which can be assigned under “Rename AirTag” in the Find My app. Brightly colored emojis, representing everything from keys and backpacks to your favorite pet (see next tip,) make each item pop with cartoon–y personality specific to it.
Attaching an AirTag to your pet’s collar is a great way to keep tabs on them. Whether you have a curious cat in the house or a dog who wanders the neighborhood, this option provides peace of mind for loving pet owners. To make sure the tracker is secured in a way that is safe for the animal, you will want to make sure you attach it correctly. With that in mind, it’s worth looking into the various collar and harness mounts – like TagVault’s waterproof version – specifically designed for this purpose.
If your love of AirTags has seen you attaching them to anything that’s not nailed down, you’ve probably noticed your Find My app is becoming a bit busy. Rather than going through a long list of things you need to do in order to access them, you can simply say “hello” to any device in your network. The assistant will get to work if she gets the name of the lost article.