Just curious if anyone has used a tracking device for their luggage and if so, how well did it work and which brand would you recommend? Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6790 posts
Personally, I can not imagine a more useless invention. Just dead weight IMHO - might as well just toss a small rock into your luggage for all the good it's going to do you.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33821 posts
We have had this device come up at least twice before. Both times it wasn't thought a particularly good idea.
This one, from May 2017:- https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/packing/gps-tracking-on-luggage-or-backpacks
and this one from January in the same 2017:- https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/luggage-trackers
Posted by
OP
6 posts
I guess that answers that! Too bad. Sounds like it would be a great Insurance investment on keeping your belongings safe on their whereabouts. Oh well...
Posted by
Chicago
8164 posts
It is best to not put stuff you can't live without losing in a checked bag anyway.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6790 posts
Things like this are not just a waste of money (and weight), I think they probably create more problems than they actually solve.
Some basic truths about travel: You should always be alert and aware of your surroundings, and in control of your belongings while traveling. That goes for your bags while in transit, or your day pack, wallet, camera, or whatever you bring along, on a daily basis. Don't put expensive, irreplaceable or fragile things, or anything you can't do without for a day, or two in a checked bag.
Checked bags do get delayed once in a while, but not as often as most people fear. If delayed (has happened to me a couple times in decades of travel to far corners of the world), they are almost always delivered to where you are within 24 hours. You can prevent 99.9% of checked bag mishaps by attaching a good, unbreakable name tag (with printed info on where to deliver it, neatly tucked away), and most of all, by watching to ensure your checked bag gets tagged correctly at check-in before it starts its ride through the bowels of an airport.
Out and about at your destination, always be alert and aware of what and who are around you, don't leave stuff unattended or hanging, not out of your direct line-of-sight nor more than arms' length away.
If you think that some gizmo can replace the necessity of being smart and engaged, think again. No app or device is a substitute for your eye/brain/awareness/common sense. Once you think an app is going to offload your need to actually pay attention, you might as well just hand your stuff to the first thief who wanders by.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you for that wonderful response! My concern comes not when the luggage is in my possession, but in the airline's. My husband and I had a bad experience coming home from Hawaii. We arrived safely home, but our luggage did not. The airlines never found our luggage. They apologized and compensated us a portion of the value of the contents.
Realizing that we had lost all the memories of the souvenirs that we had picked up along our trip made it that much more upsetting
So. this is the reason I was thinking of getting a device. Maybe if the airline can't find our luggage, maybe we can help!