Do people put trackers IN their luggage or attach it to the handle? It seems that if your luggage was stolen, you might have a fighting chance if it's in the luggage, rather than on the handle.
And . . . do you like your tracker? Was it worth it? Particularly interested in Android, but would like to hear about any device. Thanks!
I put my AirTag inside my suitcase, it would be too easily removable if it was attached outside. I found it very useful when my luggage was delayed on my last trip. I could see where it was on its journey to catch up to me and that was reassuring. Its battery ran out about 18 months after I bought it, which was something I didn't think about, but it’s easy to replace the battery.
I use my Apple Airtag hidden inside my suitcase. It was worth it to me although I have wound up carrying on since I got it.
There have been some reports on here of people using tgem to tell an airline where their bag was!!
But with the tag visible on the outside would that be a deterrent knowing that the bag is being tracked?? (Knock on wood) --- in fifty plus years of travel all over Europe we have never had problem with luggage. But always next trip. Since DIL works for Apple in CA, we use the tags on the outside of the bag. Never tested.
Last year an AirTag came in very handy when United left my checked suitcase in San Francisco on my way home from Munich. I had no problems with Lost Luggage explaining where my suitcase was and she found it in their tracking system. It made the conversation easier.
I put AirTags inside my carry-on suitcase, tote and day pack when I travel. Inside so they don’t get separated from their assigned bag. At home one is in my old collector truck because of high car thefts in Phoenix area.
I always viewed them as a solution in search of a problem. Might be interesting to check, but really, there are very few problems, just giving you one more thing to obsess and worry about. Even if you try to tell the airline where your bags are at, they will act on their own information anyway.
Traveled for decades, never had a problem. If you are really interested, currently, the Apple tags work more universally than Android equivalents, mainly due to the networks and communication protocols used.
After our luggage had an extended vacation In Paris, we bought three Tiles for our next trip to Norway.
We put them in checked bags and my personal bag. Our bags arrived with us this time, so we never had to use the app.
Now that we are home, one is in my purse, and the other two are hidden in our vehicles.
A similar question was posted on a FB group this morning, and this was my comment: "My advice is to always have them hidden in your vehicles. Our friends parked their vehicle at the Toronto airport a few months ago during a trip to the states. While on their vacation, they checked the app and saw the vehicle was in Montreal outside a chop store. They notified the police in both cities, and it was recovered for them. If they wouldn't have had a tracker in the vehicle, they would have never seen it again."
My husband bought a set of 3 AirTags before our trip to England last year. I put mine in my suitcase since I didn't know what else to do with it. He put one in his car and one in his instrument case, and there they stayed during our trip. :-)
Since we had our luggage transported between accommodations during our Cotswold Way hike, it was interesting to see when my luggage was picked up and when it arrived at the next destination. (Though I soon learned not to use how far away it was a a guide for how many miles we had left to hike since the measurement was "as the crow flies", not down the trail!) It was also nice to know that my bag made it back to LAX with us since our airline had us put our bags on a cart rather than taking them behind the counter when we checked in.
So mine lives inside my bag, but I hope it never needs to provide more than "entertainment value".
put it in the bag. No advantage to putting outside, where a quick tug or snag would remove it (they cost $30 or so). You have to understand the limitations. I like having AirTags: one on my car keys, one on the dog's collar, and one on grandson's school backpack. But they depend on another I-device to be nearby to transmit a location. So that means it may not always be telling you where it is at the moment, but where it was the last time it was near another device.
I have 3 AirTags - I keep one in my suitcase (in a zippered small pocket inside--NOT outside!). The second is attached to my car keys, and the third is in my purse (again, hidden in a zippered pocket).
I love AirTags and find them very helpful. One time I had a very tight connection and was worried about my checked bag. Unfortunately Delta's bag tracker service was not working at that time, but I was able to pull up the Find My app and verify that it had made it onto the plane. Good for peace of mind. 😊
But with the tag visible on the outside would that be a deterrent knowing that the bag is being tracked??
Maybe, Frank, but I think more likely someone would just yank off the AirTag and then walk off with the bag. I wouldn't take that chance.
We use airtags, I bought keychain type cases for them, similar to these but I think I got a 2-pack or a 4-pack. Then we just attach the ring to something inside our bags (zipper pull, or netted pocket, etc). We do like them, have not had any issues (yet). Note that they ONLY work with Panasonic 2032 batteries for some stupid Apple reason. I was able to get some Energizers to work by wiping them down with rubbing alcohol...
I put them IN my luggage. On my last trip, I swore one of our checked bags didn’t make our flight. I could see its location quite a ways away on the other side of the airport as we were waiting to take off. Our other bags were in our location. So I was worried the whole flight, trying to remember what was in the bag, what we would need to replace, etc.
Lo and behold, that bag appeared on the baggage carousel at our destination. So use them with a grain of salt!
Apple AirTags IN luggage, purse and hand carry bag.
We haven’t had to use them to track a lost bag, but they have been very handy to see if the checked bags are on the plane with us. Since we always have a change of planes, it’s nice to know they are following us around.
If I still had young kids, I would probably put an Airtag on each of them.
Come to think about it, maybe I should get one for my dog... Wait a minute, I just bought a new Pixel phone and the android Tile does not work as well as the Apple Airtag.
Had AirTags inside our luggage going from Vienna to LHR to O'Hare. We arrived at the airport in Vienna, three hours before our flight. When we were boarded and pulling from the gate, I checked and found our luggage was not on board. To make a long story short, luggage sunned themselves at LHR for five days before getting back to Chicago.
And yes, I have an AirTag on my Labrador's collar.
I love our Apple AirTags! Definitely tuck them inside the bag. Last year, we were able to see that our checked bags had been left behind at Heathrow, but we were able to track them (fun to see they were coming home over the Northern Territories!) the following day. We change the 2032 batteries about once a year, and while I don’t remember which brand we purchased, the package was marked that they were appropriate for AirTags. And lastly, as mentioned, they’re helpful as long as there is another Apple device nearby to transmit. We noticed that we couldn’t track our bags leaving a Mexican airport last month…we think that the reason is that androids are much more popular in Mexico. As soon as we landed in the US, the app indicated that they were close to us.
We put them inside our suitcase and backpack. It is also helpful at your destination in case you have trouble locating your hotel after a day of wandering around in unfamiliar territory. The AirTag will lead you home! We are leaving for Morocco in a few days and hope that the AirTag will lead us back to the road after roaming through the medina! Thank you, Rick Steves for the suggestion!
@Lynda, what a great idea! That would work at home too, to find your car in a big parking lot.
yes, we use the Tile trackers for luggage and they have tracked well through airports and multiple cities. While there may be less touchpoints with Android, the Tiles worked quite well and are easy to use since they can be easily attached without need of a case.
We put them inside our suitcase and backpack. It is also helpful at your destination in case you have trouble locating your hotel after a day of wandering around in unfamiliar territory.
@Lynda, what a great idea! That would work at home too, to find your car in a big parking lot.
Lynda, that is a good idea! I once spent 30+ minutes hunting down my hotel in Rothenburg o.d.T in Germany.
Stan, I put mine in my car all the time when I'm parking in a lot that I'm not very familiar with (or even one I am) as I am navigationally-deficient (see comment above) and constantly lose my car. It works so well!
One thing to keep in mind with dogs. It works well for tracking them if you live in a city, but I live in a rural area about 10 miles outside the city, so if our dog got out, chances are there would be no iphones nearby to track him.
Last summer, we hid our Air Tags inside our checked luggage, behind the lining. Didn't want to risk them getting torn off or separated from the bags.
They were really handy on the trip home. Terrible storms, flights re-routed, delayed, we ended up with a circuitous route home not knowing if our bags would catch up (but we were headed home, so didn't worry too much). Before landing at our home airport, once we turned on our phones we could see the bags had arrived before we did. That gave us much peace of mind. I bought ours on Amazon 4/$99 last year. It's the only Apple product with an easily replaceable (by the consumer) battery.
I put mine inside one of those small button envelopes you sometimes get with new clothes and duct taped it inside the outside pocket of my suitcase. The pocket only zippers around part way, you’d really have to look for it to find it. It was a gift from my son after my suitcase got lost returning from Ireland. For two days the United tracker website just said basically, “we’re looking for your bag”. Very nerve wracking as I had bought a Waterford votive holder and three jars of a pricey Irish seaweed hand cream I really liked. I had never had a lost bag so didn’t really think twice about packing it. I eventually got my bag back and now won’t travel without a tracker.
Gramwalt, we also put the airtags inside the suitcase lining..just pinned in. We leave most of them in the suitcases and packs between trips. Last night my husband got a message that the tag in my suitcase needs a new battery.
Last week a friend lost a set of keys (expensive car as well as house) while on a long river walk in our town. The airtag led them to a house but notes and phone calls didn't get any response. After reporting to the police and changing the house locks, they went back to the targeted location. The next door neighbor was in his yard and asked if they were looking for something...he had their keys. So the location was close...
Interesting story, CanAmCherie! I guess it pays to check the surrounding areas when looking for the signal. :-)
You can have the AirTag chirp, once you're close enough to hear it.
Like a couple others, I purchased a silicone key ring holder for my Air Tag and attach it inside my luggage. I misplaced it once (knew it was somewhere in my house or car--the location isn't exact) and didn't realize until later that you can make them chirp. That would have saved about an hour of my time! Live and learn.
I got a set for our travel bags, not for the plane, but for the bus and/or train travel in Europe. It concerned me that on a Flixbus from Rome to Sorento, I couldn't see what bags were taken out by passengers at intermediate stops. Then, I also thought about when we store our bags by the door when boarding trains - especially crowded ones, and again, you can't always see what people grab when they leave. Granted, I've never missed a bag, but it seemed like a bit of insurance.
The airtag did come in handy when DELTA didn't have our bag in the ATL airport after returning from LHR last fall. Interesting story: We were delayed arriving at the baggage claim area, and one of our checked bags was missing. Delta supervisor had someone go back to the plane to check the baggage area because he said that they just leave bags on the plane. Then he sent me to the missing bag claim area where I was told the bag was in customs. According to them, customs takes bags that are not claimed expeditiously to do a "security recheck". He told me it would be returned the next day. There was no way to verify the story, and I was staying in ATL overnight so I returned the next day. I located my bag on the bottom of a luggage cart, invisible, underneath many bags. The employee helping me was thankful for the locator so he didn't have to move all the bags. I was thankful for it to find my bag! I had never heard of the "customs security recheck" before.
