Apple AirTag in a stylish luggage tag.
After months or years of shutdowns around the world, the joy of traveling again is upon us. The problem is that everyone else will too. Which means there could be a lot more people than the airlines can handle as smoothly as they usually do. This means longer queues to check in, for example, and – gruesomely – more misplaced bags.
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Even if you plan to travel with carry-on only, which is my first line of defense against chaos, you still can’t be sure you’re safe: on an exceptionally busy flight, the airline may make you check your carry-on into the hold. And then you are separated from the bag again.
That’s where the Apple AirTag comes in, a smart device the size of a thick coat button. Place one in each item of your luggage and you can be sure you know where it goes if things go wrong. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get it back immediately, but the peace of mind that comes with knowing exactly where you are is hard to overstate.
I used Find My to locate my lost iPad Air last month (you can read all about how well it worked here), but for other things like keys, wallet, luggage and more, the Find My feature in AirTag is what you need .
Just in case you don’t know, this is how Find My works. When an AirTag is put into Lost Mode, which you do from your iPhone or iPad, it pings past Apple devices (quietly and unobtrusively), and sends a message to the AirTag owner that this is where it is. Provided the AirTag can make itself heard by another nearby Apple device, it will, as they say in Dear Evan Hansen, be found.
The more AirTags are used, the more the data they transmit becomes clearer. If so, airports and airlines will have to listen more to those who make claims from people who say they know their goods are there. The battery usually lasts more than a year and is user replaceable.
There are key rings and other accessories so you can attach the AirTag to various things and even an adapter from Nomad designed to fit in your wallet without distorting it in a distracting way.
AirTags aren’t perfect, but the more we travel, the more their benefits become apparent.
