Traveler's Edition
Could we be entering a new era? One with no more lost luggage? Let’s see as Delta rolls out a whole new way to track luggage while it’s in transit.
Delta Air Lines announced a brand new program that uses technology called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID for short) that promises to prevent luggage from getting lost. It breaks down like this: tiny radio waves are emitted from your luggage in order to communicate its location to baggage handlers.
Delta plans to start putting paper RFID tags on passenger’s luggage as soon as this summer at 344 airports, including all flights to Atlanta, where the airline is based. Instead of a luggage tag with a barcode, passengers will see their bags being marked with an RFID tag instead. The bags will then be loaded onto the conveyor belts that bring them up into the airplane’s cargo hold. Once there, an electronic device will read the radio signal being broadcast from each tag and then the device will cross-check to make sure the bag is on the right flight.
If it’s not on the right place, a red light will flash and the belt will stop, allowing the baggage handler time to remove the offending bag from the belt and re-route it. Simple, right? With a 95% success rate of a bag being properly routed, we’d say your bags are pretty safe with Delta!
Really?: Two years ago I flew to Orlando from Minneapolis – my last vacation with my dying sister. My bright red suitcase never showed up. I was never given even a toothbrush. Every day I called about it and was finally told that if I wanted to go to Chicago and wander through the lost luggage warehouse I was welcome to do it. Despite submitting a list of everything in my suitcase by certified mail, I never received a cent. We went to Disney World one day. The rest of the time was spent getting underwear, another suitcase, pharmaceutical refills, etc. Fly Delta? Good luck with your luggage, no matter what they say and what the rules are. Am I going to hire a lawyer to get a couple of thousand dollars that I would have to give to her/him? Delta has it figured out.