Apple

Frankly I’m trying to figure out how a system that even allows for luggage to be lost without any accountability is allowed to exist in two thousand twenty fucking three

I'm still trying to figure out why they don't already use trackers. RFID tags are dirt cheap and it's 20 years old technology. They already have a process where they add barcode stickers at checkin, slap some RFID in there too.

On a recent trip we just went up to the youngest looking baggage worker, showed them, asked very nicely, and they walked back and found it. Tipped em 20 bucks for 5 minutes of effort. They were super nice.

The airline was less than helpful, actively saying the bag was lost.

Happened to me on a recent trip to a country well known for crime.

Your luggage is lost sir, you’ll have to fill in a form.

My luggage is about 15m away behind that wall. Here, see this map. Go get it.

10 min later: Oh your luggage is here sir. Terribly sorry.

Not sure if incompetence or shenanigans but I got my luggage back.

It must be in a locked, hard sided case. You let TSA inspect it, then you get to keep the keys and they do not. It's a common(?) trick for photographers with thousands of dollars of camera equipment to put a starter pistol in the camera case.

A flare gun is essentially a 3d printed single use .410 shotgun.

I might be wrong, I'm not an expert here and every airline has their own rules on top of the federal ones. But I have flown with firearms and they always had to be in a separate, locked, hard sided case. I don't remember any part of the check in process where I would have been able to put the case back in with the rest of my luggage. I definitely do not recommend just plopping your suitcase up there and saying "hey there's a flare gun next to my socks" unless you have a lot of time to kill.

Samsung has its own "Smart Tags". They should be better than Tile, since they rely on the Galaxy network and many more people have Samsung phones than Tile devices, but it'd be nice if Google released one compatible with all Android devices, instead of being stupidly tied to a specific brand.

Tile is the closest but it has a much smaller user base since it depends on people having the tile app installed. Airtags pickup on most iphones since most people have "Find My" enabled.

If you're a tinkerer there's a project called OpenHaystack that lets you make your own tags that leech off Apple's Find My network. I've got a couple dozen of them at this point and they work flawlessly.

It will take a while, but once google launches its Find my device network. You will have plenty of alternatives that work on android.

Chippolo is making one for Google's find my network that works just like Apple's network. Can't comment on the tracker itself because it's a preorder, but theoretically it could be just as strong with the amount of Android devices around

There are standalone GPS trackers that report its location via a cellular connection. Typically they are used to track pets and the elderly in case they get lost, you might be able to find them relatively cheap at pet supply stores, but they do require a continuous paid subscription to work. Though they do have the benefit of working anywhere that has a cellular connection without relying on having specific brands of devices nearby.

If you don't need remote tracking, GPS trackers that only log to internal memory also exist. Those don't require a subscription because they only need to listen for GPS signals and not transmit.

Fortune favors the prepared. Better to have them in your luggage and never need them than to need them and not have them.

It's not that as bad as it seems. The way it is set up is actually very privacy-minded with the use of cryptography. I would encourage you to read more about this.

The primary safety concern is stalking. For example when a stalker puts an AirTag on your belongings or vehicle. iPhones can detect unknown airtags moving with you. Android devices should gain this capability in the future.