Alaska Air has been fairly adventurous when it comes to pushing the boundaries of technological advances. It was the first US airline to use do online ticket sales, the first to use satellite-based GPS technology to land plans, and the first to use fingerprint scans as a means of identification to enter its airport lounges.
Now the Seattle-based airline has been hoping to set the technological pace with a fresh experiment: reusable, electronic tags for luggage.
Tests for Alaska Air's reusable tag idea began this past summer, with 60 Alaska employees. Since autumn, a select group of customers have been testing the tags on domestic flights. By the summer, 500 more frequent fliers will have the chance to test the tags in an expanded trial.
How do the reusable bag tags work? The 2-inch-by-3-inch plastic tags come with e-ink screens, like an e-reader that's powered by low-energy, wireless Bluetooth technology.
As normal, the tags are attached to the luggage using a durable nylon cording. During check-in, itinerary details are uploaded to the tag via the Alaska Air mobile app.
Passengers need to check in for their flight via the app, select the number of bags to be checked, complete check-in, and turn on the electronic bag tag to prepare it for syncing. Finally, the passenger needs to find a customer service agent to match their ID with what's written on the bag tag and to scan it.
Engineers at Vanguard ID Systems spent 10 years developing the tags, working with airlines that belong to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). All of the tags are expected to have a two-year lifespan and won't need to be charged at all during that time, the company says.
There have been other experiments in tracking luggage, mainly around using tags that transmit radio frequencies -- something that Qantas began toying with five years ago, and airports in Las Vegas, Lisbon, and Milan, have also experimented with. Air France and others have trialed permanent bag tags.
So far, the airline says that customer response has been positive ("Overall, I love it. It’s quick and easy," said one customer).
Yet some experts aren't sure the idea will catch on.
"A number of airlines have dabbled in this technology over the last several years, but it doesn’t seem to have taken off," George Hobica, Airfarewatchdog founder and president, tells Tnooz. "I wonder if these tags would gain consumer acceptance or if they would prove to be cost-effective. Some airlines were actually selling them, but it’s yet another thing to lose, malfunction, or break."
Another point Hobica brings up is that not all customers are comfortable with new digital devices. "Some of these tags require the traveler to enter the airport destination information, which might be less easy for someone who less tech savvy," he notes. "And they require a smartphone connection in most cases (not everyone has one). And many people would hesitate to pay for one. I don’t think I would."
Others believe Alaska Air's idea has the potential to go mainstream.
"Reusable tags are feasible on a large scale because, if successful, they would shift the work of tagging bags away from paid employees and onto paying customers," Christine Sarkis, senior editor of SmarterTravel, tells us. "So for airlines, it's clearly worth the up-front investment."
Digital bag trackers vary a lot by airline right now. Some go inside luggage, some hang like traditional tags, and the luggage company Rimowa has even built tracking into the luggage itself.
"Airlines want to harness the technology to save money in two ways: by decreasing the number of lost bags and by shrinking the number of employees needed to process checked bags," adds Sarkis.
"Around the world, we're seeing a distinct shift to more passenger-focused bag tagging. In the US, this probably has its limits, though, because, by law, airlines still need to verify the ID of passengers checking bags."
What matters most to many travelers is that there is a reduction in the number of lost and delayed bags. It's still too early to tell if Alaska's system would lead to such reductions. Part of the problem is that Alaska Air's system would have to interact with other airline and airport systems that might be less sophisticated about tracking luggage.
To standardize service across airports and airlines, IATA and airline technology specialist SITA also worked to develop WorldTracer, a service for tracking lost or delayed baggage. It has been used by airlines such as Qantas, Lufthansa, and Emirates, helping them to quickly find mishandled baggage.
As for Alaska Air's reusable tags, whether or not this experiment pans out in the long run, the carrier seems eager to associate itself with technological innovation in the minds of consumers—especially as it expands it route network to cover booming technology markets in Silicon Valley and Seattle via its just-proposed acquisition of Virgin America.
Earlier: Forecast for the airport experience and digital travel by 2018