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When it was founded 50 Yeats ago _maybe_ it made sense because technology was not that advanced. Now I'd say it's a company selling stolen goods. Airlines kno
by McDyver 3y ago
When it was founded 50 Yeats ago _maybe_ it made sense because technology was not that advanced.
Now I'd say it's a company selling stolen goods.
Airlines know who is the owner of that luggage. They have the sticker with flight, booking number, they have the contact details of the owner, and most owners put a tag with their contact info on the luggage.
They were hired to provide the sole service of transporting the luggage and owner from A to B. It's their only job. And they fail and steal your belongings and sell it for a profit, to a fence
- pulse7 3y agoPlease read the article...
- McDyver 3y agoI did. Are you saying 25m bags have absolutely no information on them? Absolutely zero?
- handoflixue 3y agoDid you read the sentence right after that one? "Around 25m of them (5.7 per 1k bags checked) end up lost or misdirected. The 0.03% of bags that are still not reunited with their owners after 90 days are sold by the airline." 0.03% of 25m, and it's only after 90 days.
- cpncrunch 3y agoBut it doesn't explain why they can't use the tags to locate the owners. I did find the answer (see my other comment), but it wasn't from this article.
- McDyver 3y agoYes, although that doesn't seem correct. That would be 7500 a year. When they say the founder was buying 3k a month, either the RF ids are great at reducing the losses worldwide, or something is wrong with those numbers.
- IanCal 3y agoI'm pretty sure that's a mistake. 1.3M are never claimed according to the figures early on, that's 0.003% of the total figure.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mrb 3y agoActually it's 0.03% but the mistake is elsewhere. The correct figures are that 1.3M out of 4.36B checked bags (so 0.03%) are lost and never claimed. The infographic incorrectly states "43.6B" (should be 4.36B, to be consistent with the text that see states "4.3B").
- graphe 3y agoWhat if they didn't want it back?
- cpncrunch 3y agoI read the article as well, as there is no info on this at all. After some searching I did find the information in a different article about Canadian airlines: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-luggage-1.725667 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-lug... Air Canada and Westjet both open the bags to look for identifying information so they can contact the owner. Then they donate the bags to charity or dispose of them if they can't locate the owner. I think the moral of the story is to make sure your bag is well tagged. We have been putting an airtag in my bag for the last few flights, and it works really well. It's a pity there is no Android equivalent, as I have no way of locating my tags on my phone. (I just use an ipad).
- victorarevalo 3y agoI use Tile for this purpose and they work well. Not as good as airtag, but I don't have an iphone.
- cpncrunch 3y agoThe problem is they have a much smaller network than airtags, as much fewer people have a Tile than an iPhone, so I'm not sure how useful it is at actually tracking. What are the chances of a rampie or baggage office employee owning a Tile vs having an iPhone in their pocket?
- victorarevalo 3y agoAt airports there is never a problem. I also have recovered my stolen wallet (stashed in the garbage a few blocks away, with IDs still in it) using it. An airtag would always be better, but I really do think Tile is not too bad. Far better than nothing, if you aren't in the Apple ecosystem. Tile does display the number of users in your area in the app. Not sure how reliable those numbers are but it's regularly in the hundreds in places like busy airports.
- seb1204 3y agoWill an air tag help the airline to identify you? That would be rather bad in a privacy sense. I don't think it is easy for you to call the airline and say my bag is in this building etc please give it back to me. my point is that the airline needs to be able to contact you.
- paxys 3y ago0.03% of 25m. And yes, why is that so hard to believe?
- KennyBlanken 3y agoFirst off, this sort of comment is against HN rules. Second, as others have noticed, airlines have been caught dumping bags at clearance houses days after they were lost. I guarantee some actuary at the airline has figured out the cost of selling the luggage vs risk (zero, even though it's outright theft) vs cost of figuring out who the bag belongs to. Third, "we can't figure out who it belongs to" is feigned helplessness. Some airports and airlines are much worse than others, demonstrating that good tracking and low loss is perfectly possible. Nobody is holding them responsible, so of course they don't care. The industry dragged its feet adopting RFID which is more reliable than barcodes for sorting and tracking. And really, the only reason airline are improving is because airtags and the like helped customers catch airlines out in lies. From listening to a NPR finance show, the airlines now even know, automatically, when a bag isn't on a plane with a passenger.
- handoflixue 3y ago> Now I'd say it's a company selling stolen goods. "Imagine this: An airline loses your checked bag. After an extensive search, customer support comes up empty-handed. They compensate you and life goes on." It seems bizarre to call this stolen goods when the airline has tried to resolve this for 90 days AND compensated you for your loss
- theturtletalks 3y agoExactly, but the issue is that a person might be willing to pay that compensation fee for the original bag back. Some bags had valuable artifacts, a camera used by NASA, etc. I’m sure the airlines didn’t compensate for this sort of items. Regardless, the company selling this is not at fault for selling “stolen” items. They believe the airline has done its due diligence in trying to find the owner and are now reducing waste by giving the items a 2nd home.
- McDyver 3y ago> Some say the store has an ethical duty to reunite people with their lost luggage — especially highly personal items, like jewelry inscribed with names and dates, or electronics with identifiable information. > But historically, the store has maintained it has a business to run. "I see this iPad or this laptop has your info, and I could contact you but hey... Tough luck"
- blagie 3y agoI have never successfully received compensation for lost or damaged bags. It's not that it's impossible. It's that the hoops required were always more than the compensation. It's theft.
- guappa 3y agoI did get compensation. It was so low… I had a couple of expensive university books in there, so I'm fairly sure it just got stolen.
- jameshart 3y ago
- paxys 3y agoIf the contents of the bag are worth $500 the airline isn't spending >$500 worth of effort to track it down and return it to its owner. It makes sense to just reimburse them and move on. Now the question is what happens to the bag floating in the ether. Option 1 is sending it to a landfill. Option 2 is cracking it open and reselling/reusing the stuff in it. There are plenty of ethical arguments in either one's favor, but it isn't as obvious as everyone is making it seem.
- plasticchris 3y agoI once had my check bag lost and it arrived a couple of months later via a courier. This was in ‘08
- paxys 3y agoOkay? The article is talking about bags that weren't found in over 3 months.
- plasticchris 3y agoYeah, I was responding to the point about cost. A courier driving for 4 hours to get to me probably cost them at least 500$
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Sohcahtoa82 3y agoThe current top comment says: "I guarantee you over half of those luggages do have identified owners who simply aren't contactable because they will not answer the phone, check a voicemail, read their email, or open any letter addressed to them."
- guappa 3y agoMail the luggage to their address
- Sohcahtoa82 3y agoThe address on file could be out of date.
- guappa 3y agoBut most likely won't.