If you’re flying United Airlines this holiday season, adding an Apple AirTag to your checked bag could be an extra assurance that you’ll be reunited with your luggage, even if it gets lost in the shuffle.
The Chicago-based carrier is officially the first of the major airlines to implement Apple’s Find My item location, which was first announced by the tech company in November.
United says it expects this move “to drive a much-improved customer service experience for the fewer than 1% of customers whose bags arrive on a later flight.”
In the event a bag doesn’t arrive to its final destination, customers can file a delayed baggage report in the United app, and those who travel with an AirTag or Find My network accessory can additionally now create a Share Item Location link in the Find My app on their iPhone, iPad or Mac and add that to the delayed baggage report in the United app.
Once the report has been submitted, authorized United customer service agents will receive the Share Item Location link and be able to view the location of the item on an interactive map. The map will automatically update when a new location is available and show a timestamp of the most recent update.
United will use the shared location to more quickly find delayed bags and reunite them with customers.
For customers’ privacy and security, the shared location will be disabled as soon as a customer is reunited with their bag, and can be stopped by the customer at any time, and will automatically expire after seven days.