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-   -   Using a GPS tracker in my luggage (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/255364-using-gps-tracker-my-luggage.html)

Can our BHPians help me on this. I am thinking of placing a GPS tracker in by checked in baggage for obvious reasons.
1. Able to identify my baggage in the swarm of similar looking bags
2. To know if the baggage has arrived at the destination. Specially important for multi-leg fights
3. To know if my baggage is unloaded and arriving on which belt. how often we have to run from one belt to another, NYC, Heathrow are notorious.
4. To be aware if it is picked up by someone else

Can I use it for both domestic and international flights?

I know a few people who use AirTag for this purpose.

I use airtags to track checked-in bags. Pretty useful in tracking lost luggage (recently an airlines lost my gate checked in bag and airtag was useful to locate it) and tracking your passport bag (with separation alert ON - it warns if this bag separates from you).

For your other use cases (to identify the bag, and to locate the belt), it may not be of much use since the faint alert noise the airtag can play isn't much audible in crowded airports (tracker app may be of some use here in pointing out the direction and distance to your bag if it has landed on the belt).

I got an AirTag this week to track some expensive luggage after watching a YouTube video. Seems like a good idea to me!

I was looking to buy an Airtag couple of weeks ago but there was no stock anywhere. Amazon showed me a Samsung Galaxy SmartTag, which costs 1/3rd of the Airtag. Does anyone have experience using one? Need to figure out if it works only with Samsung devices or if any android would do. If it works with all devices, then it might be a good alternative.

Edit: Smart Tags are limited to Samsung Galaxy devices and will only work with those. This also extends to the community find feature – only Galaxy devices will search for your lost Galaxy Tag, excluding all other Android and iOS devices.

I used AirTags on my my to London via Dubai on Emirates. This was at the time when baggage was getting lost at LHR. I could establish that my baggage was in DXB and in LHR, Having disembarked from an A380, I knew it would take a while. I could observe the bags coming from the far end of the airport to the belt area. Activate ‘find nearby’ and you can anticipate when the bag is in range and when it comes towards you on the belt

Used it in Mumbai but the staff don’t use iPhones so took awhile to show up. Used it to travel to Phuket, and back via Bangkok.

Note you don’t have to have a tag on the handle. You can keep an AirTag in the box itself.

Airtag seems to be a great device and so is Samsung Galaxy SmartTag for people like me who use Samsung Android phones.

Just curious if devices with a battery are allowed in the check-in baggage?

For it to work effectively, it is not enough that you use a Galaxy phone. Many people should be using a Galaxy device for the tag to connect to the galaxy network. That is where Airtag has an advantage since the number of iPhone users will be far more than Galaxy users. If the SmartTag could work with all android devices, then it would have been a no-brainer. Maybe google should come up with such a device.

These use tiny batteries like the watch battery which is allowed inside check-in luggage.