Earlier this week United announced the addition of Apple’s new Share Item Location feature for AirTag into its mobile app, a move that’s expected to promote a much-improved customer service experience.
While United notes that less than 1% of travelers are separated from their bags during a trip, for frequent flyers, it has happened to all of us at some point. Now, the carrier will allow passengers to privately, securely, and seamlessly share the AirTag or Find My network accessory location with the airline’s customer service team to help locate their luggage in the event that it is mishandled.
Mrs. ATX and I have AirTags in our luggage, backpacks, briefcases, and strollers. It always comes in handy when traveling, especially when a bag goes missing. Now, with United allowing you to share location information with the airline, it should be easier and quicker to locate and return lost bags.
David Kinzelman, United’s Chief Customer Officer, had this to say about the new functionality:
“For years, every customer has been able to track the journey of their bag through the United app as it is scanned on and off the plane, and previously, they didn’t have a way to directly share their AirTag information with our baggage team. Now, Apple’s new Share Item Location feature will help customers travel with even more confidence, knowing they have another way to access to their bag’s precise location with AirTag or their Find My accessory of choice. They can easily and securely share that with us in the United app, and our team can use the location information to find the bag and get it reunited with its owner much more quickly.”
If you end up separated from your bag and have an AirTag or other Find My equipped device in it, here’s what you need to do:
- File a delayed baggage report in the United app: 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.
- After submission, 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, can be stopped by the customer at any time, and will automatically expire after seven days.
In order to utilize the functionality, passengers should verify that their iPhone is running on iOS 18.2 or later and that the United app is up to date. If you don’t have the United app, you’ll receive an automatic text notification with information to track misplaced luggage and add a Share Item Location link for your AirTag or Find My network accessory.
While United is the first airline to have rolled this functionality out, I’d expect to see others follow along shortly.
Summary
United has rolled out a very cool feature wherein Apple AirTags can be used by the airline to track bags when they go missing. United has been introducing some new, customer friendly, features over the last few months and this one might be my favorite yet. In a perfect world, you’ll never need to use the feature but, it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
