AirTag in suitcase is now banned – and here’s why it’s nonsense
An AirTag in your suitcase to track your luggage? Airline Lufthansa now bans it, but their reason is total nonsense. This is why.
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Find a lost suitcase with an AirTag
Last summer was fairly disastrous for Schiphol Airport. In addition to a shortage of security personnel, which caused people to queue for hours outside, there were also many problems with the luggage of the unlucky travelers. Orphaned suitcases piled up, even filling the departure and arrival halls.
Due to all the chaos with the suitcases at Schiphol, and many other airports in Europe, travelers wanted to be able to keep an eye on their suitcases to find them again if something went wrong. The AirTag offered a solution: put an AirTag in your suitcase, and you will find it on the map in no time. Plus, it can make a sound, and your iPhone will even point you to it when you’re nearby.
AirTag in suitcase: banned at Lufthansa
Unfortunately, this solution now seems to be banned. Lufthansa takes the lead, and apparently is the first airline to ban putting an AirTag in your checked baggage. The reason? According to Lufthansa, they do not meet the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
News site AppleInsider has researched this, and what does it show? None of this is right. ICAO guidelines apply to devices with li-ion batteries, but the AirTag uses a simple button cell battery. So it does not fall under that. A similar battery is also in many watches – and they can also simply be put in the suitcase. In addition, the wireless signal of an AirTag is too weak to thwart instruments in the plane (and this also applies to your iPhone, by the way).
Actually another reason
According to AppleInsider, multiple aviation experts indicated that Lufthansa’s AirTag ban has no valid basis. One expert came up with a different reason for Lufthansa’s decision: banning AirTags was said to have been done primarily to protect the company itself. Mistakes made with suitcases do not come out, for example via social media, and that saves Lufthansa a lot of negative PR.
There is, however, still some confusion. Where Lufthansa indicates through one channel to ban AirTags, the company indicates in an interview with Airways Magazine that this is not the case. In any case, Lufthansa has the right to ban an AirTag in your suitcase. However, hiding behind rules that don’t apply to the little tracker at all isn’t the best way to do it. Moreover, it is unlikely that Lufthansa can actually enforce this policy. That is not a challenge, by the way, but just an observation. Nevertheless, we list the best deals for AirTags at the moment below.
