United enables Apple’s lost luggage recovery tool for airline flubs

Just over a month ago, Apple introduced a new feature called “Share Item Location” that would allow users to securely share the location of their lost or misplaced Find My-ready device (or luggage with AirTag attached) with their airline service provider, in order to recover it. The feature is now live, with United emerging as the first partner to adopt it. In a press release, United mentioned that the ability to share details of lost items from the Find My network had been added to its official mobile app. The feature went live following the rollout of iOS 18.2, which commenced yesterday and also introduced notable Apple Intelligence features. Air Canada has also announced the feature.

The airline service providers note the goal is to let users “seamlessly share the accessory location with the airline’s customer service team” in the event of mishandled items and move ahead with the recovery. David Kinzelman, United’s chief customer officer, claims that Apple’s new tool will help customers locate their lost baggage “much more quickly.”

Here’s how the recovery process kicks into action. Let’s say you find yourself in a situation where your baggage didn’t arrive at the destination. All you have to do is open the United mobile app and submit a delayed baggage report. At this stage, you can securely share the location-tracking data pulled from the Find My network.

In order to generate a tracking link, users can go to the Find My app installed on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This link opens an interactive map view on a webpage that shows the location of the missing item, and keeps updating it when movement is detected, alongside a timestamp for location logging.

Once the item has been found and it is duly returned to the customer, the shared location details cease to update and the link itself expires within a week. For the sake of added security, the whole pipeline is end-to-end encrypted so the shared location data remains private to the customer and airline service provider only.

In the coming months, the likes of Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic will also join the list of over two dozen players that will add support for Apple’s Share Item Location feature.

For expanded rollout, Apple has also joined with global aviation technology giant, SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautique), with the goal of integrating the feature within the latter’s WorldTracer baggage tracking system. This partnership will bring the new convenience to roughly 2,800 airports serving more than 500 commercial airline players.