Becoming a member of the Massive Three airways, Southwest Airways will lastly unveil a baggage monitoring software that enables vacationers to trace checked baggage inflight through its web site and cell app, the airline confirmed to TPG.
A Southwest spokesperson stated:
“In our ongoing dedication to offer a snug, seamless and handy buyer expertise whereas touring with us, Southwest Airways has launched the flexibility for Clients to trace checked baggage all through their journey — from takeoff to touchdown. Now on Southwest.com and the Southwest cell app, clients can view the standing of their checked bag throughout three completely different milestones of every checked piece of baggage: confirming when bag tags are printed and when baggage are loaded and unloaded from our plane.”
Southwest flyers can entry this software by clicking on “Observe your checked baggage” on the left-hand facet of the cell app underneath “Flight” or on-line through this hyperlink, as proven beneath.
It would permit clients to trace baggage in actual time through the aforementioned standing updates, and it will inform vacationers when their baggage are bodily loaded and unloaded from the aircraft.
The Dallas-based provider is the most recent airline to introduce clients to real-time baggage updates to offer peace of thoughts forward of the 2023 vacation season. The airline’s updates observe final yr’s operational meltdown when it canceled practically 20,000 flights over the Christmas vacation. Throughout that point, clients have been discouraged from checking baggage as a result of multi-hour-long waits to retrieve checked baggage after canceled flights.
Within the first half of 2023, U.S. carriers mishandled baggage at a price that was 0.61% decrease than that of the primary half of 2022, per U.S. Division of Transportation knowledge; it additionally famous that carriers reported mishandling 43.4 million baggage in June 2023. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics defines mishandled baggage as gadgets which can be “misplaced, delayed, broken or pilfered.”
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Along with airline monitoring instruments, vacationers can proceed to control their baggage through private digital monitoring gadgets, equivalent to Apple Air Tags, which use Bluetooth to trace gadgets through close by Apple gadgets, particularly suitable iPhones or iPads.
To purchase: Apple AirTag, $28.99 on Amazon
Moreover, Southwest just lately expanded a self-service possibility for purchasers so as to add checked baggage digitally once they verify in for his or her flight, as much as 24 hours earlier than arrival on the airport. This eliminates the necessity to print bag tags on the airport.
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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed listed below are the writer’s alone, not these of any financial institution, bank card issuer, airline or lodge chain, and haven’t been reviewed, authorised or in any other case endorsed by any of those entities.