Missing luggage when one arrives at the airport is a frustrating experience for many people, especially when it makes a trip’s beginning or end a stressful experience. To help ease this common problem faced by travellers, Google has now introduced a feature called Find Hub, which enables users to share their live location with airlines when their luggage goes missing.
This feature aims to help airline employees easily locate missing luggage using real-time data sent from a tracking device attached to it. According to reports, the system has already been implemented by Turkish Airlines, which has integrated the feature into its baggage tracking process.
The feature forms part of Google’s broader plan to build a unified platform for locating tracked items across devices. However, its use in air travel is already attracting attention as airlines search for ways to speed up the recovery of delayed or missing baggage.
How the Find Hub feature works
The Find Hub feature is designed to be simple enough for travellers to use even while standing at the baggage carousel.
Passengers must first attach a compatible tracking device or accessory to their luggage. If their bag does not appear at the baggage claim area, they can quickly share the item’s location with the airline.
The process only takes a few steps within the Find Hub app:
Launch the Find Hub app and select the lost item
Tap “Share Item Location” to produce a secure link showing the current position of the bag
Copy the link to the airline’s baggage claim form on their website or app
Allow the airline staff to access the link to see the current position of the bag
By doing this, the airline staff will be able to search the bag in a particular area rather than depending on the conventional systems.Privacy safeguards built into the system
Google has said the feature includes several privacy protections designed to ensure that passengers maintain control over their data.
Users can stop sharing the location link at any time, and the generated link automatically expires after seven days. The sharing feature also automatically disables when the phone identifies the bag with the owner.
Further, all the information communicated through the Find Hub platform is encrypted to maintain the privacy of the users.
With these measures, the passengers are able to control who accesses their location information and for what period.
Airlines using the feature
As the feature is being rolled out worldwide, Google has announced the inclusion of the Find Hub feature with some international airlines.
Some of the airlines with which the Find Hub feature has already been integrated are:
Turkish Airlines
Air India
AJet
China Airlines
Lufthansa and its group airlines, including Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Swiss International Air Lines
Saudia
Scandinavian Airlines
Many other airlines are also likely to introduce the Find Hub feature with the airline luggage system soon, including Qantas.
Benefits to passengers
One of the major advantages of the new system is the potential to reduce the time taken to locate misplaced luggage.
In general, airlines use internal scanning systems and communication systems to locate misplaced luggage. With the inclusion of the Find Hub feature, the airline staff are able to use the location information provided by the passengers to narrow down the location of the misplaced luggage within the airport hub.
According to aviation industry publication Skift, passenger-authorised location sharing can also feed into global baggage tracking systems such as WorldTracer.
This additional level of visibility enables airline teams to better prioritize cases, minimizing the likelihood of bags being lost for long periods of time.
In addition, for the frequent flyer, the technology could mean fewer days waiting for information regarding delayed baggage, as well as more active communication from the airlines handling baggage claims.
As airlines continue to seek out technology to enhance the passenger experience, Google’s Find Hub may be the first step towards resolving one of the most commonly encountered issues with air travel.
