Air New Zealand To Launch Baggage Tracking Feature
Air New Zealand is now expanding its successful pilot program of the baggage tracking feature to a larger customer base. This move comes in the wake of last summer's incidents when several international airlines faced a high rate of misplaced baggage, and global airlines are trying to keep up with the trend of baggage tracking.
The airline plans to offer this service to 25% of its app users for domestic travel and 5% for international short-haul travel, allowing passengers to view the latest status of their bags via the Air NZ app. After completing the bag drop, the baggage card on the flight details screen in the app will display a "Check status" option. The feature will help passengers track their luggage throughout the journey, from check-in to when it arrives at their destination.
Air New Zealand Chief Digital Officer, Nikhil Ravishankar, said, "Customers can track the journey of their bag and receive guidance on what to do if their bag has taken a detour. In an upcoming release, customers will also be able to report and monitor mishandled baggage via the app."
The airline aims to test and troubleshoot the features among a small group of passengers before a more seamless rollout to all app users in the middle of this year.
While Air New Zealand's baggage tracking service will likely be well-received by its customers, other airlines such as the big three US airlines and Korean Air have already implemented similar features. China Eastern reportedly started a comparable service in 2019 on select domestic routes in the country.
Lost or misplaced baggage is a global issue, with the problem becoming more severe last summer. As the airline industry started to recover from COVID-19, the global mishandled baggage rate spiked by 24% to 4.35 bags per thousand passengers in 2021, according to IT service provider SITA. Therefore, the trend of baggage tracking by passengers and airlines is here to stay.
