If you’re planning to fly on Lufthansa anytime soon, leave your AirTag home. Lufthansa becomes the first airline to ban Apple AirTag devices on flights, citing electronic device policies.
According to the German news site Watson, Lufthansa cites a policy pertaining to the prohibited use of electronic devices during flights as a reason for the ban. “Luggage trackers belong to the category of portable electronic devices and are therefore subject to the dangerous goods regulations issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization for transport in aircraft. Accordingly, due to their transmission function, the trackers must be deactivated during the flight, similar to mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc. if they are in checked baggage,” said a Lufthansa spokesperson to Watson.
This comes after an incredibly frustrating summer for both the airline and its passengers. Several reports surfaced after Lufthansa continuously lost checked bags, often telling customers their checked bags will arrive on a later flight. Some reports even mentioned the bags never arrived, prompting a wild goose chase between the customer and the airline.
Savvy AirTag users began messaging the airline and tagging them in tweets saying that their updates didn’t match the location data of their AirTag.
@lufthansa just travelled ATH-MUC-CDG Business Class with 2h30 transit. Somehow you’ve lost my bag in between?! Apparently your team can’t find it (your system is down I’m told)! @Apple AirTag says it’s in Toulouse!! Can I please get my bag back before you send it somewhere else? pic.twitter.com/QxwFooJDRl
— KeepOnDiscovering (@mallo75004) August 30, 2021
It’s unclear what prompted Lufthansa to suddenly ban the use of AirTag devices in checked luggage, but it may be due to customers tracking their luggage in real-time compared to their internal systems which reportedly go down randomly.
It’s unclear whether other airlines will follow, but Lufthansa says that AirTag devices much have the batteries removed before being checked in.
Lol … this has to be fake news or simple stupidity from LH
This story isn’t true and the least you could have done is to verify it with Lufthansa. The writer keeps writing that “it’s unclear” why it’s happening but the reason it’s unclear is he didn’t check it before publishing.
Hey Alan,
There was an official statement which was provided by Lufthansa, stating “Luggage trackers belong to the category of portable electronic devices and are therefore subject to the dangerous goods regulations issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization for transport in aircraft. Accordingly, due to their transmission function, the trackers must be deactivated during the flight, similar to mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc. if they are in checked baggage.”
Our writers do indeed fact check and verify all claims before publishing. If something cannot be directly verified, then it is considered a speculative rumor, not fake news. Thank you for your feedback nonetheless and I hope this quote settles your concern.
– Chris
The pilots and flights attendance phone’s battery must be removed as well then.
lmao. Maybe they should encourage passengers to bring Airtags now since they cant seem to get luggage to the right places.
Honestly, I would think the airline would do just the opposite. Welcome passenger assistance in tracking and finding luggage. Obviously the airline industry is suffering immensely with lost luggage. I would think they’d welcome anything to make them look better and minimize the chaos called “lost bags.”