If you’re a frequent traveller – and perhaps even if you’re an infrequent one – chances are that at some point you’ve had a problem with your luggage. Perhaps it’s been dropped, hurled about, left out in the rain, emerged on the luggage carousel torn or half open, or perhaps it’s not even emerged at all. Now you have the opportunity to fight back against this misuse of your property – by giving your luggage a ‘voice’.
Justyesterday, baggage handlers working at Norfolk International Airport in Virginia pleaded guilty to stealing from passengers’ bags, whilst last month a passenger waiting to board a flight filmed handlers at Pucallpa Airport in Peru doing the same. Whilst we must hope that most baggage handlers are honest and trustworthy, these are not isolated incidents.
But wouldn’t it be useful if you could track what happened to your luggage – if you could see that it had been thrown or dropped, or rifled through? Well, now you’ll hopefully be able to do just that, thanks to an adaptation of technology that has already been in use for some time within the pharmaceutical industry.
With BagSentry you will be able to monitor luggage all the way through your trip. You’ll actually know if your bag was opened, dropped, left in the rain, or misued. It consists of a powerful, rugged, re-usable sensor that is FAA / TSA compliant (not real time GPS) and that gives your luggage a ‘voice’ and you peace of mind.
The device is combined with a mobile app that will provide you with a report of your luggages journey, and what may have occurred when it was out of your hands – highlighting any abuse along the way.
It will detect any shock events, so you can tell if it’s been thrown around or dropped from a height.
It will record other data such as humidity and light, notifying you whether your luggage has been left out in the rain or been opened at any point since you checked it in.
Should the worst happen, with this technology you will be armed with evidence that you can take to the airlines in order to fight back and make a more robust claim.
Like the idea of BagSentry? Head over to their Kickstarter page to learn more and support the project.
Image #1: Shutterstock
