on
Reeve Aleutian Airways Invention The first "separable coupon ticket" was patented by John Michael Lyons of
Moncton,
New Brunswick, on June 5, 1882. The ticket showed the issuing station, the destination, and a consecutive number for reference. The lower half of the ticket was given to the passenger, while the upper half, with a hole at the top, was inserted into a brass sleeve and then attached to the baggage by a strap. At some point, reinforced paper tags were introduced. These are designed not to detach as easily as older tags during transport.
Warsaw Convention The
Warsaw Convention of 1929, specifically Article Four, established the criteria for issuing a
baggage check or
luggage ticket. This agreement also established limit of liability on checked baggage.
Previous bag tags Prior to the 1990s, airline bag tags consisted of a paper tag attached with a string. The tag contained basic information: • Airline/carrier name • Flight number • Baggage tag number (composed of the two-letter airline code and six digits) • Destination airport code These tags became obsolete because they offered little security and were easy to replicate.
Current bag tags Current bag tags include a
bar code using the
Interleaved 2 of 5 symbology. These bag tags are printed using a
thermal or
barcode printer on an adhesive thermal paper stock. This printed strip is then attached to the luggage at check-in, allowing automated sorting of the bags by bar code readers. There are two ways that bar code baggage tags are read: hand held scanners, and in-line arrays. In-line arrays are built into the baggage conveyor system and use a 360-degree array of lasers or cameras to read the bar code tags from multiple angles because baggage and the orientation of the bar code tag can shift as the bag travels through the conveyor belt system. Camera systems are replacing lasers due to their greater ability to read damaged or folded tags. One of the limitations of this system is that in order to read bar codes from the bottom of the belt, laser or camera arrays are placed below the gap between two sections of conveyor belt. Due to the frequent build-up of debris and dust on these lower arrays, the rate of successful reads can be low, although the camera systems improve the likelihood of reading tags from this position because of the algorithms used in their software. Frequently, the "read rate", the percentage of bar code tags successfully read by these arrays, can be as low as 85%. This means that more than one out of ten bar code baggage tags are not successfully read, and these bags are shunted off for manual reading, resulting in extra labor and delay. Systems employing cameras typically have better read rates than those using lasers - up to 99.5% in ideal conditions. For flights departing from an international airport within the European Union, bag tags are issued with green edges. Passengers are eligible to take these bags through a separate "Blue Channel" (or alternatively the "Green Channel" = "nothing to declare") at
Customs if arriving at another EU airport. Bar codes cannot be automatically scanned without direct sight and undamaged print. Because of reading problems with poorly printed, obscured, crumpled, scored or otherwise damaged bar codes, some airlines have started using
radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips embedded in the tags. In the
US,
Harry Reid International Airport has installed an RFID system throughout the airport.
Hong Kong International Airport has also installed an RFID system. The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) is working to standardize RFID bag tags. In 2013,
British Airways began a trial to test re-usable electronic luggage tags featuring
electronic paper technology. The passenger checks in using the British Airways smartphone app, then holds the smartphone close to the tag. The flight details and barcode are transmitted to the tag using
NFC technology. Because the tag utilises electronic paper, the battery need only power the tag during the transmission of data. Fast Travel Global Ltd has developed a re-usable electronic luggage tag product called the eTag. This is also electronic paper-based but is not limited to a single airline. The passenger will check in using a supported airline's smartphone app and send the relevant flight information to the tag via
Bluetooth Low Energy.
Qantas introduced Q Bag Tags in 2011. Unlike the British Airways tags, they do not feature a screen, which means there is no barcode to scan. This has limited the use of the tags to domestic flights within Australia on the Qantas network. The tags were initially given free of charge to members of the
Qantas Frequent Flyer program with Silver, Gold or Platinum status. The tags can also be purchased for A$29.95. Over the last years, there have been numerous of initiatives to develop electronic bag tags, by both independent technology companies as well as some airlines. The main benefits of electronic bag tags include self-control and ease-of-use by passengers, time-saving by skipping queues at the airport, improved read rates compared to printed bag tags and, as electronic bag tags are adopted, significant operational cost reduction for the airlines. The first company to successfully launch has been
Rimowa in a partnership with
Lufthansa in March, 2016. The concept of electronic bag tags has been gaining ground following that launch. On January 9, 2018, Lufthansa introduced a new electronic bag tag to their passengers, BAGTAG. BAGTAG is the first fully secure operational electronic bag tag that can be attached to any suitcase and has integrated
radio-frequency identification technology. ==Identification==