Say No to Luggage Woes with Delta Airlines RFID technology

I am a frequent flyer but thankfully have never experienced the frustration of losing my luggage at the airport. But not everyone is lucky. There have been a couple of times when I saw people howling and seeking help at customer care desk for their lost bags. Things might soon change for better with this new technology that will allow you to track your bags through an app on your phone.

The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology- introduced by Delta Airlines will replace the existing barcode and hand scanning procedure that's been used industry-wide since the early 90s and is the first time that the technology has been used this way in the USA.

Delta Airlines is rolling out Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) bag tags that are embedded with a special chip to allow it to be tracked by an app at every stage of its journey, from check-in to baggage belt. The airlines has spent $50million (£34.2million) to introduce the technology at 344 airports around the world, including installing 3,800 RFID bag tag printers and 4,600 scanners.

In a statement on its website, Delta promises that RFID will provide customers with 'improved real-time tracking of luggage throughout the travel experience'.
There are also 600 'pier and claim readers' that will enable hands-free scanning of the luggage on the conveyor belt as it travels from the check-in gate to the plane. At 84 of Delta's busiest locations, some 1,500 belt loaders that feed luggage into the plane are fitted with scanners able to read the RFID tag.

They will automatically flash green if the destination of the bag is correct or red if there's additional handling required.

Delta currently handles around 120 million bags a year. A pilot program has shown that the technology has a 99.9 percent success rate in the correct routing and loading of the tagged bags. This is an improvement on the company's existing 95 per cent success rate at present according KSTP.

However, it is not the first time that RFID technology is being used in the world. Hong Kong International Airport has been using the technology as far back as 2008. It has been used on outgoing luggage on airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air and Air China.