Airports and airplanes have never been busier. With many parts of the globe opening up to travel in a post-pandemic world, people are flocking to tourist destinations in droves. Before you finish packing your bags, be sure to use Spryly to produce luggage tags that'll help your bags get returned to you quickly should they be lost!

How Many Bags Are Lost?

Back in 2018, well before the Pandemic, over 4.27 billion bags were checked-in and more than 24 million bags were mishandled for the close to 4.36 billion passengers traveling that year, according to a report prepared by the research firm SITA.

For the 24+ million mishandled bags, 77% were delayed while 18% were damaged or stolen and 5% were lost. If your bag was among the more than 1.2 million bags lost, you'd certainly want to employ whatever tools were at your disposal to improve the odds of having it safely returned.

What About Apple AirTags (or Tile)?

Apple's recently introduced AirTags are an awesome accessory to add to your travel gear. They're inexpensive and harness the billions of iOS devices world-wide to help track their location.

AirTags have been successfully used to track and find stolen and lost items. This person in Germany found their bike after it was stolen, with the help of an AirTag, and created a video documenting the process. A story on 9to5mac.com discusses using AirTags to track checked-baggage. Keep in mind, though, that AirTags rely upon Apple's iOS ecosystem. So, if you're an Android phone user they won't work for you.

A competing platform, and earlier entrant into this market, is Tile. While it doesn't have the built-in, automatic reach that AirTags have, they  still offer some value in locating lost items.

Create Your First QR Code

Before heading off to the airport, use MyQRCard to create and print labels that can be laminated and attached to your bags. The basic steps are:

• Create a new Spryly card (select the business / contact card format)
• Add in information you'd like to be presented after someone scans your label
• Use the PDF creator feature of Spryly to produce a PDF
• Print the PDF label
• Laminate and attach the label to your luggage

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If your bag is discovered away from you the laminated tag will direct its finder to scan the QR code. Doing so will reveal the contact information you provided and, hopefully, enable  you be reunited with your luggage.

Built-in Privacy with Protected Texting

If you're worried about having your personal information available to anyone with the smartphone and a desire to scan every QR card they see you can hide your mobile number. When adding a new number to your card simply select the hidden option. When someone opens up your card they'll have the ability to text you without every seeing your number.

Don't Forget your Vaccine Card!

If you're about to embark on a trip be sure to use Spryly to capture and store your COVID-19 vaccination information. There's a template especially built for that task. See our post on creating a vaccine card.

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Photos by krakenimages and Patrick Campanale on Unsplash

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