Once the bags are recorded with baggage service and they've been in the federated database for so long, if the owners do not claim, the contents are donated where appropriate.
The bags themselves sometimes are set aside as ad hoc replacements for anyone who has a bag badly damaged in handling or other mishap.
When its donated the charity, there is an agreement that the charity will remove any PII or personalized stuff before selling the rest.
They certainly do not want to do so, but the capability existed and they declined to exercise it.
Once the owner’s put it in Lost Mode, which all of those beeping bags were in, then you just visit the link it gives you when you scan it (it can do NFC, it doesn’t even require an Apple device) and the owner’s contact information is shown.
The airline’s behavior instead resembles: “We couldn’t see any contact information in the outside and maybe we checked a zipper pocket for a piece of paper but ultimately we would rather give up and pay you a lost bag fee, than have to employ a human being to put more than thirty seconds of effort into each bag.”
Sure, why not? Let them in and have staff on hand with them requiring them to prove ownership by identifying the contents. Would that cost a lot to the airline? You bet, which is why they don't make the effort. But airlines never make an effort to help passengers unless the government tells them they must. So either make it mandatory or impose punitive damages when airlines lose bags (far above the cost of the luggage).
Maybe the airline would make an honest effort not to lose baggage if they were actually held accountable.
Yes. Especially when you can make your bag beep by tapping a button on your phone.
When you grab a bag from baggage claim, nobody cross-checks your ID against the bag. We already trust people not to steal. If you steal from a warehouse, the same thing would happen as if you stole from a baggage claim.
Take a photo of yourself, the bag, and visible luggage tag prior to checking it in.
From the perspective of the airline they were unclaimed — likely the tags had torn off and the airline had no idea who to connect the bag to.
Maybe it would be a nice service to incorporate AirTag tracing for unclaimed luggage, especially if the tracing was based on a standard and not specific to a single luxury brand. But regardless that would be a new SOP and isn’t part of the current one.
How did you reach the conclusion that it's "likely" the tags had torn off?
I don't think any of your assumptions are founded. If the airline decides the cost to pay out is cheaper than the cost to return, then paying out would be a totally reasonable business decision. Frankly without any more detailed (internal) information, I don't think you should presume such things.
Anyway like I said all of this is speculative. But I find it interesting that you and I have such diametrically opposed viewpoints when it comes to this.
The bag was lost for 9 days, with zero updates on the tracing report. The last update was in the connecting airport. We managed to find it, sitting placed at the destination airport with a few hundred other bags, tags were 100% fine on our bags and the others. At any point someone could have walked through, scanned the bags, and updated the tracing reports. But nobody did.
This isn’t because the tags were ripped off, it’s because it’s Air Canada’s SOP.