New Delhi: For air travellers, one of the biggest nightmares is having their luggage misplaced.
Losing luggage at the airport may not happen everyday, but isn’t uncommon either. And when that happens, it leads to tremendous stress at the start or end of a trip.
Keeping the plight of such passengers in mind, Google has introduced a ‘Find Hub’ feature that lets passengers share the live location of missing bags with airlines, making it easier for their staff to search in the right place.
The new feature is part of Google’s broader effort to set up a single platform to locate tracked items across devices. Its travel application is already attracting attention as airlines look for ways to speed up recovery when bags go missing.
According to a report in Business Today, the system has gone live with Turkish Airlines, which has adopted the tool as part of its baggage‑tracking process.
Is it passenger friendly?
Travellers need to have a Find Hub‑compatible tracker or accessory attached to their luggage. Once they realise their suitcase/bag hasn’t arrived, they can share the information within m
inutes while standing at the baggage carousel.
* First, passengers have to open the Find Hub app and choose the missing item.
* Tap ‘Share Item Location’ to generate a secure URL showing the bag’s real‑time position.
* Paste the link into the participating airline’s baggage claim form on its app or website.
* Allow staff to use the link to view updated location details.
The feature has been designed in such a way that privacy of passengers is prioritised.
All data exchanged through the app is encrypted.
Users can opt to stop sharing information whenever they wish. The links expire automatically after seven days, and the feature switches off soon after the phone detects the missing bag.
Hence, travellers have full control over who sees their information, and for how long.
Which airlines are early partners?
Air India is among a handful of airlines Google has partnered with initially to integrate Find Hub into their baggage systems.
The early list includes — Turkish Airlines, Air India, Ajet, China Airlines, Lufthansa Group carriers (Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss), Saudia, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS).
Quantas and other international carriers are expected to join soon, as per the report.
Find Hub’s helps cut down waiting time for passengers in tracing misplaced bags. Rather than relying solely on manual scans and internal airline messaging, airline staff will be able to use the real‑time link to narrow down the bag’s location almost instantly.