London - Samsonite is to build tracking beacons into its cases to put an end the nightmare of lost luggage.
The firm says British and European travellers should be able to trace their luggage on the smartphone-based Track&Go system before the end of the year.
The peace of mind is unlikely to come cheap – the company will say only that the “premium technology” will be competitively priced.
Travellers will need to register their case to a free app, called Travlr by Samsonite, developed in partnership with mobile agency In The Pocket.
The app allows users easily to check the location of the suitcase within a distance of 75 yd (about 68m), and to be notified if it is being moved closer or further away from the user.
Should the suitcase go missing, the owner can quickly flag it as lost on their phone.
As each user is linked to other travellers who have the app, if another user passes near to the lost suitcase, a Bluetooth signal is picked up and the time and location is sent to the owner of the case. The hope is that the larger the community of people who sign up for the app then the greater the chance of finding a missing bag.
The beacons in the cases are built by Accent Systems, while the software behind them was part developed by Google.
In 2014, 24.1 million pieces of baggage were mishandled worldwide, meaning they were temporarily or permanently lost. Of these, 85 percent were returned to their owners within 48 hours, but 5.5 percent were lost forever.
Samsonite chief executive, Ramesh Tainwala, said: ‘Missing or permanently lost luggage is the nightmare of every traveller.
“As the world’s largest luggage manufacturer, we wanted to find a way to make this issue a thing of the past.”
Samsonite hopes that airports and baggage handling companies will also sign up to the system.
The company said: “Eventually, we expect that anyone with a smartphone will be able to help retrieve lost Samsonite suitcases and travel or business bags, thanks to the fast expansion of wirelessly connected devices.”
Daily Mail