Anyone who travels frequently knows that an Apple AirTag is a perfect accessory for a checked bag. It can give you peace of mind that your bag will actually arrive with you. But if it does get lost, United Airlines is rolling out integration with a new iOS 18.2 feature to help track down lost baggage.
Share Item Location Arrives With iOS 18.2
One of the under-the-radar additions to iOS 18.2 that officially landed Wednesday for the iPhone is Share Item Location for an AirTag. As you probably guessed by the name, it allows you to quickly share the location of the AirTag for a certain timeframe chosen by you.
It can be used to share the location of an item with family or friends. But it is seemingly best designed to share the possible location of your lost luggage with an airline.
And just a day after the update, United Airlines is the first major airline to integrate the feature with its mobile app.
If you fly United and your luggage doesn’t arrive, you can open up the airline’s app and create a delayed baggage report. You can create a Share Item Location link in the Find My app and add that to the report.
When the report is received by United, the employee will receive the link and view the location on an interactive map. Hopefully, that will help them track down your baggage that much faster.
United says that right after a bag is received by the flier, the shared location will be disabled. It can also be stopped by the customer at any time.
When flying, it’s easy to use an AirTag to keep track of your bag’s location at all times. Thanks to the powerful Find My Network, I’ve always been able to see my bag at the airport and even when it was loaded onto the aircraft.
More Features in iOS 18.2
Share Item Location is just one of the new features in iOS 18.2. The update was headlined by a number of new Apple Intelligence features for compatible devices. While the first round of features was underwhelming, I was much more impressed with the direction of Apple Intelligence with the new additions.
