Today Delta is pushing out an app update which allows users to see where their luggage has been. The new feature, which is likely to come in handy for many travelers, makes it easier to see what’s gone on with luggage that may have been lost by the airline. If, for example, a user ends up landing only to have the airline tell them that their bags have been lost, that passenger could then open up the Delta application on their smartphone and then view the details on a map of each stop that their bags may have made.
Naturally, the feature was not necessarily designed to benefit solely those who have had lost luggage, rather as a way for any airline passengers to see their luggage on a map from the point it was checked to the point it was unloaded and sent on its way to the baggage claim once they land at a new airport. Delta admits that the ability to see a map view of a bag’s last scanned location has been lacking and that this was part of the reason in deciding to bring this feature to the app for their customers.
Delta explains that all domestic (so in this case U.S.) stations will now be able to provide this information to Delta travelers as they now support the “Bag’s Journey” data, and that they will be bringing this same functionality to the international stations in the months ahead, although they don’t mention an exact time frame for this right now, so months ahead could be well into 2017. As users open the Delta app and watch the journey of their bag begin, a pin gets added to the map at each scan stop with suitcase icons that denote where the bag was last. Delta has even added in more detail that can be picked up if a passenger taps on any of the pins or icons that show up on the map for their bag. The map will automatically zoom in to airport view once the bag ends up at the airport, otherwise the map is a zoomed out view of the U.S. that shows both airport locations, and the bag’s progress in the trip. Although not readily available, Delta mentions that in a future update, the app will gain the ability to send down to the minute alerts on baggage information via push notifications, which would be a perfect sort of feature to make compatible with Google Now.