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The 'Q-Tag' from Qantas is the Next Big Thing at the Airport

Where: Australia
May 16, 2011 at 9:22 AM | by | Comment (1)

We knew that Qantas was working on a whole bunch of new check-in procedures to make things easier for passengers, and the airline is proud of what it’s calling next generation check-in. However, what we’re most interested in are their Q Bag Tags. It’s pretty much a luggage tag for the 21st century, as it does all kinds of high tech stuff that that thermal sticky paper could only dream about.

There’s little bits and pieces of technology—like an RFID chip—in the new permanent bag tags, and once you’re at the airport you can use one of the updated airport kiosks to check-in. Your luggage information will automatically be linked up with your boarding documents, and you’ll be on your way to security. Hopefully this will ensure your luggage will meet you in Tahiti and not Toledo.

Right now the bag tags can only be utilized around Australia, in cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, and Perth as well as plenty of smaller airports and cities. Of course they’re planning to take over the world with these new little bag tags, so stay tuned.

Frequent flyers get these neat little slices of travel tech along with their fancy flyer credentials, but for the rest of us there’s still hope. Qantas is selling these directly for right around $50, but be sure to affix it securely to your bag. Unfortunately, Qantas isn’t giving out any freebies for lost or damaged tags.

Our pal over at the Flying With Fish blog has already gotten his hands on one of these, and we’re eager to hear a first hand review of what the new bag tag is all about. Even though we don’t have any upcoming flights on Qantas, we still kind of want to order one these Q-Tags—travel tech turns us on, you know.

[Photo: Australian Business Traveller]

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They work like a charm

I'm a Qantas Freq. Flyer, and both my friends and myself have been enjoying the benefits of Next Gen check-in (NGCI) for ages.

These new bag tags coupled with our RFID-enabled membership cards mean that the whole check-in process can take less than two minutes.

If we've not checked in before arriving at the airport, all we do is walk up to a touch pole, pass the card over, and head to the bag drop if we've any luggage to check in.

The advantage is that you can also loan your tags to a friend who can use them on their bags, saving the need for them to attach the good ol' paper tags. They are designed to be independant of the traveller, and are only married up with a pax and their travel data as they are used at the bag drop.

The beautiful thing about the system is that the airline knows where your bag is at any time. As they move through the process, bags are constantly scanned, even as they are loaded onto luggage trollies and eventually the plane. This means that if your bag does become lost (regardless of NGCI bag tag or paper barcode), the scan data helps them track down exactly when it was last scanned and hopefully locate the missing bag even faster.

In short, all the other airlines need to play a serious game of catch-up for domestic travel. The fact check-in is now so simple and can be done without a single airline agent being involved is a godsend.

Michael Harris on May 17, 2011 at 11:32 PM #Permalink

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