Everyone’s night-before-the-big-trip travel nightmare involves one of three scenarios: 1) you either dream that you forgot your ticket, 2) you forgot your passport, or 3) the most likely scenario, that you successfully board, fly and land, but your luggage didn’t make your flight. Where is my suitcase? What do you mean it flew to another city? How did it end up in another country?! It’s the 21st century — how can my suitcase not be on my plane?

I travel a lot (or at least, I did pre-Covid). I may have dreamt scenarios 1 & 2 before, but I’ve lived scenario #3’s lost-luggage nightmare more times than I’d care to remember. I once flew from Miami to Italy only to have my luggage end up in the UK (how?). I once flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans to depart for a Caribbean cruise, only to find out that my bags were on a later flight — they were landing after my cruise ship departed (after buying a whole week’s worth of clothes in the cruise ship’s gift shop, I looked like Norwegian Cruise Line’s #1 fan with their branded hat, polo and pants that were 10-sizes too big). I had multiple nights in Hawaii where my bags were still in the continental US, somehow “missing” despite my arriving at LAX hours before my departure.

I can’t tell you how all this happens. I have no idea how airlines can continue to lose bags, more than 115 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight (maybe they should have focused a bit of their time on designing luggage carts instead of trying so hard to get airborne?).

But I can tell you how to ensure that you always know exactly where your checked bag is, no matter where in the world your airline happens to ship it. You need to put an AirTag in each of your checked bags before your next flight. (See our Top 5 Uses for AirTags article and then grab a 4-Pack of AirTags & some Belkin AirTags KeyChain Cases on Amazon)

Let’s dive into the world’s first intercontinental AirTag luggage-tracking experiment.

THE SETUP: Found someone flying between continents who would be willing to bring my AirTag in their suitcase (simulating my bag getting on the wrong flight without me) and let me track its movements

• Despite having had airlines lose my bags more times than I can remember, I needed a way to ensure I had a bag travel thousands of miles without me, and let’s just say the airlines weren’t willing to promise to lose my bag just so my many thousands of AirTagReviews.com readers could know how well these trackers work from the other side of the globe
• So, I had to find a close friend traveling internationally, ideally between continents. Usually, this would be easy, but my pool of volunteers was rather limited given the ongoing travel restrictions and global crisis
• Luckily, within a week of receiving my 4-Pack of AirTags and Belkin AirTag Key Chain Accessories, I had a friend who was flying from Portugual to the US
• Total flight time: 6 hours and 54 minutes. Total flight distance from LIS to EWR: 3,384 miles (5.447 km)
• Number of checked bags: one. With an AirTag in it. Paired to my account.

THE TRIP: My friend drove 200 miles (over 300 km) through Spain and Portugal to Lisbon Airport, and then flew over 3,300 miles (5.000 km) to the Newark International Airport (EWR) in the US

• Can you imagine your suitcase not only getting lost by the airline, again, but being over 3,000 miles from you when you land?
• Would an AirTag be able to tell you what part of the world your lost suitcase was in, even if it was on another continent?
• Can you imagine the look on the airline employee’s face when they are telling you the bag is lost, and you are able to show them where it is on the Find My app on your phone, even though your suitcase and AirTag are on the other side of the world?!
• We set out to find out just how well AirTags would work when my “missing bag” was in an airport over 3,500 miles away from my iPhone

THE DRIVE TO LISBON: My AirTag and “lost suitcase” traveled hundreds of miles in a car without me to Lisbon airport. The Find My app tracked it nearly flawlessly

In this first screenshot from the Find My app, you can see that my AirTag (named “Joe’s Luggage”) and suitcase are 94 miles away from my iPhone. You’ve probably read our article on AirTags Range by now and know that AirTag’s range is about 300 feet with bluetooth, but that they effectively have unlimited range thanks to the billion iOS devices worldwide in the Find My network. We set out to put that to the test with our intercontinental AirTag test. So far, AirTag was successful at tracking my lost luggage over 90 miles from my iPhone. Quick note – while on an un-congested highway in Portugal, and occasionally away from other people’s iOS devices with wireless connections, AirTag tracking did go in and out occasionally. In this screenshot, you can see that the position was last update 18 minutes ago. Not perfect, but still pretty amazing at finding something nearly 100 miles away.

ARRIVING AT LISBON (LIS) AIRPORT: My AirTag and “lost luggage” eventually arrived at the airport in Lisbon, ready to board their flight from Europe to the United States. AirTags and the Find My network accurately tracked my suitcase’s location from 186 miles away

Here’s a screen shot from the Find My app showing my suitcase with an AirTag in it, arriving at Lisbon airport, 186 miles from my iPhone. Again, the Find My network and AirTag tracking worked perfectly, allowing me to quickly and easily locate my lost baggage. Can you imagine how useful it would be on your next trip, when the airline tells you that your lost suitcase will be coming in on a later flight, to know when it’s landed in the city (or what city it landed in)?

TRACKING AN AIRTAG FLYING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN: Can you track luggage with AirTags while the bag is checked in the plane? Yes, while the plane is on the runway / on the ground… But not while it is in the air

Time for take-off! Pilots did their final checks, passengers and crew were buckled in, and luggage was loaded – including my lost suitcase and AirTag. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on the plane! We’ve all been in this situation before, with your luggage traveling on its own little vacation without your, courtesy of some airline’s baggage error.

Would my AirTag be able to track my lost bag thousands of miles away from my iPhone? Yes (but read on). But could it track it mid-flight across the Atlantic? Turns out, no, but I was able to see the location in Find My quickly jump from one end of the runway to the other as the plane was taking off!

TESTING THE RANGE ON AIRTAGS – DO THEY REALLY WORK FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD: Yes – I could quickly and easily track my lost suitcase with an AirTag in it from over 3,500 miles away

Here it is, right after my friend landed, I opened the Find My App, and the location track took just about a minute. That’s pretty amazing for 3,500 miles across the Atlantic ocean. Check out the Find My screenshot below – AirTags helped me find my suitcase nearly instantly, 3,457 miles from iPhone. You’re going to want to buy a 4-pack of AirTags before your next flight and put one in each of your checked bags!

Perhaps more to the point… How can you find your lost suitcase, while also looking super fancy? You might have read our article and learned that AirTags are the best way to keep from losing your luggage while traveling, but what if a beautiful chrome AirTag isn’t fancy or expensive enough for you?

Well, thankfully Apple came up with an expensive AirTag alternative – the $300-$450 AirTag Hermès.

What’s the difference between an AirTag Hermès and a normal AirTag? About $300+ of Hermès-branded accessories!

The Apple AirTag Hermès line includes three beautifully expensive AirTag + accessory offerings: 1) a $349 Apple Hermès Key Ring, 2) a $299 Apple Hermès Bag Charm, and 3) a wallet-busting $449 Apple Hermès Luggage Tag.

AirTag Hermès features the same one-year battery life, 300 foot bluetooth range, and billion-device-strong Find My Network to help you find your lost things. It’s the same. Exact. Thing. It just comes with a lovely Hermès-branded leather case, and comes laser-engraved with Hermès branding on the AirTag itself. “AirTag Hermès” instead of “AirTag” on it.

Apple is probably the best company in the world at marketing, and a key marketing concept is the idea market segmentation. The idea is to extract maximum value from your customers by figuring if certain customers are willing to pay more that others, and offering them a product at a higher price point. Enter AirTags Hermès. It’s the exact same thing as a normal AirTag, but with a fancy Hermès-branded case for a few hundred dollars more. It’s beautiful. It’s luxurious. It will be rare. And it tells the world – hey, rich people need help finding their suitcases and keys too.

Also – note to our fans. Want your AirTag unboxing videos featured on AirTagReviews? Submit it to us at (info at AirTagReviews.com) for a chance to be featured on our site, once they ship!

• CNN’s Jacob Krol’s AirTag Review says “Apple’s AirTag was worth the wait”
  • Jacob spent “about a day” with 5 AirTags in the wild and noted that AirTag’s “integration within Apple’s Find My network delivers a wide coverage map” and further stated that “thus far, location accuracy of the tags has been highly accurate.”
  • “Combined with turn-by-turn directions to lost items make [AirTags] something of a necessity for anyone who misplaces their belongings.”
  • Pros:
    • 1) Fast & Easy Pairing – “setup is done in under a minute. Just hold your AirTag next to your iPhone and it will automatically prompt the setup window”
    • 2) Expansive Find My Network – the “network is made up of nearly a billion Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac) that can pick up on the Bluetooth signals cast from the AirTag”
    • 3) Deep Siri Integration – you name AirTags during the setup process (e.g., my “Jacket” AirTag) and then its simple – “you can simply ask Siri where your jacket is. And once Siri receives the request, the AirTag will start beeping”
    • 4) Precision Finding is a “Game Changer” – “your phone will give you turn-by-turn directions to the AirTag on-screen. With VoiceOver, a built-in accessibility feature, Siri will read directions aloud to help you find it.”
  • Cons:
    • 1) AirTag accessories are necessary – “you’ll need an accessory to attach [an AirTag] to something. Unlike some newer Tile trackers, there isn’t a built-in adhesive or even a spot for a key ring”

• Tom’s Guide’s Mark Spoonauer’s AirTag Review says “[AirTag is] the key finder I’ve been waiting for”
  • “AirTag feels like a game itself, as its Precision Finding feature can guide you to your lost item using your iPhone, displaying the distance to that misplaced thing and even directional arrows…. This feature is what separates the AirTag from some of the best key finders, like the Tile.”
  • Pros:
    • 1) AirTag Design – “About the size of coat button, the AirTag is quite small… You can also personalize your AirTag with free engravings with characters or emoji”
    • 2) AirTags Are Easy to Pair & Set Up – “This is easily one of the best things about the AirTag. When you get the AirTag out of the box, you simply pull the tag for the battery and then bring the device close to your iPhone”
    • 3) AirTags are Better than Bluetooth Trackers – It’s Ultra-Wideband – “Your iPhone uses UWB to determine the distance and direction to your lost item, and it analyzes input from your phone’s camera, ARKit, accelerometer and gyroscope. When you put it all together, this is what enables you to get visual, haptic and audio cues to direct you to your lost item.”
  • Cons:
    • 1) AirTag Beeping Sound Isn’t Very Loud (unlike Chipolo ONE Spot) – “This is one of my few complaints about the AirTag. The device only has so much surface area to produce sound, so you definitely need to be on the same floor as the lost item to hear the AirTag if it happens to be underneath something.”
    • 2) AirTag Doesn’t Use Rechargeable Batteries – “A rechargeable battery might have been nice, but that would have resulted in a bigger tracker.”

• TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino’s AirTag Review says “[AirTags] seem to work pretty much as advertised”
  • “The setup flow is simple and clean, taking clear inspiration from the one Apple developed for AirPods. The precision finding feature enabled by the U1 chip works as a solid example of utility-driven augmented reality, popping up a virtual arrow and other visual identifiers on the screen to make finding a tag quicker.”
  • Pros:
    • 1) AirTags Are Fast & Highly Accurate – “The instructions to locate the device seemed to update quickly and were extremely accurate down to a few inches”
    • 2) Availability of Great AirTag Accessories – “Host of accessories that seem nicely designed like leather straps for bags, luggage tags and key rings”
    • 3) AirTags Have Privacy Features Built-In – “Privacy features include a ‘warning’ that will trigger after some time that a tag is in your proximity and NOT in the proximity of its owner (aka, traveling with you perhaps in a bag or car)… [also] any AirTag that has been away from its owner for a while — this time is currently 3 days but is variable and Apple could tweak it over time as it observes how AirTags work — will start playing a sound whenever it is moved. This will alert people to its presence.”
    • 4) AirTag’s Billion-Device Find My Network Powers Device Searches – “Nearly a billion devices out in the world that can help to locate an AirTag”
  • Cons:
    • 1) Limited Signal Strength (Like all Bluetooth Devices) – “AirTag location range fits in with that basic Bluetooth expectation. Which means that it can be foiled by a lot of obstructions or walls or an unflattering signal bounce. It often took 30 seconds or more to get an initial location from an AirTag in another room, for instance.”
    • 2) Apple Remote is Not Compatible with AirTag – “No, this functionality is inexplicably not built into the new Apple TV remote”

Apple released their soon-to-be-iconic AirTag trackers today. They have everything we have predicted in our countless AirTag rumors and our AirTag FAQ has already been updated to reflect all the details of today’s latest and greatest news.

Sign up to the right for our (no-spam) AirTag Deal Alerts email list, which will track all the latest AirTag deals as they come!

Key AirTag Features:

• AirTag uses Apple’s vast, global Find My network of iPhone and iPad users to help locate a lost item
• Location data remains private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption
• Launches / Available for order beginning Friday, April 30 at 5 a.m. PT
• One AirTag costs $29, and a four-pack of AirTags is available for a discounted price of $99
• Makes one heck-of-a Pet Tracker

What is Apple AirTag’s “Precision Finding”? How does the U1 Ultra-Wideband chip help you find your stuff?

• AirTag enables Apple’s “Precision Finding” system by using its proprietary “indoor GPS” U1 Ultra Wideband chip to help direct you to the exact location of whatever you attached AirTag to, instead of relying on just a simple beeping system like AirTag competitors from Samsung and Tile
• Precision Finding helps you more accurately determine the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when it is in range. As you walk or drive with your iPhone or iPad in-hand, Precision Finding fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, to help guide you to AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback… So you can be inside your house, and it can help you turn left, right and go straight, tell you whether you’re getting hotter or colder, and then take you to that long-lost set of car keys, quickly.

So, how do you find your lost items with Apple AirTag trackers?

• Are you worried about losing an important item (or furry friend – see article on Are Apple AirTags Good Pet Trackers?), well then the first thing to do is to attach an AirTag to it!
• Then, you simply use the Find My app, which is built into every iPhone, iPad and Mac, to help find your lost item & AirTag (just like you’ve used the Find My App in the past to track down your lost iPhones)
• If the AirTag and your precious cargo are in Bluetooth range (e.g., in the the house), it will lead you right to it (oh look, the remote is under the couch… again)
• But, if your item and the AirTag is separated from its owner and out of Bluetooth range (e.g., if Fido ran away!) then you’ll rely on Apple’s nearly-billion-strong network of other iPhone / iPad / Apple Watch users… This is called the “Find My network” and it will help you help track your missing AirTag down
• Apple notes that “the Find My network is approaching a billion Apple devices and can detect Bluetooth signals from a lost AirTag and relay the location back to its owner, all in the background, anonymously and privately”
• Lost something? Simply open your Find My app and place your AirTag into “Lost Mode” – and you’ll (quickly) be notified when it is in range of anyone in the world with a modern iPhone or iPad, as they are the ones who comprise the Find My network
• Imagine – Fido is bound to be chewing on a bone down the street… but what street is he on, and what if he’s hiding behind a bush? Well, if he’s within 300′ or so of any random stranger with an iPhone – their phone will find him, and anonymously let you know exactly where he’s hiding. That’s. Freaking. Amazing. Welcome home Fido, and thank you AirTags!
• Did you find someone’s lost device with an AirTag on it, and want their hero / new BFF? You can help them find it! Simply tap it with your iPhone or any NFC-capable device and you will be taken to a website that will display a contact phone number for the owner, if they have provided one, and help them get it back quickly! I found someone’s locked iPhone on the street the other day, and it was much harder to return than it should have been… I had to keep it charged for hours until a friend of theirs called to ask where it was. Things should be easier to find and return, and with AirTags, now they are.

That sounds amazing… But, what about privacy? Can someone hide an AirTag in my car and spy on me and track me around the world? Do I need to be creeped out by stalkers with AirTags?

• Maybe… But Apple has thought this through, so AirTag has privacy built-in from launch
• First off, you don’t need to worry about Apple or some government entity finding and following you using your own AirTag trackers. Apple boasts that AirTag is designed to keep location data private and secure, as there is “no location data or location history physically stored inside AirTag.” So, check creepy hacking off your list.
• Further, “communication with the Find My network is end-to-end encrypted so that only the owner of a device has access to its location data, and no one, including Apple, knows the identity or location of any device that helped find it.”

That’s nerdy and reassuring… But that doesn’t stop my angry ex from sticking an AirTag in my car and following me around. How do I know if such a small AirTag is hidden in my bag somewhere?

• AirTag is also designed to prevent unwanted tracking a key differentiator from its many AirTag Competitors
• On a technical level, bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rotate frequently to prevent unwanted location tracking / hacking
• More importantly, iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time. This means that if someone stuck one in your bag and you own an iPhone it will warn you that a tracker belonging to someone else has hitched a ride with you and is announcing your location to the world. That’s pretty slick
• If I use Android, do I need to worry about stalkers tracking me with a hidden AirTag? Unfortunately, you kind of do. Since you won’t have an iOS device to automatically warn you that a suspicious AirTag is traveling with you, you’re likely not going to notice it right away. Fortunately, Apple has a backup system in place to give you some privacy… an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play an audible sound when moved to draw attention to it. I guess we have to all tune our ears to listen for random beeps from now on!
• And, if you do find an unknown AirTag in your stuff, you can tap it with an iPhone (or Android phone – or any NFC-capable device) and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag. But, let’s be real, you’d A) throw it out or smash it immediately, and B) quickly fire off a text to your Ex telling them to stop being creepy, ASAP
• Basically, if you’re worried about privacy, it might be worth getting iPhone now just to “bug-sweep” your life and ensure that you are AirTag free!

Meet the first batch of AirTags accessories, including a new AirTags case from Nomad. This is definitely a sign that AirTags are nearing their release date.

When you think about accessories getting released before a product being confirmed – it (sort of) makes sense, and follows the pattern we have seen countless times with iPhone and iPad releases. When the iPhone form-factor changes, leading case manufacturers (e.g., the Belkins and OtterBoxes of the world), are among the first to know. They need to know the specs of the new product in advance, so that cases and accessories will be ready when Apple launches the product. Sometimes I wonder, which companies does Apple tell in advance (hint: some of the best known partners) and which just figure it out on their own due to their manufacturing connections (some of the largest OEM accessory manufacturers).

Well, today we get our first AirTags accessory review – the first of assuredly many. The generically named “AirTags Keychain” – a little leather case – a pouch with a key-ring on it, from our friends at Nomad, so you can attach your AirTags to your keychain and never lose your keys again! I could really use this, and ASAP. In terms of first impressions, I would personally opt for something with a smaller keyring and a non-leather pouch – but I could see this being popular, and Nomad is known for making excellent products. A great first-to-market release! We definitely plan pick one up to review as soon as they’re released.

They also came out with, well, something less exciting… the “AirTags Glasses Holder.” I’m sorry Nomad, but I’m not sure about this one. Yes, I’ve lost my glasses before, but the cost of losing my glasses and not being able to see — AS FRUSTRATING AS THAT MIGHT BE — is still less painful than the irreparable damage wearing this product around my neck might do to my self-image. This is just one dork-lanyard too far for me… I’m sorry Nomad, I can’t. I just can’t. (Editor’s Note to our dear friends at Nomad – our reviewer is obviously being a bit sarcastic here, and we at AirTagReviews.com would love to give your a products a full-hands-on review when they’re released.)

Cheers to AirTags accessories! Let’s get some AirTags to try them out with.