Now that Apple Released AirTags, people keep asking us – what are the best things to attach AirTags to? So, grab a 4-pack of AirTags ($99), and pick 4 / 5 of the ideas below.
Top 5 Items to Find with AirTags:
- 1) Using AirTags to find your lost Suitcase / Checked Bag when Traveling
- How many times has this happened to you? You stay up late the night before your big trip to finish packing, you jam in every last item you may or may not need based on whatever weather and activities you may or may not experience… you board your flight to paradise, you try your best to sleep but end up watching some terrible movie instead, while picking through a TV-dinner tray of unidentifiable-potato-gravy-meat(?) and inexplicably dry salad… you land, exhausted, and stand around Luggage Carousal #3 for 20 minutes waiting for the first bag to less-than-gracefully fall into place and slowly make its way around the loop. It’s not your bag.
- You then wait some more, as the conveyor belt fills up, jockeying for position amongst the crowds of other weary travelers from your flight, still cautiously optimistic your bag will be in the same city / country as you.
- And… Nothing.
- Crowd is starting to disperse, and you slowly fill with dread and try to cling to hope as the last couple bags arrive. Your bag will make it… right? How can an airline lose a suitcase in the 21st century? Did they really just ship it to Europe when you flew to South America? Losing a bag while traveling… Is. The. Worst. Maybe it just ended up on a different conveyor belt somehow? Maybe it’s in the airport but running a bit late?
- The solution? Open your Find My app, and track your suitcase with precision. The airline’s going to love when you tell them exactly where it is! Well, maybe they won’t say “thank you” in so many words, but at least you’ll know where your bag is. Thank you AirTags!
- 2) Clipping an AirTag to your Pet’s Collar to Ensure you Don’t Lose your Dog or Cat
- My good friend Andrea recently lost her cat, Marco. She had Marco and his brother for 5 years and he never once tried to bolt out the door, until this March… Maybe Marco was sick of being stuck in doors so much due to lockdown? We’re not sure.
- Marco bolted out the door and into the cool evening air during an Uber Eats delivery, and immediately disappeared out of site. Black cat at sunset in a big city. It was horrible, terrifying, and all-to-common. Andrea was devastated. (Spoiler alert, she put up roughly 200 signs and ultimately a neighbor found Marco – two days later – camped out under the neighbor’s deck a couple blocks over. He was safe and sound and probably feasting on wildlife)
- How would an Apple AirTag help you find your lost cat? Well, for $29, Marco is going to have an AirTag on his collar next time – and he’ll be extremely easy to find with the Find My network. Andrea won’t have to print 200 flyers and wait / pray for a neighbor to call – she’ll know right away that Marco is out doing some hunting under a neighbor’s house, and the Find My app will walk her right over with AR-based turn-by-turn directions. Pretty good pet insurance policy.
- See our article – Are AirTags Good Pet Trackers?
- 3) Using an AirTag to Find your Keys
- This seems so obvious it’s almost boring, but it has to be on here… when you’re rushing out to work or school and you can’t find your keys… Ugh…
- Attach an AirTag to your keychain, and you have some easy options. Use the Find My app to make your keys sound an audible chime / beep (great if they fell behind the counter instead of being on the counter, where you thought you left them), or even use the indoor-GPS-features of the U1 ultra-wideband chip to get turn-by-turn directions to the toy-box-under-the-tiny-desk-your-daughter-uses-which-she-thought-would-be-a-clever-place-to-hide-mommy’s-keys-today. Not a literal life-saver like using an AirTag as a Pet Tracker, but pretty amazing nonetheless.
- 4) Using AirTags to Find your Car or Bike Parking Spot
- OK, you might be saying you don’t lose your car – how hard is it to remember where you parked?
- Well, last year (pre-covid) I flew from LAX to JFK on American on a last-minute business trip, and had to park in one of the airport structures. It was supposed to be a one-day trip for a meeting, in and out. Of course, traffic was awful and I was running late – I barely had time to park, and run to the gate to make my flight (and therefore, make it to tomorrow’s meeting on time).
- Of course, flying back, there were unexpected weather-related cancelations and schedule changes. I ended up having to switch flights last minute, and was routed through a different city instead flying direct… Which meant, when I landed (late at night, exhausted, after a terrible 5,000-mile-in-20-hours-roundtrip), I was at a different LAX terminal than I departed from. I suddenly realized it was dark, I’d never been here before, and I had no idea where my car was.
- After a 20-minute late-night walk through LAX, and somewhat deliriously tired, I clung to my wavering hope that at least I knew I parked on level 3. I mean, I think I parked on level 3? But what structure? This isn’t where I flew out of, and these parking structures sure do look the same.
- Have you ever tried to find your car at a place like LAX when you don’t know the level you parked on, never-mind the structure?
- I would have paid so much more than $29 for an AirTag to be in my cupholder as the clock ticked past midnight and I still hadn’t found my car. I wanted to cry… WHERE WAS MY CAR?
- Lesson learned. I’m keeping an AirTag in my glove compartment of my car from now on. Sure it would be cool one day to smugly tell the police where my car is in the off-chance it gets stolen, but really, I know why I keep an AirTag in my car at all times. It’s because I never want to forget my parking spot again. LAX isn’t going to win so easily next time.
- 5) Using an AirTag to find your kid
- I can already see the onslaught of complaints about this one, so I’ll caveat that I’m not suggesting we track our kids every day / I’d only do this if we were going to Disneyland or a waterpark (Are AirTags Waterproof?) or something… But, let’s be honest. Why wouldn’t you slip an AirTag in the pocket of your toddler’s tiny jeans for the day? Does that make me sound like an overly paranoid parent? Maybe, but it’s also a $25-$30 insurance policy to prevent a parental heart-attack. Let’s say you’re trying to quickly order a $19 bottle of water from the “guest experience partner”, when he starts to up-sell you to a “collectible water bottle” with a plastic princess stuck on the top for only $12 more. While this unnecessarily complicated water bottle transaction is taking place, little Timmy spots an awesome butterfly and starts to follow her through the crowds. Yeah, compared to the money I’m spending on water bottles, I think sticking an AirTag on my kid is a relatively cheap and unobtrusive way to relax a bit on the next family vacation.
