
The End of Lost Luggage? RFID Slowly Coming to Airports - pclark
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_end_of_lost_luggage_rfid.php
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mseebach
Luggage today has barcodes that are used to automatically track the bag around
the system. Using RFID instead of barcodes only helps with a higher read-rate
(97% vs. 80% - but I'm pretty sure that's per scan, and if a bag is scanned
e.g. five times the aggregate rate is close to five nines), it doesn't help
you if your bag is tagged for Chicago and you're in LA, of if the label comes
of the bag.

The article makes if sound like airlines throw the bag into a big black hole
with closed eyes and prays that some deity will have the mercy to place the
bag on the right flight. They don't. I'm pretty sure that virtually all cases
of lost luggage is caused by mis-labeling or a physical breakdown somewhere,
and an operations officer deciding the plane need to go, even if a few bags
are no there yet.

