Cathay Pacific has added support for Appleโs Share Item Location feature, allowing passengers to share location information from Apple AirTags or other Find My network accessories with baggage service teams, to expedite the recovery of missing or delayed bags.
This feature debuted towards the end of 2024, and Cathay Pacific joins a growing list of carriers (including Singapore Airlines) which support or plan to support this feature in the near future.
What is Share Item Location?
Even if youโre not an Apple user, youโre probably familiar with Apple AirTagsโ an accessory that leverages billions of iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices on the Find My network to help locate lost items.
While not their original intended purpose, Apple AirTags are now commonly used to track luggage, providing travellers with a granularity of information that often exceeds that of airlines.
But thereโs nothing more frustrating than when your knowledge about a situation exceeds your ability to do something about it. Social media is full of rants from customers who know where their bags are thanks to AirTags, but have no way of sharing that information with the airline staff actually trying to find them.
Recognising this issue, Apple introduced a new feature called Share Item Location, which allows users to securely share the location of an AirTag or Find My network accessory with third parties such as airlines.
Share Item Location is now available to on Apple devices running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, or macOS 15.2 or later.
In terms of safety precautions, the shared location will be disabled as soon as a user is reunited with their item, can be stopped by the owner at any time, and will automatically expire after seven days.
Apple is working directly with partner airlines to implement systems to privately and securely accept Share Item Location. Access to each link will be limited to a small number of people, and recipients will be required to authenticate in order to view the link through their Apple Account or partner email address.
Cathay Pacific adds support for Share Item Location
Cathay Pacific passengers can now use Appleโs Share Item Location feature to share the location of their AirTags with Cathay Pacificโs baggage services teams.
In order to share the location of their AirTags or Find My network accessories with the airline, customers first generate a Share Item Location link in the Find My app on their Apple device and then simply share that link via email directly with the baggage services team at their arrival airport.
The link is then added to the customerโs missing/delayed baggage file from which our global airport teams can then locate the bag and expedite the repatriation process
-Cathay Pacific
Passengers with lost or delayed baggage can also visit this page to file a claim with Cathay Pacific.
Which airlines accept Share Item Location?
In addition to Cathay Pacific, the following carriers accept Share Item Locations as part of their customer service process for locating lost bags:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air New Zealand
- American Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- British Airways
- Brussels Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Eurowings
- Iberia
- KLM
- Lufthansa
- Qantas
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Vueling
The list includes both full-service and low cost carriers, and itโs somewhat amusing to see Lufthansa here, given their attempts to ban AirTags back in October 2022โ a short-lived decision that was quickly reversed!
| ๐คฆ Lufthansaโs short-lived ban on AirTags |
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โIt was a strange fate that Lufthansa and its customers should suffer so much fear and doubt for something as small as an Apple AirTag. But suffer they did, because the German airline Lufthansa, seemingly misreading an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulation, positioned itself this week as the only major airline banning people from tracking their checked luggage with AirTags. A representative for the company tweeted Saturday that it was โbanning activated AirTags,โ following up Sunday that it was concerned the tiny CR2032 coin batteries and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmitters in Appleโs tracking devices could be considered โdangerous goodsโ under ICAO rules. Outcry, close reading of the relevant sections (part 2, section C) of ICAO guidelines, and accusations of ulterior motives immediately followed. AppleInsider noted that the regulations are meant for lithium-ion batteries that could be accidentally activated; AirTag batteries are not lithium-ion, are encased, and are commonly used in watches, which have not been banned by any airline. The site also spoke with โmultiple international aviation expertsโ who saw no such ban in ICAO regulations. One expert told the site the ban was โa way to stop Lufthansa from being embarrassed by lost luggage.โ |
Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are currently the only two Asian carriers on the list, but Apple plans to announce partnerships with more airlines over the rest of 2025.
Additionally, SITA will build support for Share Item Location into WorldTracer, which provides the baggage-tracing systems used by over 500 airlines and ground handlers at more than 2,800 airports worldwide
Conclusion
Cathay Pacific has added support for Appleโs Share Item Location feature as part of its baggage tracing process. Passengers with Apple AirTags and other Find My network accessories will be able to temporarily share location data with the airline.
This new feature can certainly help to expedite the process, though the extent to which customers see an improvement boils down to how well the airline and its ground contractors put that information into action.
