Rimowa electronic baggage tags

Impetus

The German travel baggage company, well known for its aluminum and high tech low weight composite metal cases has introduced the electronic baggage tag.

The tag is electronically displayed near the handle of the case, downloaded from the airline website during the check-in process. It can't fall off or tear, and is held in position for maximum machine readability of the bar codes while it flows through a mechanized airport baggage handling system. The system incorporates a mobile phone app. The system is compatible with existing paper tags, which require nearly ten tag readers to catch a paper tag's barcode at every stage of the baggage handling process. It eliminates the sticky damage to the handle of the case by poorly tagged bags. Every airline should support the system. Save paper labels, time wasted tagging bags during bag drop or check-in. Miniseries risk of misreading of bar codes during the sorting process. Ingenious!

http://rimowa-electronictag.com

Fred Swanson

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Cessna_Pilot

Well known?! I never heard of them!

Fred Swanson

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Transavia sell them via their on board shopping, not sure if they support it though.

Pat Dunne

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

Well known?! I never heard of them!

They're very much a Brown Thomas, Selfridges, Harrods, type brand.

Fred Swanson

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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via their website it is exclusive to Lufthansa during trial period and then it is being extended.

ImDave

€779 here :eek:

http://www.koffer-direkt.de/rimowa-topas-electronic-tag-multiwheel-trolley-74-cm.html#3bf560a23d5e9db47.90292816

Impetus

If you fly to an airport in Germany, Switzerland or Austria they are fairly standard gear on the baggage trolleys. They are expensive, but last, and protect one's stuff. Look at any Lufthansa flight crew, and there is an 80% chance that they will be wheeling a Rimowa case or cabin trolley. It is like Miele washing machines. They cost around 1'000 - but last a lifetime (and are heavy). And they seldom if ever break down. Many people buy cheap 300 washing machines which last a few years, waste energy, need breakdown service calls, and have to be replaced every five to ten years. A Miele can express wash clothes in 37 minutes, and because the spin dryer rotates so fast, the clothes are nearly dry after a spin. Reducing the energy consumption drying them.

Anyway we are getting away from the point of replacing paper labels with the equivalent of an LCD screen which displays the baggage tag, which is downloaded via an app during the check-in process. This should be an industry standard for all checked baggage, as an option for the luggage buyer. It would work well with self-bag-drop terminals. Just scan the barcode and deposit the bag into the system.

Companies like Rimowa is what makes Germany such an economic super-power. They focus on quality and innovation.

www.rimowa.de

Tenger

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

Well known?! I never heard of them!

First Class amenity packs on Eva Air, Thai and Lufthansa are mini Rimowa cases:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RIMOWA-Lufthansa-1st-Class-A-380-Amenity-Kit-dark-brown-color-chocolate-/121988252753?hash=item1c67110451:g:2T0AAOSwmrlUwpLH
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thai-Airways-First-Class-Rimowa-Amenity-Kit-/182129107862?hash=item2a67bda396:g:aa8AAOSwFNZW02RW
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rimowa-Eva-Air-Amenity-Travel-Kit-/262429984949?hash=item3d1a0bc8b5:g:8WsAAOSwDJhXMVFV

roundymac

ImDave wrote: »

€779 here :eek:

http://www.koffer-direkt.de/rimowa-topas-electronic-tag-multiwheel-trolley-74-cm.html#3bf560a23d5e9db47.90292816

Wow, at that price I'll get two.:p

LiamaDelta

Hmmm I'm no expert but I reckon that barcode scanning will be superseded soon enough, this is just an electronic version of something that's pretty much outdated.
With the advent of proximity cards/chips (think hotel door cards, contactless payment cards, luas/oyster cards even microchips for dogs!) I think that in the not too distant future bags will be tagged with a proximity card that contains all the relevant details and can be reused etc.

Impetus

LiamaDelta wrote: »

Hmmm I'm no expert but I reckon that barcode scanning will be superseded soon enough, this is just an electronic version of something that's pretty much outdated.
With the advent of proximity cards/chips (think hotel door cards, contactless payment cards, luas/oyster cards even microchips for dogs!) I think that in the not too distant future bags will be tagged with a proximity card that contains all the relevant details and can be reused etc.

Interesting, but the only difference between optically reading a barcode and an RFID type device is frequency (ie between RFID frequency and optical light frequency). Radio waves squirt all over the vicinity. Optical is precise. Hence the carrying capacity of fiber optics is unmatched by other technologies - radio, copper, co-ax, etc. The current state of the art fibre is petabit.

There is a large installed base in terms of standards, baggage handling infrastructure, check-in systems, and proven technology. I can imagine that a large airport baggage handling system would quickly suffer RFID congestion with thousands of bags being pinged and transmitting their ID information. Also the act of reading an RFID tag manually requires that baggage handling staff would need to be equipped with RFID readers. It is far faster for a baggage handler to read ZRH on a tag - be it paper or LCD, than squirting an RFID reader at the bag, and waiting for it to respond and for the data to be decoded in terms of next airport for the bag in question. Barcodes are the standard for sorting things - be it mail, DHL packages, airline baggage, parcels, etc. There are also confidentiality and privacy issues - which are also linked to security. You can visually block a barcode on a bag while carrying it around. An RFID tag is impossible to shut up.

BreadnBuddha

KLM Air France and BA have trialed electronic tags. They are universal, easily replaced if damaged, movable to different bags of required. The KLM version is particularly tidy and comes with an RFID emitter to put inside the bag as a backup in case the baggage tag is damaged/fails/is lost.

A lot better than fitted permanently into a single case like the Rimowa solution.

I'll wait for that so I can continue to use the bag most suitable for my purposes. For checked baggage, a €100-200 samsonite is as much as I'd expose to baggage handler abuse, not an €800 cabin sized Rimowa or similar in any case. Your fancy pants tag and premium branded German designed vanity-bag won't stop them from kicking the crap out of it and leave you complaining (pointlessly) at the airline desk.

Tow

LiamaDelta wrote: »

Hmmm I'm no expert but I reckon that barcode scanning will be superseded soon enough, this is just an electronic version of something that's pretty much outdated.

RFID type tags have been tried before and it ended up a disaster. The main problem is people take the tags off at the end of the journey and put them into their suitcase. They then go on another flight and a new tag is added to the outside. etc. The end result is you end up with a case emitting multiple IDs which interfere with each other.