It is not uncommon to land at your destination and go to the carousel, only to wait almost forever and not see your baggage turn up. If you are lucky, then your bags have just got diverted and you will get them shortly. If not, it can be lost in transit for ages, and you might not even see it after a long time. The mystery of these bags is akin to that of losing one of a pair of socks when they don’t come out of the dryer.
Airports are places where many things can go wrong — your bag might not leave, it might be coming via a different route, it can be delayed, and you will hear endless promises of the airport people getting in touch with you if your bag shows up. These promises do nothing to alleviate your worries, especially after you have arrived at a new town and most of your things were packed in the missing bag. And to help you overcome such situations, Globatrac, a Los Angeles based company, invented Trakdot. You can easily track your bag and find out if it has reached your destination, stayed back in your previous destination, or has landed somewhere completely different. It can track your bag within 30 feet.
The device is extremely simple to use. Once you have your Trakdot, you will have to register it online, put two AA batteries in it, and turn it on to watch it show on your account. You will have to name it something. You can name it whatever you want. Once you have christened your device, you will have to add your email id and mobile phone number so that it knows to whom it has to send notifications. You can add multiple email addresses and phone numbers to one device so that others can get to know when your luggage arrives, in case you miss any notification.
It is a small device and can easily fit just about anywhere – in a pair of socks, in your shoes, or in a corner. It is designed to not take up any valuable space.
Trakdot will work as long as you have cell phone service. However, it does not work in South Korea and Japan.
Just don’t forget to turn it on before placing it in your bag and check it. The battery can live for up to a good 250 hours, ensuring it does not run down even when you are on a transcontinental flight or are travelling for many days. The device tells you about the status of the battery every time you turn it on, so you will be notified of whether you need to replace them or not.
You get to choose the method of notification. So, when you land at your destination and switch your phone on, you get a text or an email notifying you of your bag’s location.
Trakdot is immensely valuable if you have to constantly check your bags every time you travel. You can buy one for $69.98 and get a year’s service free. After that, you will have to shell out $19.99 every year for service. This is not a huge amount considering the peace of mind it gives you and is definitely a lot cheaper than buying new stuff every time your baggage gets lost.
It would definitely be something quite awful if you returned from a holiday with a lot of souvenirs, only to find that the airline misplaced the bag in which you kept them.
Buy one at http://www.trakdot.com
(Ayyappa Nagubandi is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Possibillion Technologies)