Flight Mode | The Fancy Tech That's Making It Harder for Airlines to Lose Your Luggage

[Voiceover] Most of us drop our bags at the airport

and then forget about them.

But the check-in counter is just the start of their journey.

A system like Heathrow's has 30 miles of conveyors.

Globally, 3.2 billion bags are checked in annually.

The systems don't always run smoothly.

Airlines lost, delayed, or pilfered 23 million

pieces of luggage last year.

If that seems like a lot, just be glad to know

that the number's down 65% since 2007,

mostly thanks to some new tech.

The revamped process starts with a

better way to track your stuff.

British Airways is testing smart tags with Bluetooth

and E Ink so you can label your own luggage.

Delta's using RFID tags which have chips that can

be tracked even if the barcode isn't visible.

Then it's the same rollercoaster ride for all of them

into the bowels of the airport.

This is the world's busiest, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson.

80 to 100,000 bags a day shoot

through the 18 miles of conveyors here.

Many of them go from plane to plane for

connecting passengers.

In the most advanced systems, bags are placed into

individual trays so that each one can be tracked.

The complex sorting system roots the bag

to the correct place.

They go through a security scan and bags that are checked

in early are stacked for storage in a towering metal

structure by a scuttling robot.

Then it's down to the loading bay where they're

stacked by hand or by robot arm into metal cans.

Depending on the plane, those cans can fit in whole,

or the bags can be transferred by hand.

Then the latest apps like this one from

American Airlines let passengers track their bag

every time it's scanned, the way you follow

your Amazon package's journey to your house.

If it all works like it should, your bag

will travel with you all the way,

and be waiting for you to pick up at your destination.