Bag tags, also known as baggage tags, baggage checks or luggage tickets, have traditionally been used by airlines to route passenger luggage that is checked in to the final destination. The passenger stub is typically attached to the ticket envelope to aid the passenger in identifying their bag among many similar bags at the destination baggage carousel. A Boeing 747-400 of Virgin Atlantic Airways, one of the UKs largest airlines. ... A trunk Baggage can be synonymous with luggage, or can refer to the train of people and goods, both military and of a personal nature, which commonly followed pre-modern armies on campaign. ... A Baggage carousel is the name given to a device, generally at an airport, that delivers checked luggage to the passengers at the baggage claim area at their final destination. ...

The carriers liability is restricted to published tariffs and international agreements. In the most general sense, a liability is anything that is a hindrance, or puts one at a disadvantage. ... A tariff is a tax placed on imported and/or exported goods, sometimes called a customs duty. ...

International conventions

Warsaw Convention

The Warsaw Convention of 1929, specifically article 4, established the criteria for issuing a baggage check or luggage ticket. The Warsaw Convention is an international convention which regulates liability for international carriage of persons, luggage or goods performed by aircraft for reward. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

This agreement also established limit of liability on checked baggage.

History of airline bag tags

At some point, the reinforced paper tags were introduced. They are designed to not detach easily during transport.

These were later changed to include a bar code. This would allow for automated sorting of the bags and reduce the number of misrouted, misplaced or delayed bags. The limitations of this technology were apparent at Denver International Airport when a fully automated cart-based system significantly delayed the airport's opening (United Airlines announced in August 2005 that the cart-based system at Denver International Airport was to be scrapped). While the inability to read reliably all bar-coded tags in the Denver installation was a part of the problem, it was one of several technical reasons for the delayed opening. Wikipedia encoded in Code 128_B A barcode (also bar code) is a machine-readable representation of information in a visual format on a surface. ... KDEN FAA Airport Diagram Denver International Airport (DIA) (IATA: DEN, ICAO: KDEN) is a major international airport located in northeastern Denver, Colorado and is operated by the City and County of Denver. ...

Nevertheless, automated sorting of hold baggage using laser scanner arrays - known as ATRs (automatic tag readers) - to read bar-coded bag tags is the norm at major international airports such as London's airports (Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport and Luton Airport), Paris' airports (Charles De Gaulle International Airport and Orly Airport), Madrid Barajas International Airport, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, Frankfurt International Airport, Munich Airport, Athens International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Brussels National Airport, Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (opening 28 September 2006) and so on. London Heathrow Airport (IATA airport code: LHR, ICAO airport code: EGLL, and often simply Heathrow) is the United Kingdoms busiest and best-connected airport. ... Gatwick Airport (IATA Airport Code: LGW, ICAO Airport Code: EGKK) is Londons second airport and the second largest airport in the UK after Heathrow. ... Terminal building, designed by Sir Norman Foster Stansted Airport is a medium-sized passenger airport with a single runway, located in the English county of Essex about thirty miles north of London. ... London Luton Airport (IATA Airport Code LTN, ICAO Airport Code EGGW, previously called Luton International Airport) is an airport about 30 miles to the north-west of London in the town of Luton, Beds. ... Charles de Gaulle International Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) (French: ), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), in Paris, is one of Europes principal aviation centres, as well as Frances main international airport. ... Diagram of Orly airport Satellite view (in false colours) Orly Airport is an airport located in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of Paris, France (, ). It has flights to cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. ... New Terminal 4 Interior Terminal 4 Satellite Entrance to T4 Departures T4 Baggage Belts T4 - Upper level to check-in, lower levels to Arrivals and metro station) Newly opened Terminal 4 Madrid Barajas International Airport (IATA: MAD, ICAO: LEMD), located northeast of Madrids city center ( ), is the most important... Schiphol (IATA: AMS, ICAO: EHAM) (municipality Haarlemmermeer) is the Netherlands main airport. ... Frankfurt International Airport Frankfurt International Airport (IATA: FRA, ICAO: EDDF), known in German as Rhein-Main-Flughafen or Flughafen Frankfurt am Main, is located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. ... Munich International Airport (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM), officially named Franz Josef Strauss International Airport (German: Flughafen München-Franz-Josef-Strauß) is located 28 km northeast of Munich, Germany, and is a hub for Lufthansa and Star Alliance partner airlines. ... The E. Venizelos Athens International Airport The Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, which began operation in March 2001, serves the city of Athens in Greece. ... The interior of the Hong Kong International Airport A replica of the Spirit of Sha Tin displayed at the Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok. ... Singapore Changi International Airport (Chinese: ; pinyin: XÄ«njiāpō Zhāngyí JÄ«chÇŽng; Malay: Lapangan Terbang Changi Singapura; Tamil: சிங்கப்பூர் சாங்கி விமானநிலையம்) or simply Changi Airport (IATA: SIN, ICAO: WSSS) is a major aviation hub in Asia. ... Kuala Lumpur International Airport (Malay: Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur) (Chinese: 吉隆坡国际机场) (Tamil:கோலாலம்பூர் அனைத்துலக விமானநிலையம்) (Japanese:クアラルンプール国際空港) (Arabic: [كولا لومبور] مطار دول) (IATA: KUL, ICAO: WMKK) is Malaysias main international airport and is situated in Sepang district, in the south of the state of Selangor, about 50 km from the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. ... Brussels Airport (French: lAéroport de Bruxelles, Dutch: Luchthaven Brussel), also called Brussels National Airport or Zaventem Airport, is an international airport located in Zaventem, near Brussels, Belgium. ... Suvarnabhumi Airport (IATA: NBK, ICAO: VTBS) (Thai: ), also New Bangkok International Airport (NBIA) or Second Bangkok International Airport (SBIA) is the long-delayed new international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. ...

To solve the problem of some bar codes not being readable automatically due to poorly-printed, obscured, crumpled, scored or otherwise damaged bar-codes, some airlines have started trialling RFID chips imbedded in the tags. In one case in the USA, McCarran International Airport installed an RFID system throughout the airport. Hong Kong International Airport has also installed an RFID system. The airline industry's association IATA is trying to convince airlines and airports to use RFID tagging but thus far use has been negligible, primarily due to the costs involved both in terms of tags and in terms of the additional airport infrastructure required. Furthermore, at hub airports where transfer baggage is a significant percentage of the overall number of baggage, the benefit of the airport's investment in RFID readers is negated for transfer baggage arriving from airports that do not insert RFID chips in the bag tags. An EPC RFID tag used for Wal-Mart Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. ... McCarran International Airport (IATA: LAS, ICAO: KLAS) is the principal commercial airport serving Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County, Nevada. ... The International Air Transport Association is an international trade organization of airlines headquarted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...

The term 'licence plate' (using UK spelling) is the official term used by IATA, commercial airlines (a.k.a. carriers) and airports for the 10-digit numeric code on a bag tag issued by a carrier or handling agent at check-in. The licence plate is normally printed on the carrier tag in bar-code form and in human-readable form, as defined in IATA Resolution 740. Each digit in a licence plate has a specific meaning. Contrary to popular belief, the flight number is not encoded in the licence plate on the carrier tag: the licence plate is an index number linking a bag to an associated message sent by a carrier's Departure Control System to an airport's Baggage Handling System. It is the message that contains the flight details, thus enabling an automated Baggage Handling System to sort a bag automatically once it has scanned the bar-code on the carrier tag. Thus two things are essential for automated sorting of baggage: a carrier tag with a bar-coded licence plate, plus a corresponding message ('Baggage Source Message', or BSM for short) from a carrier's Departure Control System. Note that the human-readable licence plate may contain a 2-character IATA carrier code instead of an IATA 3-digit carrier code, e.g. SQ728359 instead of 0618728359, but the bar-code will always be for the full 10 digits (0618728359 in the example - 618 and SQ being, respectively, the IATA 3-digit code and IATA 2-character code for Singapore Airlines). The first digit of a 10-digit licence plate is not part of the carrier code; it can be in the range '0' to '9', each value having a specific meaning in the industry.