Tip: Qantas wireless bag tags can be used by anyone

Wondering if you can lend or give one of your wireless Qantas bag tags to a friend or family member?

The answer is yes. In response to a series of Australian Business Traveller enquiries, Qantas today confirmed that the electronic tags are not linked to any one traveller's frequent flyer profile, but rather, are linked to a specific check-in.

For example, if you are a silver frequent flyer who has received the silver wireless tags and later reach gold level, you will be sent two new gold bag tags by Qantas, leaving you with two excess silver ones.

You can pass on those two silver bag tags to a family member (even if they are not a member of Qantas Frequent Flyer) and they can use them on their trips. The tags will be associated with their booking when they check in.

It has been rumoured that Qantas will sell the time-saving wireless bag tags to bronze level Frequent Flyers for $50 apiece, making the loan of a bag tag worth something (if not $50!)

If you haven't yet received your Q Bag Tags yet, check out our full Platinum Q Bag Tags unboxing gallery.

Australian Business Traveller asked Qantas:

Q: If you were a silver Qantas Frequent Flyer member and received silver RFID bag tags, and then received a status upgrade to gold, could you keep using the silver bag tags on your luggage in addition to the gold ones on other luggage?

A: Yes you can.

Q: Also, if in the above scenario you had your four bag tags (two silver, two gold) but only needed two for yourself, could you transfer the two silver tags to a bronze frequent flyer to be associated with their account?

A: You can lend your Q Bag Tag to a family member when they are travelling.

Q: If a bronze member travels with a suitcase that has an RFID bag tag of another member on it (for example, if family members share suitcases) would that cause luggage to be lost/misrouted, or is the Qantas luggage system smart enough to know that if the frequent flyer whose tags are on the bag isn't flying, then it should fall back to reading a barcoded label?

A: At the bag drop, the Q Bag Tag is synchronised with the boarding pass or Qantas card and flight details that are scanned at the bag drop. The flight details are then recorded in the Q Bag Tag for that flight. The Q Bag Tag does not store any personal information (except the original frequent flyer number the tag was allocated to, so we can find the owner of the tag if it were lost).

Does the tag have to be used by a Qantas Frequent Flyer member? Presumably if they're not a Frequent Flyer they wouldn't have the Q Card and therefore couldn't use the new self-check-in kiosks?

A: Actually, the tag will work if you are not a frequent flyer member -- anyone can use the self-check-in kiosks, whether they're a frequent flyer or not. If you don't have a Q Card, you are printed a boarding pass. Then. when you go to the bag drop, you either scan your Q Card, or your boarding pass barcode, and the tag is linked to the booking.

danwarne