Bag tracker
Bag tracker provides the location and status of your checked bags in real time.
Brief
Problem
Customers were starting lost bag claims even though most bags were simply delayed. Since bags aren’t classified as lost until five days have passed, customers were stuck waiting without clear next steps.
Our task
Design and build a Bag Tracker that gives customers real-time visibility into their bag’s status and empowers them to take immediate action if something goes wrong.
Instead of waiting five days, customers can:
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Track their bag in real time
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See delay estimates
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Request home delivery
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Schedule airport pickup
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Start the refund process when eligible
Horizontal tracker iterations
We wanted the horizontal tracker to give customers a simple, high-level view of where their bag was in the journey.
In the first version, we felt confident about using “Received” and “Baggage Claim.” However, “Baggage Claim” exceeded our character limit, which forced us to rethink the label.
As we dug deeper, we also realized that “Baggage Claim” wasn’t always accurate as a final step. Not every bag ends up there. For example:
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If a bag arrives early on a different flight, it may be held at the Baggage Claim Office.
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If it arrives late, customers can choose home delivery instead of airport pickup.
Because bags do not always end at baggage claim, we needed wording that covered every variation. That meant selecting language that was clear, adaptable, and accurate across different scenarios.
Second iteration
In the next round, we discovered backend limitations that made it difficult to clearly define when a bag was officially “loaded” or “unloaded.” Bags go through multiple technical scans throughout their journey, and there wasn’t a single scan that reliably represented those exact moments.
Instead of choosing one potentially misleading scan, we decided to surface the detailed scan history separately. For the horizontal tracker, we replaced the specific “loaded” and “unloaded” language with a broader term that more accurately represented that stage of the journey.
Final iteration
In the final version of the tracker, we landed on three simple stages: Received, In Transit, and Arrived. These labels were broad enough to cover the many scenarios a customer might experience, while still keeping the tracker high-level and easy to understand.
If multiple bags are checked and one is delayed, the tracker does not move to “Arrived” until all items have been received by the customer. This ensures the status reflects the full journey, not just part of it.
For more complex scenarios, the vertical tracker provides detailed updates, especially for delays. Customers can also view the full scan history for each item in the details section.
