Technological progress is ever present in the travel industry – planes are constantly being upgraded, there’s a new security system at the airport every week, and here at KAYAK.co.uk we’re constantly adding new innovations to our website to make the travel planning and booking process a smoother journey for everyone. Just check out our recently re-launched Trips section, where you can manage your trip itinerary and store all your confirmation emails in one handy, easy-to-access place.
But suitcases? For at least a few hundred years, suitcases have been suitcases have been suitcases – a bag full of your stuff, essentially.
And therein lies the problem: a bag full of your stuff on its own isn’t enough to protect you from the kind of luggage emergency that we’ve all come understand is a risk of modern travel. There only a few suitcase-related mishaps one can really have, but they’re all undoubtedly complete nightmares: overweight suitcases can result in hefty ‘excess baggage’ fines, a stolen suitcase will result in a miserable time, and an airline losing your suitcase is a sure fire way to ruin your trip (and ensure a few days wearing borrowed underwear and souvenir t-shirts). Clearly it’s time suitcases get an upgrade.
The folks at California-based company Bluesmart have dedicated themselves to finding a solid solution to most of your luggage woes: “A while ago an airline lost my bag on a trip to visit my family for Christmas,” co-founder Diego Saez Gil tells us. “I lost my gifts and was without clothing for a week – a nightmare! That got me thinking about the problem of lost luggage and how luggage hasn’t seen any innovation for decades – the last innovation was adding wheels, and that happened in the ’70s!”
Inspired by Diego’s Christmas debacle, Bluesmart are attempting to re-imagine how suitcases should work in an era of connected devices: “We thought we’d have a go at reinventing luggage for the digital era,” says Diego.
The tech in Bluesmart’s first product – a 21.5 inch carry-on with a 10,000 mAh battery built into it – is all contained in the handle which also helps the suitcase gauge its own weight. You lift the bag, and the weight displays on the accompanying mobile app.
When synced with your phone, the bag also knows to lock automatically when you get a certain distance from it, and they’ve built in 3G and GPS location tracking provided by wireless providers Telefonic, and if your bag does end up somewhere it shouldn’t be, they’ve made an arrangement with Uber, who will dispatch a driver to pick it up and bring it to wherever you are. It’s clear that mobiles are helping shape the future of travel – our travel planning app for example (which you can download here), allows you to check your flight status, and Uber ride suggestions appear right as you need them.
After months of work and countless iterations, the Bluesmart team arrived at their first product and decided to crowd-fund it, calling on the support of tech-savvy travellers around the world. They received a huge amount of support from a community of 8,500 backers in 109 countries, raising an impressive $1.9M in crowd-funding, proving that there is a substantial demand for advancements in luggage technology.
Bluesmart is perhaps the best-known leap forward in all things suitcase-related, but there are a few other people doing some new, unique things in this area: Trunkster, another U.S. startup, have developed their own self-weighing suitcases with a system of sliding doors, which provide more security and easier access to the contents than zips. And Paris-based Delsey is developing fingerprint ID, which locks and unlocks your suitcase, as well as the ability to check your app at any time to ensure the bag has remained locked, a notification to let you know when your bag is in transit, and an internal speaker.
Even the old guard at Samsonite are getting in on the tech action, and are testing a “self-propelled” luggage that automatically follows its owner at a safe distance, putting an end to the pushing and pulling of heavy bags, and on the non-digital side of innovation, Fugu’s new suitcase inflates through a built-in pump from carry-on to full-size bag. And it includes a shelving system designed to make it easier to organise your things.
So, good news then: startups and even established luggage companies have spotted an area of the travel experience much in need of an upgrade, and are rising to the challenge. A cynic might suggest that some of these iterations of tech luggage are a little gimmicky, but they also said that about the aeroplane, you might recall, and it’s exciting that part of this part of the travel experience is finally being given an overhaul.
KAYAK is not affiliated with or sponsored by any of the luggage providers mentioned and any third party trademarks are the property of the respective owners.
