What happens to your luggage after you check it at the airport?

Okay, yes. This is an ad for a Delta "track your luggage" app. And, yes, it blacks out the part where your luggage goes through security.

But it's also a nifty little video that reminds me of the how's-it-made genre of Sesame Street videos that I loved as a child. There's just something about stuff riding on conveyer belts, know what I mean?

It was also interesting to get a reminder that luggage is loaded into and unloaded from the airplane by hand. So all the times I've stood around getting cranky at waiting for my luggage to show up on the carousel ... there's some people doing their best to get it to me fast and without throwing it around everywhere. I think, next time, I'll have a little more patience.

(Thanks, Andrew Balfour!)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: behind the scenes • mundane awesome • security • travel • video

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http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

The 70′s era commercial for Samsonite with the guy in an ape suit is how I always assumed it worked.
- Brian Sprague
  
  Based on my brand new suitcase that Delta broke on its maiden voyage last spring, I think it’s still a safe assumption.
  - guanto
    
    Nah, not Delta. Whoever runs the airport (or some contractor).
    - Guest
      
      if it had a Delta tag on it, it’s Delta’s problem.
- Guest
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=749iU2Zv1kw
shunkydave

Uhh, I don’t see any ad or video.
http://aidtopia.myopenid.com/ Adrian

What happened to having electronics turned off during takeoff and landing? How were these cameras allowed to operate during the flight? And certainly TSA must have been warned in advance about the modified suitcase with OMG electronics in it.
- ToMajorTom
  
  I assume Delta got permission to film all of this (and alerted TSA), so I can’t imagine why all the blurred stuff. To make it seem more real and less like a commercial? I don’t know.
- LinkMan
  
  Not to mention that somebody had to warn the TSA goons not to steal these particular cameras.
- Guest
  
  Most of the reason for the ban is so you’re not distracted. Unpossible, apparently.
http://twitter.com/Huw22 Huw Morgan

Nice bit of Tycho as the BGM
bcsizemo

Someone should do this with a package through UPS/FedEx/USPS, ect.. That way people can get a real idea of how you need to package things so they aren’t broken when they make it to their destination. Bonus if the packaged contained G-force and shock sensors to determine impact forces.
- mccrum
  
  What, like this? With bonus sensors and everything?
  http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/tests/which-shipping-company-is-kindest-to-your-packages
  
  TLDR: Don’t mark your stuff “Fragile”
  - bcsizemo
    
    Well a video would be nice. Most average/non tech oriented people aren’t going to read through paragraphs of information and study various charts. It’s one thing to say a package suffered X force on this impact, it’s another to show someone the package getting tossed out the back of a UPS van onto the pavement.
    - mccrum
      
      Oh, I think there are enough of those videos out there that people don’t need to get their cameras broken proving it:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNlMhyMvHp8
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYEDqRkyQFo
Bink Binkerson

“Security” is some magic step where the TSA goons inspect your bags for anything valuable and then confiscate it for “security reasons”. You get to your destination, and it’s gone. But you arrived safely, so you are still grateful for their saving you from Evil Bad Guy Terrorists who hate your way of life.
igpajo

So Toy Story 2 was pretty accurate!
thivai

If ever a meme was needed–response videos showing interpretations of what the security segment looks like.
For example, I imagine there’s one TSA agent trying on your clothes while another one defecates directly into your suitcase. Dunno how that would go over–not everyone is as into subtle metaphor as I am.
- LinkMan
  
  In my video, the Kia Party Rock hamsters would be rhythmically rifling through bags and comparing finds. “Every day I’m rifling…”
http://johnbrennan.myopenid.com/ Keystone

If they were flying out of PDX, they would have to skip the part where the airport handlers go through your bag for stuff they want.
ahecht

I noticed a conspicuous lack of the onmidirectional barcode scanners like the ones that were installed in my local Southwest baggage claim area a decade ago. Does Delta use RFID now, or is there no real tracking of the packages?
Shibi_SF

I’ve been behind the rubber curtain at Mexico City’s Int’l Airport (at Christmastime) and I can tell you that they dispense with the long conveyor belts and go -brute force, -read the tag with your human eyes and then -fling/toss the luggage into a cargo hauler with your bag.
fenrox

Typo: “there’s some people doing their best to get it to me fast and without throwing it around everywhere.” should be “there’s some people doing their “best” to get it to me fast and without throwing it around everywhere.”
Green Ghost

I missed the part where it was loaded on the wrong plane and then hand delivered 3 days later with items missing. But I’m sure that would be an isolated rare occurrence. No bitterness from me, none at all.
- awjt
  
  They also left out the part where it gets stomped on by gorillas, shit on by a giraffe, sat on by a rhino, thrown against a wall repeatedly by a clan of Pterodactyls, only to be pried open by a jerkface, who then rifles through it all looking for dildos. Then leaves you a note. They forgot that part.
flowerchild

I’d have more patience if I hadn’t found out that the company with the ground support contract hadn’t hired enough staff to offload the amount of planes landing at London Gatwick while we waited an hour for our bags. How to win a contract: Bid low but don’t honour the clause that says you can fulfill the necessary work.
Then there’s the damage to baggage in ways that beggar belief…
- awjt
  
  You mean bugger belief. Because that’s what they do to your luggages.
http://twitter.com/regsf regsf

One thing to note is that luggage is moved globally on the same system. Any airline can track any piece of baggage. United lost my suitcase for 2 weeks and a friend that worked for Air Emirates had me my suitcase in 2 hours after I complained to him.
Hubris Sonic

That music didn’t help alleviate the boredom I experienced watching that… meh.
http://youmustbefromaway.com/ jb

Don’t believe for an INSTANT that the loaders couldn’t recognize the orange dayglo bag with “Delta Baggage Handling Commercial” plastered on the outside…

Challenge to Delta: arrange for 100 digital accelerometers to be placed randomly in luggage and publish the unedited results.
wygit

“It was also interesting to get a reminder that luggage is loaded into and unloaded from the airplane by hand.”

I remember the first time I flew into Prague, and while waiting for the luggage, which was popping out of the chute one…bag…every…20…seconds, I walked over to the window overlooking the tarmac, (this was a couple of decades ago), and there was one elderly-looking gentleman taking a bag off the cart… walking it over to the conveyer into the terminal… setting it down (kind of gently),… walking back to the cart…

Not being in any kind of hurry, it was sorta cute. I imagine if I had had an appointment, it might have been a little frustrating.
Guest

Who are you people with fragile things in your luggage?

OH NOES, THEY SHATTERED MAI PANTZ
obeyken

Hey they left out the part where the baggage handlers went through my luggage and stole the Twin Peaks DVD box set that my parents bought me for Christmas.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  If I were gonna steal a DVD box set that’d be pretty high on my list. Fair play if you ask me.