By year's end, Alaska Airlines plans to become the first U.S. airline to implement electronic bag tags.
The program will begin slowly, with 2,500 hand-picked frequent Alaska customers. Sometime next year, all Alaska Mileage Plan members will have the option to purchase the electronic devices.
In a blog entry about the program, Alaska didn't say how much the bag tags would cost. But the airline said they'll be easy to use and will allow flyers to skip the step of printing paper bag tags at the airport.
Instead, Alaska customers will check in remotely via smartphone, then simply touch that phone to their electric bag tag. Information from the phone will then transmit automatically to the bag tag's screen, displaying the traveler's flight information.
The electronic tags will be provided to Alaska by Netherlands-based vendor Bagtag.
Lufthansa Group carriers Lufthansa, Austrian, Air Dolimiti and Swiss are already using the technology, according to the Bagtag website, as is KLM and China Southern.