Alaska Airlines has a new $89 electronic bag tag. What is it, and do you need it?

Alaska Airlines has started selling an $89 electronic permanent bag tag.

The carrier's pitch: "Now you can skip printing your bag tags in the lobby and tag your bag anytime, anywhere — directly from the Alaska Airlines mobile app."

It sounds handy. But what exactly is an electronic bag tag, and do you need it? And is $89 a fair price for this convenience?

What is an electronic bag tag?

Airlines transport more than 4 billion bags each year, and the airlines print enough of those adhesive luggage tags that, if combined, they could circle the Earth dozens of times, according to the International Air Transport Association.

The thermal paper stock used to print the tags is difficult, if not impossible, to recycle. Bags can also end up "mishandled" or missing when paper tags are torn off or barcodes become illegible during the journey.

There's also all that time spent waiting in line for printed tags at airport check-in counters and at self-serve kiosks.

Permanent bag tags might be a solution. For more than a decade, airlines, airports and technology companies have been testing and gradually adopting electronic bag tags that are a paperless alternative to paper luggage tags. The new tags can speed up the bag check process, cut down on the number of bags that go missing and may eventually make paper tags obsolete.

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Here's how permanent electronic bag tags work

Using the airline's mobile app, travelers check in for their flight and hold their smartphones over their personalized, permanent digital tag, which is then programmed with flight details and baggage destination information.

The tags use Near-Field Communication or Bluetooth technology to create the barcode and other needed tag information. The technology then "prints" it on the tag in electronic ink.

With their electronic bag tag, travelers can skip the bag tag printing kiosk at the airport; instead, they can drop off their tagged bag at a self-service luggage drop station or at the counter before going on their way. The tag then gets reprogrammed for the next trip.

Which airlines are using electronic bag tags?

Close to 20 international airlines — including Lufthansa, KLM, Qatar Airways, Icelandair, Austrian Airlines and Aegean Airlines — have already integrated electronic bag tags into their baggage systems.

After testing them for a couple of years and getting feedback from passengers, Alaska Airlines is now the first airline in the U.S. to wholeheartedly jump on the EBT bandwagon. According to an airline spokesperson, doing so is part of the carrier's larger goal "to help travelers get to security in five minutes or less."

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Do you need one of Alaska Airlines' electronic bag tags?

If you purchase an $89 electronic bag tag from Alaska Airlines, you'll be getting a Bagtag device and can use it on Alaska flights within the U.S., Canada and Belize, as well as on flights operated by Alaska through Horizon Air and SkyWest Airlines within the U.S.

Hawaiian Airlines flights will be eligible for electronic bag tag use once the systems are more fully integrated. According to an Alaska Airlines spokesperson, the carrier is "actively looking for ways to speed up that timeline."

Your electronic bag tag can also be used on flights with Alaska partners Icelandair and Qatar Airways and on any airline that has adopted the technology.

Alaska Airlines is also exploring using electronic bag tags to speed up the check-in process for wheelchairs, mobility devices and animals.

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Is $89 a fair price for the convenience of having an electronic bag tag?

The initial $89 may feel like an investment, but the airline wants to assure customers it's a beneficial choice.

"For the guest who travels semi-regularly with a checked bag, it's a small investment for the time it saves and the peace of mind it provides," an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said. "And as more airlines move to electronic tagging, and self-drop technology becomes more widespread, our electronic bag tags' value will continue to increase."

For now, in addition to the time saved by using an electronic bag tag, the average traveler also saves about 13 feet of poorly recyclable paper bag tags each year, Jasper Quak, Bagtag's managing director, said.

The Lufthansa Group, for example, has been using electronic bag tags for more than 10 years and "it is the method of choice for us to get rid of the obsolete paper bag tags," Viktoria Rudo, senior manager of ground processes for the Lufthansa Group, said.

"It's where our industry should be heading," said Timos Korosis, ground operations product manager at Aegean Airlines. "We need to use what we learn using EBTs to move away from paper tags, or at least shrink them to the same length as EBTs," he added.

Baggage Working Groups at the International Air Transport Association have also been studying electronic bag tags and trying to work out interline agreements between airlines that use them. But that will require processes and standards that allow EBTs "to be read and used in the entire airline world," said Rudo. And that is still in the works.

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