Travel Gadget Review: HomingPIN, A Homing Beacon for Lost Luggage

Vacations can be amazing and memorable experiences, but losing your luggage can throw a huge wrench in things. That’s where HomingPIN comes into play. HomingPIN is a tagging and location system, currently integrated into 2,220 airports around the world, that helps travelers retrieve lost luggage and other important items.

Sure, we’ve all used luggage tags before, but when those bags get lost you still have to call the airport and have them check every bag to find yours. With HomingPIN, these airports are already trained in what to do if a lost item comes through with one of these HomingPIN labels or stickers on it.

Airport employees can use the WorldTracer system and the individual identification number on the HomingPIN label to report the found bag. If a non-employee finds the bag, he or she can go directly to homingpin.com and input the number. Either way, a text message is sent directly to the owner stating where the item is. The person who found it is not given any direct information about the owner.

Once your stuff is found, there are two ways to get it back.

1. Use HomingPIN’s travel services to bring your stuff back to you, even from international travel (for a reasonable price).
2. If it’s with the airline, they are immediately given a contact number and will reach out to you to arrange the transfer. Quick, clean, and no logistical confusion.

The Starter Pack ($10) comes with one loop and four asset labels. The Standard Pack ($20) comes with three loops and 12 stickers.

Along with the materials, each pack comes with a one-year subscription to the service when you activate the identification numbers in their system. After that the service is only $8 a year. Seriously, $8 a year? That’s less than 67 cents a month. It probably cost me more than that in electricity just to write out this review.

I don’t travel as much as I would like to, but even if it’s once every few years this service is still cheap enough for me to get to alleviate the anxiety of coming back from my trip without that awesome Doctor Who duffel bag I picked up along the way.

HomingPIN is a cheap and simple way to never have to worry about your important cargo again.