Specialist travel insurance provider Just Travel Cover has partnered with InsurTech CPP UK to launch Smart Luggage – a technology solution offering real-time, automated support to airline passengers whose checked luggage cannot be located.
25.4 million items of baggage were mishandled by the travel industry in 2019 – costing the industry approximately £1.8 billion.
Smart Luggage allows holidaymakers and travellers to upload an image of their delayed airline luggage receipt, and without making a travel insurance claim, entitles them to receive an automated £50 payout within 30 minutes of their checked luggage being unlocatable at the arrival airport, rising to an additional £500 payout if still the case after a 48-hour window.
Travellers are kept informed via text message to help reunite them with their baggage and belongings.
Andrew Jackson, managing director at Just Travel Cover, said: “This summer season, after months of restrictions, complex claim processes and travel disruption like never before, the stress of losing luggage is the last thing that passengers need.
“With Smart Luggage, lost luggage doesn’t need to be another obstacle to passengers fully enjoying their travels.
“Though it’ll be a long road back to recovery for the travel sector, we’re pleased to play our part with CPP UK in making the industry and customers’ return to travel as enjoyable and stress-free as it can be.”
Carl Carter, CEO of CPP UK, added: “As COVID-19 restrictions relax and non-essential travel gradually returns, it’s important that passengers continue to ensure they not only have the right travel insurance cover but are also able to spend more time travelling and less time filling in claims forms should the unfortunate happen.
“The CPP parametric solution for delayed and lost baggage allows them to make the most of a streamlined and automated claims process should they encounter delayed or lost checked in luggage.
“With the average checked luggage of a UK passenger worth £535, losing a bag on your travels cannot only be an inconvenience, but also a potentially hefty financial blow.
“The technology behind Smart Luggage, which taps into the global database for lost luggage (SITA), automates everything from the moment the passenger registers their luggage as missing at the lost luggage desk, making an otherwise stressful experience as seamless as possible – with no paper forms to fill in.”
The technology will be delivered by Blink parametric, which was acquired as part of the wider CPP Group in 2017.