I saw this story on BBC America the other night and than again at Silcon.com.

“Heathrow airport is trialling RFID tracking technology that will help make the nightmare of lost and mishandled luggage a thing of the past for travellers.

Passengers flying to and from Dubai out of Terminal 3 with Emirates airline will have a tiny chip embedded in their luggage tags.

Airport operator BAA hopes this chip could save airport staff hours of time by slashing the number of suitcases with tags which need checking manually - a laborious process that is currently required for tens of suitcases at T3 every day.

The RFID chips, containing passenger names and routes, eliminate many of the problems of using traditional barcoded tags.”

More here