Iberia's Carry-On Scanner: A Cool Idea That (Mostly) Falls Flat

The Spanish carrier built an AR bag-measuring tool into its app. We tried it.

After booking a recent Iberia flight, I was poking around the app and stumbled onto something I hadn't seen in any other airline's app before: a computer vision carry-on scanner called "Take Measure" that uses your phone's camera to check whether your bag meets the 56x40x25 cm cabin bag limit — before you ever leave home.

It can be found by clicking "More" in the lower right hand of the app, then selecting "Take a Measure."

A brief onboarding tutorial walks you through setup: find good light, place your bag on the floor with space around it, stand directly in front of it, and press and hold to scan. The AR overlay maps a triangulated point cloud across your bag's surface and returns dimensions in seconds.

I tried it on a Travelpro carry-on that I know fits within Iberia's limits. The result: 54x34x16 cm and a green "All correct" checkmark. Technically a pass — but those numbers were off, particularly the depth reading. Just take look - it's clear that my phone struggled badly with the third dimension.

That's not surprising given my hardware. I tested this on an iPhone SE, which has a single rear camera and no LiDAR sensor. Accurate depth measurement from a phone camera really benefits from LiDAR — available on newer iPhone models.

The app hedges accordingly with a "measurements are for guidance only" disclaimer right below the result (and a separate note warns that even compliant bags can be gate-checked on full flights.)

The bottom line: This is one of the more creative features I've found buried in an airline app, and it speaks to a real traveler anxiety. It's worth playing with, and may perform significantly better on a newer Pro-class device with LiDAR. But for now, don't retire your tape measure just yet.

Tested on iPhone SE using the Iberia iOS app.