Pardon me for being a luddite, but I think reliable old style bar code readers are fine, and the story didn't say why the passengers are in airport purgatory when it is the luggage that is mislaid.

Quoted: Mike Boyd: It's not rocket science, but what it's been turned into is something where you got way too many computers, way too many moving parts and the result is, it's a meltdown.
Everet Meyer: There've been rumors, you know, of skis being inserted into the system and what we're hearing also is that the workers weren't adequately trained; they were not told where to park.
John Hansman directs MIT's International Center for Air Transportation. He says automated baggage systems use a relatively old technology -- barcode scanning -- and they're ripe for redesign:
There are people looking at alternative technologies, things like Radio Frequency ID chips and things like that in the tags.