VIRGIN AUSTRALIA: Baggage tracking now on international flights

In-app baggage tracking on Virgin Australia has now been extended to all international routes that the airline services. International routes included are Queenstown, Bali, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Japan.The twice-weekly route to Christmas and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is excluded.

History

Virgin Australia was the first domestic airline in Australia to offer baggage tracking via its app. Testing a similar in-app capability, Qantas caught up in December 2023. Qantas plans to roll the capability out across domestic and international flights this year.

What you get

Baggage notifications in the Virgin Australia app start with a message when your bag is ready to fly, when it is loaded, and when the baggage has arrived at the destination carousel. You will also get notified when your baggage is transferred to another carrier. The ‘loaded’ notification,confirms your baggage has been loaded onto the aircraft, is new to the app. Travellers will find it reassuring to know that their bags have not been left behind!

Use of the free Virgin Australia app just requires a download and enabling push notifications.

According to Virgin’x Paul Jones, Virgin’s Chief Customer & Digital Officer, the airline is just providing what travellers now expect in other areas of their lives:

‘Australians find comfort in the ability to track food deliveries, postal deliveries, technology, even their heart rate, all via apps, and it made sense for travellers to be able to do the same thing when flying Virgin Australia.’

Paul Jones, Virgin Australia Chief Customer & Digital Officer

Here’s a summary of the notifications you can expect:

• bag checked-in
• loaded onto the aircraft
• transferred to an international partner airline
• ready for collection at the final destination
• which carousel to collect from

You can find more information and Frequently Asked Questions on the Virgin website.

2PAXfly Takeout

Good one, Virgin Australia. This feels so basic. It should have been done already! Qantas, you need to catch up.

I’ll still be putting Apple AirTags into my luggage for a while yet, but this innovation with Virgin Australia makes me a happy traveller.