On Virgin Australia, lost luggage is set to be a thing of the past.
In a bag tracking milestone, Virgin Australia has become the first Australian airline to offer passengers the ability to track their luggage via a smartphone app.
Following a successful trial earlier this year, Virgin Australia will launch the nation’s first-ever airline baggage tracking tool across more than two thirds of its domestic network, from today.
How does it work?
The new service displays the status of checked bags on selected Virgin Australia operated flights via push notifications on the Virgin Australia app.
As such, Virgin Australia passengers will need to download the airline’s smartphone app to keep updated with their luggage status.
How to use the tracking feature
You’ll need to go into your app settings and enable push notifications to be alerted when your bag has been checked in and where to collect your bag upon arrival.
Bag tracking is best experienced via the Virgin Australia app, as it allows you to be notified of updates via push notifications. However, you can access a reduced web version where you will be prompted to enter your booking reference and family name.
Does my flight have bag tracking?
From today, bag tracking will be rolled out across two thirds of the Virgin Australia network. You can check the Virgin Australia app to see if your flight is eligible for bag tracking.
Are there limitations?
Virgin Australia’s tracking feature relies on bags to be scanned, which still opens the door to human error.
Not receiving any notifications doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s an issue with your bag because it might have been missed during scanning or there could have been a technical glitch from within the app.
In this case, the airline still says to check the designated carousel upon arrival and to see baggage services for assistance if your bag isn’t there – presumably what most travellers would do without the tracking app anyway.
Virgin Australia will also only be able to track your bag up to the point where it’s handed over to another airline, as they aren’t yet able to obtain bag data for other airlines, regardless of whether it is a Virgin Australia partner.
Final thoughts
Virgin Australia’s luggage tracking development is not quite like the Apple AirTags, which allow you to track your luggage in real time.
In saying that, Virgin Australia is the only national airline to broadly introduce bag tracking, which will likely instill some confidence in travellers amidst an unprecedented number of lost luggage incidences as post-pandemic air travel continues to pick up.
Bag tracking will continue to be progressively rolling out across the Virgin Australia network and we hope to see Qantas follow suit.
As always, your best chance of avoiding a lost luggage nightmare is to travel exclusively with carry-on.
Will you use Virgin Australia’s new luggage tracking feature?
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