Virgin Australia flyers can now track their checked baggage in real-time using the Virgin Australia app on selected domestic routes.

The airline released an update to its smartphone app earlier this week with the new feature.

With this new service, flyers will be able to see the status of their checked bags when travelling on eligible flights. If you’ve enabled notifications in your app settings, you’ll receive push notifications when your bag has been checked in and on arrival at your destination, with information about your baggage carousel number.

Although this service is designed to be used with the Virgin Australia app, you can also access a limited version of it on the Virgin Australia website.

Virgin Australia is the first Australian airline to offer this service. But it’s already relatively common in other countries such as the United States. For example, Virgin’s partner United Airlines offers very good real-time baggage tracking in its app:

Air New Zealand has announced that it will launch a similar service later this year.

On which routes does Virgin Australia offer baggage tracking?

Virgin Australia’s baggage tracking service is already being trialled on the Sydney-Brisbane route. By mid-2023, it will be expanded to be available on the following domestic routes:

• Adelaide-Brisbane
• Adelaide-Gold Coast
• Adelaide-Melbourne
• Adelaide-Perth
• Adelaide-Sydney
• Brisbane-Melbourne
• Brisbane-Perth
• Brisbane-Sydney
• Gold Coast-Melbourne
• Gold Coast-Sydney
• Melbourne-Perth
• Melbourne-Sydney
• Perth-Sydney

Virgin will expand the service to other domestic airports over time, and the airline plans to introduce more features later this year.

Use Apple AirTags for the most accurate information

While the Virgin Australia baggage tracking service is useful, it still has limitations. For example, the status of your luggage may not be correctly displayed if it isn’t correctly scanned by baggage handlers or there is a technical glitch.

When a checked bag doesn’t arrive, it’s often just delayed – in which case the real-time airline tracking will be helpful. But when checked bags go missing, it is sometimes the case that the airline doesn’t actually know where the bag is because it wasn’t scanned correctly or wasn’t loaded onto the right flight. The airline’s internal baggage tracking data won’t really help in this case because the airline itself may not know where the bag is.

This is why it’s still a very good idea to place an Apple AirTag into your checked bag. This makes it possible to identify the actual location of your checked bag in real-time – and not just to know where the airline thinks your bag is.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.