Virgin Blue Launches Mobile Checkin & Bookings

[brissyflyer]

from virginblue.com.au

Thursday 22 April, Brisbane, Australia: Virgin Blue has launched a revolutionary, innovative new process to check in and board on domestic flights via a traveller’s mobile called “Check-Mate”.
Gone are the days of booking the flight in advance at a desktop computer, getting to the airport, lining up to check-in and getting a printed boarding pass, with the new Check-Mate process eliminating all paper boarding passes in favour of electronic boarding passes on mobile devices including mobile phones, BlackBerry Smartphones and iPhones.
New technology will enable Virgin Blue travellers to make flight bookings, changes and cancellations across the entire Virgin Blue domestic network from their personal devices while on the run and at their convenience.

Sounds good!

http://www.virginblue.com.au/AboutUs/Media/NewsandPressReleases/P_012114.htm

 

[SeaWolf]

I've had a play with the mobile site last night on my iPhone. It's very, very good, especially for version 1. I could certainly see myself using it to book flights etc. while I'm on the move.

There's also a link to let you buy a single Lounge pass, though it doesn't work yet. That'd be very handy if you find yourself heading to the airport much earlier than expected you can just buy a pass on the way there.

 

[samh004]

Does their mobile check-in allow you to select seats?

 

[crazydave98]

Does their mobile check-in allow you to select seats?

Yes it does
cheers
CrazyDave98

 

[samh004]

Yes it does
cheers
CrazyDave98

Good to know, the Qantas iPhone checkin is a bit lacking, even though you can load their normal website on the iPhone and select seats no problems. So kudos to DJ for getting it right from the start.

 

[brett-au]

I've installed the blackberry app and was a little disappointed. I would suggest that if it could have your velocity details saved in there and allow you to book directly, check bookings directly and review points, it would be a very handy app.

I will probably use it to book whilst out of the office, but am hoping the next version will remember my velocity details with out prompting me for entry.

 

[crazydave98]

I've installed the blackberry app and was a little disappointed. I would suggest that if it could have your velocity details saved in there and allow you to book directly, check bookings directly and review points, it would be a very handy app.

Will pass that on thanks jso
cheers
CrazyDave98

 

[jsd]

Well its a nice site, looks functional (on a Nokia E63), but people with blue zone seats should be able to view their booking like everyone else(just al least view it to check flight times etc., not check in because thats not possible), the full VB site on a screen that size just does not go down well.


Josh

 

[tibor]

Great initiative and most welcomed but i used it for the first time today and successfully completed the process but received no boarding pass /confirmation MMS messsage. I even tried to do it again but it said I had already mobile checked in. Also - I'm a silver member (I get free baggage), but never check in baggage, but as I get free baggage, I'm not sure I can even get to the boarding pass stage as the system might think I'm going to check in baggage (it doesn't give me the option to say I'm not bringing baggage) and make me drop my baggage off (hence not giving me a boarding pass on my mobile).

But moving in the right direction.

 

[crazydave98]

Great initiative and most welcomed but i used it for the first time today and successfully completed the process but received no boarding pass /confirmation MMS messsage. I even tried to do it again but it said I had already mobile checked in. Also - I'm a silver member (I get free baggage), but never check in baggage, but as I get free baggage, I'm not sure I can even get to the boarding pass stage as the system might think I'm going to check in baggage (it doesn't give me the option to say I'm not bringing baggage) and make me drop my baggage off (hence not giving me a boarding pass on my mobile).

tibor, not sure if this may have been the case for you, but the 2D Boarding Pass presently works (or should work!) for flights between SYD, MEL & BNE - elsewhere you still need to get a paper boarding pass from a kiosk or check-in until 2D Boarding Passes are rolled out across the entire network.

Baggage for mobile works like at the kiosk, where you receive your boarding pass and then drop off baggage if you have any - you do not have to answer a question as to whether or not you have baggage.

cheers
CrazyDave98

 

[VirginiaF]

Anybody downloaded this app on to an iPhone lately?

I just checked the App Store and there is nothing on there. Strangely, the Qantas app was not there either. All searches seemed to have AFF in the results, so kudos to the person who built in search engine attracting code into the app!

 

[docjames]

I believe the DJ mobile checkin is tooled for Blackberry, not iPhone.

 

[SeaWolf]

You can do it from the mobile website for iPhone though. On your iPhone, goto:
Virgin Blue - Virgin Blue Mobile | Home

Let me know how you go with it, I have an iPhone, but being based out of Perth I haven't had a chance to try the mobile check-in yet.

 

[docjames]

I might add, the qantas one is usually listed as "Qantas2" - it's still a bit buggy to me (you cant checkin straight from view bookings, but go back out and re-enter booking ref number which is annoying.

 

[VirginiaF]

Thanks Seawolf. The service is available on the browser (just need to bookmark it), and is not really an application. Still, who cares about how it works? Now I have more room for another app!

 

[YellowLemon]

Feedback on Mobile checkins:

I regularly used the mobile checkins for VIRGIN and QANTAS for testing/interest on my 4-year old Nokia with WAP browser. It's all web based and easy to do. At the end, you get an SMS with a link in it, and following that link take you to a web page with your boarding pass Aztec 2D bar code. I usually SAVE the Aztec 2D barcode to my "Images" folder for quick access should there be no reception at the airport.

At the gate, both airlines scan your mobile, and end up printing you a BP anyway (at the gate) The reason it's Bne, Mel, Syd only right now is because not all gates have 2D barcode scanners and printers at every gate.

The VIRGIN mobile check in is fantastic. You can get a good seat even if you are not infront of your computer 24 hours before your flight. Really good. Highly recommended.

The QANTAS mobile check in sucks. You can't choose your seat and always end up getting some middle seat at the back. Which means having to 're-check-in' the the airport just to get a survivable seat. Avoid.