New way Virgin Australia plans to track your bag in Australian-first

Virgin Australia has revealed how its new Australian-first technology will alleviate one of the biggest stresses of travelling.

Virgin Australia has revealed how its Australian-first baggage tracking tool will work, which notifies passengers of the whereabouts of their bags while travelling.

The airline revealed the service over the weekend, which is now available across nearly 70 per cent of the its domestic routes.

It comes a year after demand for luggage tracking devices, including Apple AirTags, soared as lost luggage became a huge problem at airports across the globe.

Virgin Australia said its technology took two years to bring to market, with a trial initially piloted in May.

Checked bags will now be scanned at three points with a notification sent to the traveller’s phone. Picture: Virgin Australia

Virgin Australia told news.com.au checked bags will now be scanned at three points before ending up on the baggage carousel at the traveller’s final destination.

“From today, at each of the three key scanning points, our wonderful baggage handlers will use a mobile scanning machine to scan the barcode on the baggage tag, triggering a push notification to the guest’s phone,” the airline explained.

“This will allow the guest to follow the bag’s journey from check-in to collection.”

It comes after lost baggage became a huge problem at airports across the globe. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Robinson

It said over the past two years, the company had upgraded its digital infrastructure at 37 airports for the new baggage scanning system that uses cloud technology.

Virgin Australia expects a rise in the number of passengers checking in baggage now the new tracking tool exists.

More people are expected to travel with checked bags. Picture: Virgin Australia

Passengers will be notified through the airline’s app. Picture: Virgin Australia

“We know the potential of lost baggage is a concern for travellers globally and anticipate this announcement will give many guests that extra level of comfort knowing where their bag is at every step of the journey,” Virgin Australia group chief customer and digital officer, Paul Jones, said.

Travellers will receive the push notifications through the airline’s app.

The notifications will include when the bag has been checked-in, transferred to an international partner airline, and is available for collection at the final destination.

It will also tell passengers which carousel their bags are at for collection.

Competitor airline, Qantas, has also flagged it would introduce a similar measure towards the end of 2023.