Virgin Australia just supercharged its app

Like most frequent flyers, I love a good, feature-rich airline app. The more an app empowers me to take control over my trip, the better.

And the latest upgrade to Virgin Australia’s smartphone app takes a confident stride in that direction.

Launching today on the App Store for Apple iPhones and Google Play Store for Android phones, it puts at your fingertips capabilities which have previously been restricted to the airline’s call centre or airport check-in counters.

The new Virgin app makes it easier to jump onto an earlier (or later) flight.

Fly Ahead: Velocity Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus members will be able to request to change to an earlier same-day domestic flight straight from the app, when travelling on an eligible fare.

Fly Later: Platinum Plus members will also be able to request moving to a later same-day domestic flight via the app.

Upgrades: there’s now in-app bidding for upgrades to business class (called an UpgradeMe Premium Bid) and Economy X.

Snare that last-minute business class or Economy X seat by bidding straight from your app.

Fly Earlier: during busy periods or when bad weather causes flight disruptions, there’s also the option to move to an earlier flight on the same day, totally free of charge regardless of fare type.

“We want to be where our customers are, and in 2026 that’s in the palm of your hand,” says Alex Plummer, Virgin Australia’s General Manager for Digital.

“We’re incredibly focused on investing in the customer experience and that starts with digital ease – something our customers expect today.”

Virgin’s app is also the cornerstone of a new domestic airport check-in experience, which will see the airline ditch its long-standing check-in kiosks in favour of an integrated bag tag-and-drop system.

A digital bag drop system will replace the current check-in kiosks.

Almost eight out of ten Virgin Australia passengers already use the app or website to check in for their flights, and the airline claims the new system will “slash the time it takes to check-in and bag drop by up to 50%.”

The bag tag printers will be “paired with a one-step automated bag drop, powered by advanced camera and barcode recognition technology.”

Travellers will scan their boarding pass to print a bag tag, then drop their bag off without needing to rescan their boarding pass.

Just scan your mobile boarding pass to print your bag tags.

There’ll also be a dedicated priority bag drop area for business class passengers and Velocity Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus members.

But the sting in the tail is that in keeping with this push to mobile and web check-in, Virgin will remove its priority check-in perk at domestic airports for Velocity Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus members from mid-June.

“There will be no change to Priority Check-in benefit at international airports for Velocity Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus members”, the airline states.

The new bag drop system will appear across major domestic airports including Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Gold Coast, Launceston, Mackay, Melbourne, Perth, Sunshine Coast and Sydney, with most being upgraded before the end of this year.

As for laggards who prefer to check-in at the airport, Virgin says there’ll continue to be staff “available at all airports to assist travellers with check-in and bag drop, including those who require additional support or accessibility assistance.”