Virgin Australia is launching a baggage tracking system to ease the pain of lost baggage
- Virgin Australia launches baggage tracker
- It is the first airline in Australia to do so
Virgin Australia is just hours away from launching a digital tool to ease the pain of one of flight’s most annoying problems.
On Monday, the airline is launching a baggage tracking system that will help passengers find their bags on most journeys within Australia.
The technology, which has been trialled for two years, will be available on seven of the ten domestic flights.
That includes all local flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide.
On Monday, the airline is launching a baggage tracking system that will help passengers find their bags on most journeys within Australia
While the technology won’t completely end the pain of lost bags, in most cases it should end the uncertainty about exactly where luggage is located.
Customers can track the location of their checked baggage through the Virgin Australia app.
Notifications are also sent to customers’ phones, including which carousel to collect their bags from.
In June, an airline insider told the Daily Mail Australia that airline passengers trying to game the system are partly responsible for the vexing problem of lost luggage while flying.
A baggage handler at Brisbane International Airport said the ongoing problem of lost luggage is caused by a combination of poor management, poorly trained and ‘lazy’ staff and misleading customers.
“These people are not trained properly… and there are so many people who employ them who shouldn’t be hired, they aren’t smart enough… It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse,” he claimed.
The new baggage tracking technology, the first of its kind in Australia, comes after lost, mishandled and damaged baggage by all airlines around the world reached its highest level in a decade.
Nearly eight in 1,000 bags were lost between airport baggage drop-off and the arrivals carousel.
Customers can track the location of their checked baggage through the Virgin Australia app
Nearly eight in 1,000 bags went missing between airport baggage drop-off and the carousel of arrivals around the world in 2022 (Photo: Heathrow Airport baggage)
That meant 26 million pieces of luggage worldwide in 2022 that were lost, delayed or damaged.
“We know the potential for lost luggage is a concern for travelers around the world and expect today’s announcement to provide many guests with that extra level of comfort knowing where their bag is every step of the journey,” Chief Virgin Australia Group Customer and Digital Officer, Paul Jones.
Virgin also claimed it has ‘some of the lowest rates on the market when it comes to mishandled or lost bags’, a rate of just 1.5 lost per 1,000 guests.