VAA Mobile Check-in

Hi

As heads-up for you all, we have quiet launched the first phase of our new Mobile Internet site which includes mobile check-in, flight status and schedules.

To have a play, go to http://mobile.virginatlantic.com on your smartphone browser. Short summary below and I'll post more info shortly including an SMS shortcut. Comms to FC will go out soon. Note that it is only check-in and seat selection at this stage. It doesn't yet include 2D mobile barcodes so don't try to blag your way past airport security with just your phones yet!

Summary

Using your internet-enabled mobile phone you can now check-in for your Virgin Atlantic flight and select your seats wherever you are. All you need to do is type http://mobile.virginatlantic.com into your mobile web browser between 24 hours and 2 hours before departure, click on ‘check-in’ and away you go. All flights are available for Online Check-In and the same rules apply as our web based online check-in.

Once you have checked-in and selected your seat you can:

• Collect your paper boarding pass at the airport from a self-service kiosk or bag-drop desk

• Access on-line check–in from a computer with a printer or we can fax the boarding pass to you

Currently, payment for excess baggage cannot be made using Mobile Check-In. However, customers can continue to purchase this in advance online at a computer or via the Contact Centre before their flight.

Feedback here please on any gotchas that you spot. We'll keep a track on the first people to try it! These extra services will also be added to our iPhone Flight Tracker app shortly.

rgds
Fergus (Virgin Atlantic eBusiness)

Also

To save you typing, send a text message of M, MOB, of MOBILE (case insensitve) to 88787 and this will respond with http://mobile.virginatlantic.com

rgds
F

First thing I notice is the old livery of the plane in the picture! Only people here will care but it's the trying to get the branding consistent that makes things look slick.

I can't go through functionality as I am no flying anywhere (sniff). I have a pax flying out on Friday who I know well enought that she might let me play!

Ed

Thanks for this Fergus, looks good and is definitely needed (=overdue). I'm flying on VS250 on Friday, so I'll use it then.

A couple of initial (fairly minor) observations for you.

1) Given all the discussion about the new livery and branding, it would be good to see the aircraft pictures with that. You must have a few pics of G-VROC available. It would be good to be brand consistent when it is launched to the general public.

2) On the "Can I check in yet?" pages there are a couple of thoughts. Firstly, because the flights are listed in departure time order, many (10 right now) are already showing "Closed" status. I would rather see a note at the top simply saying. "If your flight is not shown here OLCI is closed.
Secondly, when I find my flight with "Open" status, I would like to be able to click on it e.g. "Check in for this flight" and be taken back to the check in page.

As I'm sure you have found out, the mobile experience is always different to the desktop PC because of the small screen real eatate, the user interface and the lack (or less use) of multiple frames.

Thanks

Martin

Also

To save you typing, send a text message of M, MOB, of MOBILE (case insensitve) to 88787 and this will respond with http://mobile.virginatlantic.com

rgds
F

Fergus

The other useful convention is m.virginatlantic.com

Martin

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks Fergus

Will use it for my BOS flight tomorrow when OLCI opens up.

Have tried the text thing, and that works fine.

Thanks for using V-Flyers to test it out.

Nick

I agree with Martin's list of suggestion above.

However, I must admit, this is a very good advancement and I'm looking forward to future progress of VS mobile chk-in. Hopefully you can develop the 2D barcode real soon.

I can't wait to try this for my VS flights in October.

[Nottingham Nick]

Fergus - update.

Just checked three of us in for tomorrow on my iPhone, without a hitch. All the info was pre-loaded from my API details, and so it was painless.

Confirmation email received almost immediately.

On a side issue. The seat shifters had struck this morning and moved us from the window / aisle seats we had requested weeks ago, to ones in the middle.

Fortunately two of our three previous seats were now showing as vacant, so I was able to swap back. There was also another one free nearby which I was able to grab. Why do they this?

The seats I selected this morning hadn't been changed again when I checked in.

Nick

Hi

Yes, well spotted all ref the livery. An updated photo of G-VROC goes into the site tomorrow pm.

Thanks also for the functional suggestions on tweaks to the site. The Mobile Internet site is an "intelligent screen scrape" and is a repurposing of parts of the main website, so some of these mods would need to be changed on the main site first, hence not a quick thing to do.

rgds
F

[buns]

Fergus

Many thanks

buns

Hi Nick

Thanks for trying it and glad it worked! I can't do much about the reseating issues sorry. I guess the airports people were trying to seat various other folks together and had to shuffle things around.

All - ref mobile check-in - please give it a go when you fly and post back your experiences to this forum. Good, bad and ugly comments are all welcomed to help us improve the service.

rgds
F

Just accessed the site with a Blackberry 8830 and it looks good. Too early for me to checkin yet, but will try it at the right time

Seems like virgin have launched this very publicly for a quiet launch....
They have posted it on their Facebook page.

Hi Fergus

I tried last night with the mobile check-in, but sadly it failed. I was trying to check in myself and a colleague on VS250. It was booked through Air New Zealand and is leg 1 of a trip to Auckland - leg to is on NZ88, so there are seveal reasons why it might not have worked. If you want to PM me with your email address, I can send you the screenshots of the process.

I was able to do OLCI on the PC this morning - so all's well.

Cheers

Martin

I see it has been rolled out to the wider public via facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/virginatlantic?ref=mf

You may need to scroll past the posts talking about the latest campaign of - locating their new ad poster, taking a photo with you beside it and submitting the pic in hopes of winning a limited edition VS T-shirt.

Hi

As a heads-up for you, following on from the successful  trial of mobile phone boarding cards on our Manchester flights and the VS43 out of Gatwick, we will now be rolling this service out to all ex Gatwick flights from Tuesday the 2nd of October. Our website will be updated today to reflect this. Note that the service currently only covers individual check in and for single sector flights, but this may be extended depending on how this goes. Ex Heathrow flights will follow soon. To get more info on what is covered, do a search for mobile boarding in our FAQ tool on the website. Note that the service is truly paperless and you just need your mobile phone to go thru the airport and straight to seat.

Those of you travelling ex LGW in the near future please give it a go and feedback here on your experiences. You will see the extra option come up during online checkin.

There are other extensions coming soon for those of you with IOS6 IPhones and iTouches ...

Thanks
Fergus Boyd
Virgin Atlantic eBusiness

[mitchja]

Thanks for the update Fergus

Good to hear.

Fergus, is there any news on the never ending website development and seat selection 'upgrade'?

Although I have logged in, to be able to access bookings etc I need my booking reference. As I don't have these to hand, it is easier just to go to the main website from my iPhone. With the BA app, once you log in all your bookings are listed and you don't need to remember / find your booking reference(s)

For those with iPhones/iPads.. Boarding Passes are now Passbook ready.