On Monday I had to travel to Sydney for work, and was thrilled I would be able to try out the new Virgin Blue mobile check in. I love my iPhone, I’m obsessed almost, and trying out new things always make my heart miss a beat.

Checking in on-line isn’t anything new. Currently, you can check in via the Virgin Blue website and print out your boarding pass at home. Then, it’s as simple as arriving at the airport, heading straight to the gate, handing over your boarding pass and getting on board. Now, they have made it even more simple for the traveller; well, a traveller with a mobile that is.

The process is simple. On your web enabled mobile phone (aka my dearest iPhone) head to mobile.virginblue.com.au. Select the check in option and enter your reservation number and departure location. Choose your seat, answer the standard dangerous objects question, and enter your mobile number. Within seconds you will receive a text message with a link to a website where you will be able to view your special barcode. At the airport the staff will scan in the barcode and print out a boarding pass, and on you go! If it wasn’t for the boarding pass they print for you at the gate the process would be entirely paperless, very environmentally friendly. As it is, the boarding pass they give you is incredibly small, so it is definitely cutting down paper usage, and therefore can still be considered an improvement.

Depending on whether or not you’re travelling with other people or with bags, you might be able to head straight to the gate. If you’re alone and with only carry on, then straight to the gate for you. If you have bags, it’s pretty obvious that you would still need to check them in first. If you’re with a group of people, you will still need to check in at the counters at the front, presumably because of the logistics involved in texting all the boarding passes to the same mobile.

The first time I tried the mobile check in process I checked in the night before my early morning flight. After 3 hours I still hadn’t received the text linking to my boarding pass, and was starting to fret a little. I rang the Virgin Blue customer service line, where the rep advised me that if I still hadn’t received it before my flight they would be able to print my boarding pass at the customer service desk. Within an hour of hanging up the phone, I had gotten the text with the link. The process is still quite new, so I’m going to assume it may have been a hiccup of some sort. When I checked in this afternoon for my evening flight I got the text straight away, so if there was a problem the night before it had definitely been fixed. It still made me a bit wary; if the turn around was consistently four hours I wouldn’t really want to take the chance of only checking in on my mobile when I’m already on my way to the airport. It could get a little hairy if you’re running late.

The first time I handed my phone over at the airport I had a joke with the check-in lady that I was going to break the system. When I boarded the plane, it was evident I had tried the new process as my boarding pass was different to everyone else’s. In fact, one of the male hosts asked if I had used it, and told me he would come chat to me about it later, see what I thought of it. Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the plane so I never really got a chance to discuss it with him. But it definitely makes things a LOT easier, especially since I was in a different office where my laptop wasn’t set up to any of the printers (had I needed to print my boarding pass the traditional way).