Virgin Australia has launched a new way for Australians to search for flights directly within ChatGPT, marking an Australian airline first and a major shift in how travellers plan and book trips.
From today, users can describe their travel plans in ChatGPT to be directed to Virgin Australia flights and Velocity Frequent Flyer reward seats. The airline says the integration is designed to simplify the flight search process, and will eventually encompass partner airlines.
The launch builds on Virgin Australia’s broader collaboration with OpenAI, first announced in 2025, and reflects the airline’s push to embed digital tools more deeply into the travel experience.
A more conversational way to search for flights
The new functionality aims to remove the need to manually browse multiple pages or tools when planning a trip. The ChatGPT integration can:
- View Virgin Australia reward seat availability across multiple dates
- Suggest destinations based on budget or departure city
- Highlight the best-value travel dates
- Compare cash fares and Points + Pay options in one view
- Summarise the lowest fares across multiple days
American Express Velocity Platinum
- Bonus points
- 50,000 bonus Velocity Points¹
- Annual fee
- $440 p.a.
- Earn
- 1.25 Velocity Points earned per $1 on all eligible spend except for government bodies⁵. 2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent on selected Virgin Australia purchases⁵. 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 on Government spend⁵
American Express Velocity Platinum
- Bonus Points
- 50,000 bonus Velocity Points¹
- Annual Fee
- $440 p.a.
- Earn
- 1.25 Velocity Points earned per $1 on all eligible spend except for government bodies⁵. 2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent on selected Virgin Australia purchases⁵. 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 on Government spend⁵
Earn 50,000 Velocity Points¹ when you apply online, are approved, and spend $5,000 on eligible purchases on your new American Express Velocity Platinum Card within the first 3 months. New American Express Card Members only.
How does it work in practice? We gave it a spin, asking to find two Business Reward seats from Sydney to Perth in late August or early September. First of all, you need to activate the plug-in. Go to ‘apps’ on the sidebar and search for Virgin Australia.
Even though we were using the term ‘Business Reward’, the search engine was initially also showing ‘Points Plus Pay’ options at a much higher price.
However, after some coaching on the price of Business Rewards being 35,500 points, the chat was able to pinpoint some dates with actual reward availability. These match what’s available on the website.
As always, it’s important to be as clear and direct with your instructions for the best outcome.
Virgin Australia Chief Executive Officer Dave Emerson said the launch represents a fundamental shift in how travellers interact with airline content.
‘Today marks a significant milestone for Virgin Australia and Velocity Frequent Flyer and for the future of travel,’ Mr Emerson said.
‘Through our collaboration with OpenAI, we’re giving customers a faster, more intuitive way to plan and book their trips within a platform many already use every day. We’re also unlocking more value for Velocity members by making it easier to locate Reward Seats and redeem Points on flights.’
Summing up
The ChatGPT integration follows Virgin Australia’s recent rollout of an all-in-one flight search tool, embedded in the website and app within the search flow.
So what’s coming in the next few months? Virgin Australia says partner airline flights and reward seats are next in line, along with international codeshare flights and seat map access.
It’ll be interesting to see how the AI improves over time – and most importantly (for our readers at least), how the agent manages partner airline reward seat availability. If the AI can filter out unwanted options and quickly scan large swathes of the calendar to find availability, Virgin Australia could be onto a winner.
Qantas recently launched a Reward Flight Finder tool based on Gyoza Flights’ platform, but it doesn’t currently include a conversational AI function. Meanwhile, global seat-finding tool Seats.Aero also recently launched its own OpenAI integration.
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All these tools to make reward seats easier to find are just ruining the industry.
Let’s face it – barely any premium seats exist anyway and this just lowers the bar to entry.