Native Payments

The Virgin Australia app primarily serves as a day-of-travel assistant – natively displaying real-time information for existing bookings and purchases. However, any new purchases, including any ancillary products, are handed off to an external web experience. A process that is fraught with long load times, repeated reloads, and an overall disconnected experience. Despite this, seat and baggage purchases via the app contribute a significant percentage of total sales. Imagine what could be possible with a fully native purchase flow.

And so began the process of creating a native purchase flow for both seating and baggage. Discovery for both products ran simultaneously. While each has unique requirements, sharing a consistent user experience across both was a high priority. Multiple rounds of user interviews were run, carefully refining our approach, while the wider design team provided a valuable outside perspective.

The seat selection and purchase flow builds off the existing design. Pricing elements were added, and the existing step-by-step process was completed with a new cart and native checkout experience. The latest iOS26 design fundamentals were incorporated into the design, aligning the new payments experience with the future of the iOS app.

Unlike seating, the baggage flow required a ground-up reimagining. A unique solution was required to balance the goals of keeping baggage quantity and weight information clearly visible while also adding a purchase flow with the least possible friction. Most users will not be purchasing baggage, so the funnel to enter the purchase flow needed to be restrained. But a balance was required to ensure those who want additional baggage could purchase seamlessly.

During user testing, many iterations were created. We found our design was equally solving for every possible edge case, but like a jack of all trades, was a master of none. A final pivot to a design that prioritised the primary user goals proved successful. This refined approach tested exceptionally well with users and was loved by stakeholders.

The baggage screen defaults to a static informational view, but once a user adds a bag, the experience comes alive with a guided purchase flow. Strong illustrative elements clearly highlight existing and additional bags, and clear next and previous buttons guide users through the whole process and seamlessly into the checkout.

Delivery of these new native payment flows is currently underway. Converting the high-friction external web redirect into a seamless native experience is projected to drive significant uplifts to ancillary conversion and upsell.