Trip Report: Virgin Australia’s inaugural Pets in Cabin flight

For the first time in Australia, animal lovers can travel with their small furry friends in the cabin. Virgin Australia is trialling the Pets in Cabin concept on flights between Melbourne-Gold Coast and Melbourne-Sunshine Coast.

Small dogs and cats under 8kg that fit in an approved carrier can now be carried onboard for a one-way fee of $149. There’s a limit of four pets per flight, and they must be seated in 18A, 18F, 20A or 20F.

With the trial underway until 31 January 2026, ahead of an anticipated national rollout in 2026, here’s our first look at what it’s like to travel with pets.

Pet pre-flight procedures

The first stop is a manual check-in at the counters, where the pet carrier is tagged. At security, the pets are screened separately before being placed in the carrier with tamper-proof seals and zip ties.

Pets and their owners pre-board first to ensure they can get settled. When we join for general boarding, there’s almost no sign that there are dogs on board. Yet.

Onboard the flight

For this flight, I’m in Row 19 – in between the two rows of pets. All seems to be well as the aircraft prepares for take-off. But the pomeranian Bambi starts getting a bit restless, and the drone of the take-off roll is punctuated with some occasional soft yaps. It’s an unusual mix.

The rest of the flight continues without much drama, apart from the occasional complaint from Bambi. If you didn’t know that pets were onboard, you probably wouldn’t have noticed. I’m on high alert for unexpected smells, but thankfully, there aren’t any accidents.

The air also feels relatively clean throughout the journey. Virgin Australia says the cabin airflow goes from ceiling to floor before being filtered, so there shouldn’t be much dander around the seats. Still, if you’re prone to allergies, you’d best steer well away from Rows 18 and 20.

As we begin our descent, Bambi starts to fuss again, while a nearby infant cries. It’s understandable during descent, but I can see how both sounds would be annoying if it continued for an extended period in-flight. Hopefully you don’t hear a symphony like that while you’re trying to work or rest.

My return flight to Melbourne also has some pets onboard. This time, I hear one dog barking for a few minutes while I’m on the aerobridge. Seated in Row 3 Economy X, the sound still faintly travels to the front. The rest of the flight is uneventful, but it goes to show that your inflight experience could vary considerably.

Summing up: Virgin Australia pets in cabin

The idea of pets in the cabin might not be new in the USA and Europe, but here, it’s certainly contentious. From the two flights I went on, it seems that that take-off and landing are the two main times where the pets are most unsettled. Thankfully, the bulk of our time in the air is smooth sailing.

Of course, once more pets are flying, we could see more cases of disturbances onboard. But that’s really not too different from now, where infants could be seated anywhere. At least with Virgin Australia, the pets will always be in Rows 18 and 20. If you sit closer to the front of the plane, you should barely notice they’re there.

A bigger question will be how pets in the cabin will fare on longer flights, such as the 5.5-hour journey from Brisbane to Perth, if the trial is expanded.

What about the points? We’ve been told that there are currently no plans for pets to earn any Velocity Points on flights. However, you can use 18,600 points to cover the $149 pet fee.

That’s not great value, given that 17,800 Velocity Points is enough for an Economy reward from Perth to Sydney (+ fees and taxes). As always, we still recommend you save your points for reward seats, and not for Bambi.

Photography by Brandon Loo, who travelled on the flight as a guest of Virgin Australia.

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