Holidays Privacy Policy
- About this policy
- Collecting your personal information
- Information we are required to collect by law
- Want to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym?
- Using and disclosing your personal information
- How we use technology to collect and use personal information
- Disclosing your personal information overseas
- Our marketing and your personal information
- How we hold your personal information and keep it safe
- We like quality information
- Your right to access and correct your personal information
- Complaints or concerns?
- Availability and changes to our Privacy Policy
1 About this policy
1.1 Protecting your privacy
Virgin Australia Holidays is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.
Virgin Australia Holidays is a complete holiday and experience package provider. It is operated by Zuji Pty Ltd for Virgin Australia under a services agreement. This Privacy Policy applies to the privacy practices of Zuji Pty Ltd trading as Virgin Australia Holidays ("we"/"us"), in Australia. You can read more about us here.
Your personal information is information or an opinion about you that allows us to identify you. This Privacy Policy tells you how we manage your personal information and how to contact us if you have any privacy concerns. This Privacy Policy also confirms our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles, or APPs.
This Privacy Policy applies to our customers, visitors to our www.virginaustraliaholidays.com, www.virginaustralia.com.au/holidays and www.virginaustralia.com/mysterybreaks (referred to hereafter as "our website"), subscribers to our Virgin Australia Holidays Sales Alert email and any other individual who interacts with us.
We also have terms that apply when you book a holiday or event package with us or use our website. Please read these terms (see the link at the bottom of each of our website) prior to purchasing any services or products from us or using our websites, or when you are directed to do so during check-out.
1.2 Don't have time to read the full Privacy Policy? We understand
We’ve created a condensed version of our Privacy Policy that will give you a snapshot of our privacy practices. Then, when you have more time, or if you want more information about a particular aspect of our privacy practices, you can read the full Privacy Policy. You can read our condensed Privacy Policy here.
Of course, if you still have any questions about our privacy practices, please give us a call or email us.
2 Collecting your personal information
We collect your personal information so that we can provide you with our services and any products that you may have requested and also to carry out our functions and activities. This means things like your contact details so that we can book your holiday or event package and communicate with you about your booking.
We also collect your personal information so that we can improve the service we provide and also to let you know about flight specials or other offers we think might interest you. You can read more about our marketing here.
We also collect personal information from you if a law requires us to.
If we ask you for your personal information and you do not provide it to us, we may not be able to provide you with our services or provide you with any or all of the features of our services and products. For example, we will need your personal details in order to book a holiday with us. We also cannot book an international flight for you if you do not provide us with your passport details.
We only collect information about you where it is fair and lawful to do so.
2.1 Your consent
We will assume that, unless you tell us otherwise, you consent to the collection of the information that you provide to us (either directly or indirectly) for use and disclosure by us in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
We will only collect sensitive information (which is a category of personal information that includes information about things like your health, political or religious opinions, sexual preferences and genetic or biometric information) from you with your consent and where it is reasonably necessary for us to provide you with our services or carry out our functions or activities.
For example, if you have a health condition that means you’ll need some assistance with boarding, we’ll collect information about this from you if you call us in relation to your booking. We will then pass this information to the third parties providing you with your holiday or event package, such as the relevant airline, hotel or other Virgin Australia Holidays partner.
If we need to use or disclose your personal information for a purpose that is not set out in our Privacy Policy, or that is otherwise unrelated to the purpose for which we collected your personal information, we will obtain your consent first.
We may ask for your express consent or your consent may be implied by an action you take (or don't take).
There are some circumstances where we may not need your consent, and these are set out in the Privacy Act. This covers things like our dealings with Australian customs and other law enforcement bodies. You can read more about this here.
2.2 What personal information do we collect?
We will collect different sorts of personal information from you, depending on how you interact with us and how we can help you.
The types of information that we may collect are set out below:
- When you book a Virgin Australia Holidays holiday or event package, we will collect your name, address, phone number, email, credit card details, driver’s licence number, Velocity membership (or other frequent flyer program) number, your intended travel dates, place of departure and arrival and information related to the package you have selected. Where your package involves international travel, we will also collect your date of birth and passport details. If it’s relevant to you and your travel, we may also collect information about your health, such as where you need some assistance with boarding, need wheelchair access at a hotel, or your dietary requirements.
- When you subscribe to our Virgin Australia Holidays Sales Alert or other mailing lists, we will collect your contact details, closest airport and post code.
- We use cookies on our website. These cookies collect personal information from you. You can read about how we use cookies here.
- If you give us feedback about our service or products, complete an online form for us, or enter a competition, then we will collect the personal information that you provide.
- If you use social media to interact with us, we may collect your user name and any information that you allow the social media site to share with us, such as your profile picture, your posts, friends list and contact details.
- If you call us, we generally record our calls and so we will collect any personal information you provide during the call.We prefer to collect your personal information directly from you. We will collect personal information from you when you use our websites, if you call us or email us, or when you fly with us. But sometimes, we may collect your personal information from someone else, including our related entities and contractors (including ground handlers).For example, someone else may book a flight for you (including in a corporate or group booking), or you may book through a travel agent or one of our partners, or we may collect your information from public sources (like social media).
2.3 Who do we collect from?
We prefer to collect your personal information directly from you. We will collect personal information from you when you use our website and if you call us or email us.
But sometimes, we may collect your personal information from someone else, including our related entities, our Virgin Australia Holiday Partners, Velocity Rewards Pty Ltd and contractors. For example, someone else may book a holiday or event package for you (including in a group booking), or we may collect your information from public sources (like social media).
We may collect personal information from the following sources:
- Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd, if you made your booking over the phone.
- Our Virgin Australia Holidays Partners are those third parties that provide us with the elements of our holiday and event packages. These include Virgin Australia and other airlines, cruise lines, hotel affiliates, cultural, sporting and arts organisations and venues, tour and activity organisers, car rental providers, airport transfer and parking providers and travel insurance providers.
- Velocity Rewards Pty Ltd, if you are a Velocity member.
- If you make a claim, we will collect information from you, but we may also collect information from others (such as airport security) in order to process your claim.
- If your booking is part of a group booking, communicating with the person who made the booking on your behalf and other persons included in the group booking about your booking and travel arrangements.
2.4 Privacy Statements
We will notify you when we collect personal information from you, or about you from someone else. This will be in the form of a Privacy Statement.
Your Privacy Statement will provide you with a more detailed statement about what we are collecting and how we will use and disclose that personal information. We will try and give this statement to you at the time of the collection, but sometimes we may need to provide it to you soon afterwards.
Depending on how you have interacted with us, we may provide your Privacy Statement verbally over the phone, include it in a confirmation email to you, or in the terms and conditions that apply to the service or product you have acquired from us, or by referring you to our website.
2.5 Your passport or drivers’ licence number
These numbers are known as “government related identifiers”. We only collect these numbers to process your booking with an airline. We disclose these details to the airline you are travelling with (and where you are travelling overseas, the airline will use and disclose those details for border control and security purposes). We may need to disclose these details to law enforcement agencies or if we are otherwise required to do so by law or court order.
You’re more than just a number to us, so we don’t use these numbers to identify you in our systems.
2.6 Corporate or Group bookings
If you are making a holiday or event package booking for yourself and other persons, we may share your personal information with such other persons. If someone has made a booking on your behalf, or included you in their group booking, we will manage your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
3 Information we are required to collect by law
We may collect information from you because we are required or authorised by an Australian law or court or tribunal order to do so. We will tell you in your Privacy Statement if this is the case and let you know the details of the law, court or tribunal order.
4 Do you want to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym?
You have the option to remain anonymous or use a name other than your own (a “pseudonym”). We will try to provide you with this option wherever we can.
However, you won't be able to be anonymous or use a pseudonym if you would like to book a package that includes a flight or if you would like to work for us. We need to know who you are.
5 Using and disclosing your personal information
We will only use and disclose your personal information that we hold about you for the primary and related purposes for which we collected it, and for any other purpose you consent to. We may use your personal information to:
- Communicate with you about your holiday or event package booking. We may also communicate with you after your holiday or event, including to request your feedback.
- Share personal information with Virgin Australia and Velocity Rewards Pty Ltd. You can read more about how Virgin Australia and Velocity manage your personal information here.
- Communicate with our Virgin Australia Holidays Partners about your booking and to process and provide your booking and travel arrangements, including the disclosure of your contact details and any health information you may have provided that is relevant to your booking (for example, you request a hotel room with wheelchair access). Where your package includes a flight with Virgin Australia, Virgin Australia will contact you to confirm your booking, provide flight information and for marketing purposes.
- Communicate with third parties who provide prizes for promotions or competitions, including your contact details and other information you provide when entering a competition.
- Receive services from our third party service providers, including technology and related support services, marketing and advertising services, payment fulfilment and fraud protection services and data analysis, as part of our activities and operations.
- Communicate with our professional service providers and insurance companies, as part of our operations.
- Communicate with you about our offers, and those of Virgin Australia and our other Virgin Australia Holidays Partners, and to identify products and services that may be of interest to you. We may also conduct customer satisfaction surveys and other market research. We use and disclose personal information to our marketing service providers. You can read more about our marketing practices here.
- Respond to feedback and complaints.
- Meet our audit, reporting and investigations requirements. This includes us communicating with law enforcement agencies and regulators, both in Australia and overseas.
- Help us continuously improve the services and products we offer our customers.
6 How we use technology to collect and use personal information
6.1 Our websites use cookies and web-tracking tools
Cookies are tiny files sent to your browser and stored by your browser on your computer or other device that you’re using to access our website. We use both session (only last until you close your browser) and persistent (remain on your computer after you close your browser) cookies to give you the best experience of our websites.
Only certain sections of our websites utilise persistent cookies. We request permission from you before using them when you access our European, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates facing websites.
To find out more about how we use cookies, read our Cookie Policy.
We also use Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, which are web-tracking tools that generate detailed statistics about traffic to our website and traffic sources. These tools can also measure conversions and sales. Google Analytics only provides us with aggregated data (not personal information of our website visitors). Adobe Analytics can allow us to collect some personal information .
The information we collect about our website users includes:
- Your computer’s IP address
- The date and time of your visit to our website
- Pages on our websites that you accessed and documents downloaded
- The URL of the previous webpage from which you followed a link to our websites
- If you’ve visited our site before
- The type of browser you use
- Your region
The cookies and web-tracking tools on our websites allow our websites to interact more efficiently with the device you are using. We use them to track your use of our websites and to compile data that can help us improve the content and functioning of our websites.
6.2 How do we use this information?
We also use cookies to help us (and our web software provider) process a request by you to follow a link from our website to the websites of third parties. The personal information that is disclosed to the third party website operator is limited to the information collected by these cookies. We do not provide any further personal information that we hold about you to the third party website operator.
We may also use information collected by cookies and Adobe Analytics to display personalised content and advertising (targeted advertising and online behavioural advertising), based on your internet usage, and to send you marketing materials that we think will be of interest to you. We also have arrangements with third parties who may use our cookies to improve the relevance of our advertising to you on third party websites.
6.3 Virgin Australia's technology
If your holiday or event package includes a flight with Virgin Australia, then you may wish to use Virgin Australia’s smart phone and tablet applications, that allow their guests to book flights, check-in, upgrade, receive flight specials information and access in-flight services and a number of other things. Please note that these apps collect and use personal information, including through the use of cookies and web-tracking tools.
Virgin Australia also notifies its guests about flight changes, opening of online check-in and flight upgrade options by text message or email. You may receive a text message from Virgin Australia to your mobile number or an email if you haven’t provided your mobile number when booking your Virgin Australia Holiday. Virgin Australia uses third party service providers to send these text messages and emails. Some of these service providers are located overseas.
Virgin Australia’s Privacy Policy contains details of how it manages personal information collected through its apps.
6.4 Managing your technology preferences
You can disable cookies in your browser, but it will affect the functionality of our websites (please see our Cookie Policy for further information). You can usually do this through the “options” or “settings” in your browser. There are also add-ons and other online tools available for most browsers that will allow you to identify and block some web-tracking tools. When you are visiting third party websites that display our advertising, you can sometimes also opt-out from receiving advertising based on our cookies.
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7 Disclosing your personal information overseas
When we disclose your personal information overseas, we are required to take measures to ensure that your information will be protected.
A number of our Virgin Australia Holidays Partners are located overseas, including internationally-based hotels, car hirers and other service providers. Some of our technology and other service providers are also located overseas. For example, we use cloud service providers. This means that when you book a package that involves travel outside or Australia and we use our overseas service providers’ services, it may involve disclosing your personal information overseas. We only disclose personal information overseas when it is necessary for us to provide a product or service to you.
A full list of the countries in which our overseas related entities and service providers are located can be found below.
- The overseas countries where our third party service providers are located, that is, India, Ireland, Israel, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
- The overseas country to which you book a flight and/or other holiday or event package components. For example, if you book a Virgin Australia Holidays package that includes a flight to Las Vegas, a one-week stay in a hotel on the strip, car hire and a show, we will disclose your information to the relevant airline, hotel, hire car company and theatre venue (which will involve a disclosure of your personal information to persons located in the US). Virgin Australia Holidays currently offers holiday and experience packages in Australia, New Zealand, the US, South America, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong SAR, certain Pacific Islands nations (Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), Singapore and Thailand.
8 Our marketing and your personal information
We use personal information that we hold about you to identify services and products that may be of interest to you.
We may contact you by email, text message, phone or by post to let you know about flight specials, our promotions or any new or existing products or services. We also use internet-based marketing including targeted online advertising and online behavioural marketing.
We may disclose your personal information to other companies in the Virgin Australia Group, our related entities, and our airline and corporate partners to allow them (or us) to tell you about a product or service. Our marketing agencies may contact you using information about you that they already hold, or we may provide your personal information to them, in order to serve you with more relevant advertising about our services and products.
You can contact us at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing materials from us, our related entities or our partners. If you receive a marketing email from us, you can opt-out from all future marketing emails by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email. You can also unsubscribe from our Virgin Australia Holidays Sales Alert email mailing list online.
We will not use your health information or other sensitive information that we hold about you for marketing purposes, without your consent.
9 How we hold your personal information and keep it safe
We mostly hold personal information electronically in our IT systems and databases. We also hold personal information in telephone recordings and in hard copy paper files. We use third party service providers to store some personal information. These may include Australian and internationally-based cloud services or the servers of third parties within and outside of Australia.
We take steps to protect the information that we hold about you from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We do this by having physical and electronic security systems and by limiting who can access your personal information. We also have online and network security systems in place for our websites, so that the information you provide us online is protected and secure. You can find more information about our website security here.
Because of the nature of the internet, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information. Please contact us if you become aware of any breach of security.
If we determine that we no longer need information about you, or we are no longer required by law to hold it, we will destroy that information or ensure that it is de-identified.
10 We like quality information
We try to ensure that the information that we hold about you is accurate, complete, relevant and up-to-date. We do this by regularly reviewing our customer databases and updating or removing out-of-date, misleading or incorrect data.
If we update information that we hold about you, and we have given this information to a third party, then we will ask that third party to also update the information that it holds about you.
Please help us to do this by letting us know if your details change or we send you an email or letter that contains incorrect details.
11 Your right to access and correct your personal information
You have a right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you and to ask us to correct it.
If you would like to check that the information we hold about you is correct, find out about what information we hold about you, or make a correction, please contact us, either by calling us, or writing to us at:
Privacy Officer
Legal Department
PO Box 1034 Spring Hill QLD 4004
Phone: (07) 3295 3000
Email: privacy@virginaustralia.com
When you contact us and request access to your personal information, we will need to verify your identity first and ask you some further questions so that we can respond to your request as quickly as possible. We can’t give you information about anyone else.
We will respond to your request within a reasonable time of you making the request and give you access in the manner you requested, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to do so.
Sometimes we will be able to respond to your query over the phone, but sometimes we may need your request in writing and we might need some time to gather the requested information and get back to you. These more complex requests usually take us between 14 and 30 days. We might need to send a copy of the information to you by post or we might ask you to come and see us to have a look at the information.
Making a request is free. But depending on what information you request access to, we may need to charge you for giving you access to the information. The charges will not be excessive and we’ll let you know if a charge will apply before we proceed with giving you access. There is no charge for correcting your personal information or for us to add a statement.
There may be reasons why we cannot give you access to the information that you have requested, or we refuse to correct your personal information. If this is the case, we will let you know these reasons in writing. If we refuse you access or to correct your personal information, you can make a complaint about this, by following the complaint procedures in this Privacy Policy.
If we refuse to correct your personal information that we hold, you can ask us to associate with that information a statement that the information is inaccurate, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading. We'll take reasonable steps to associate this statement with your personal information that we hold so that users of the information are aware of it.
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12 Complaints or concerns?
If you have a complaint about how we have managed your personal information, dealt with a request by you to access or correct your personal information, or if you think that we have breached the Privacy Act or a registered APP code, you can make a complaint to us by writing to us at:
Privacy Officer
Legal Department
PO Box 1034 Spring Hill QLD 4004
Phone: (07) 3295 3000
Email: privacy@virginaustralia.com
Once we have received your complaint, we will investigate and respond to you as soon as we can. We try to do this within 10 working days of receiving your complaint. If this is not possible, we will contact you and let you know when we will respond to your complaint.
We take any privacy complaint seriously and will deal with your complaint fairly and promptly. However if you are not satisfied with our response or how we handled your complaint, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (in writing) at:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042
Phone: 1300 363 992
TTY: 1800 620 241
email: privacy@privacy.gov.au
If you are a customer of the Virgin Australia Group and your complaint relates to our airline services (rather than being privacy-related), you can contact the Airline Customer Advocate, which provides a complaint handling and dispute resolution process for eligible airline customers.
13 Availability and changes to our Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy is available on our website. If you would like us to send you a copy of our Privacy Policy by post, call us and we’ll send you one for free.
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Our Privacy Policy was last updated in March 2014. By continuing to use our websites or otherwise continuing to deal with us, you accept this Privacy Policy as it applies from time to time.
We will post all updates to http://www.virginaustralia.com/privacy/, as well as making the updated Privacy Policy available online. So, please check our website regularly for any updates to our Privacy Policy and contact us if you have any concerns.