Quick look: Virgin Australia's new mobile website for iPhones and Android smartphones

Virgin Australia has launched a refreshed mobile version of its website today, to complement yesterday's revamp of the main VirginAustralia.com.au site.

Here's a quick look at what you'll see on your smartphone.

The home page provides one-tap access to the most commonly used parts of the site.

Although Virgin hasn't gone down the route of a stand-alone smartphone app, the site – which appears when you access VirginAustralia.com.au from your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or other smartphones – presents a slick streamlined look made for smaller displays navigated with fingers rather than keyboards.

Virgin says that while the mobile site isn't designed for tablet users, who will instead see the normal Virgin Australia website, "down the track we are looking at optimising the website further for tablet devices."

Virgin Australia also expects to release an update to its BlackBerry App within the next few days.

As you'd hope, the process of looking up and booking flights on the mobile site is fast and finger-friendly.

Pick your flight, then choose your fare...

The mobile site doesn't let you directly book rental cars or hotels directly, however a Virgin Australia spokeswoman told Australian Business Traveller that "we're looking to introduce that in the future.

In the meantime, mobile users can click a link at the bottom of the home page to visit the main 'desktop' version of the site, to access those and other functions.

Also on the to-do list is adding international flights to the mobile booking engine, which currently shows only domestic and trans-Tasman flights.

"Next week we'll be rolling out the first step in that, which will show long-haul routes on the 'search mask' and then redirect you to the full version of the website to make your booking" the airline's spokeswoman told Australian Business Traveller.