QF 3: Connecting flight options - advice please

[TyG]

Long time lurker on this forum and first time posting here — hope that's ok! I would really appreciate some sound advice that's provided on this forum.

I will be flying from Melbourne to Auckland (QF 151) — connecting to the flight from Auckland to New York (QF 3) quite soon in J. I've noticed there's been a few instances where the flight from Melbourne to Auckland has been delayed and resulted in missing the QF 3 flight from Auckland to New York (scary thought). There's an hour and 40 minutes of transit time.

When I booked my flight (last year), I only had the option of flying into Auckland to connect to the QF 3 flight. Now it appears you can fly from Melbourne to Sydney and connect to the QF 3 flight in Sydney.

Do you think it's best I keep my current booking as it stands or instead, fly to Sydney? As I want to reduce the risk of missing the QF 3 flight (as much as possible).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! Please let me know if this post should be directed elsewhere too!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Long time lurker on this forum and first time posting here — hope that's ok! I would really appreciate some sound advice that's provided on this forum.

I will be flying from Melbourne to Auckland (QF 151) — connecting to the flight from Auckland to New York (QF 3) quite soon in J. I've noticed there's been a few instances where the flight from Melbourne to Auckland has been delayed and resulted in missing the QF 3 flight from Auckland to New York (scary thought). There's an hour and 40 minutes of transit time.

When I booked my flight (last year), I only had the option of flying into Auckland to connect to the QF 3 flight. Now it appears you can fly from Melbourne to Sydney and connect to the QF 3 flight in Sydney.

Do you think it's best I keep my current booking as it stands or instead, fly to Sydney? As I want to reduce the risk of missing the QF 3 flight (as much as possible).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! Please let me know if this post should be directed elsewhere too!

Fly the night before to SYD and go straight through on QF3 from SYD

 

[justinbrett]

I would think you're more likely to miss the connection in SYD than you are in AKL - unless it's overnight.

 

[tdimdad]

Given also how many passengers are connecting from MEL and if the delay is not bad, they may have QF3 wait for them. If there's only one or two connecting, the likelyhood of waiting might be low but if there are ten of you, it makes very different sense for QF3 to wait. It's got plenty of time to attempt to catch up (weather, etc allowing) and land on time at the other end.

Your lowest risk is, as PF pointed out, change your booking and go to SYD the night before.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Different PNR, eh, I would say.
Its hard to say if you will succeed, on an unlinked PNR.
Linked PNR, QF staff knows you are in the process of getting from here to there, so to speak, as your BP would have been issued in MEL all the way to the US.
Unlinked PNR, even if you have done OLCI, QF staff or the checkin at the airport, might/would not know where you were.
If the transit lane inside of the secure zone at AKL is open, you could veer into that area, and see if you get through to the dep area, ie, get security scanned, and have your BP scanned.
But if the transit zone is closed, you would have to have your Aust passport scanned via NZ incoming Smartgate to enter, rush out into the public area, and then go upstairs to go through NZ outgoing imm Smartgate, and security screening.
What is needed for document checks, re pre entry with the BP?
===
There is a transit zone, where you can veer once past all the gates, and past the wooden above head carving, but I have never gone further than the transit sign, so not sure if the security screening there is staffed all the time, that the airport is open, or only when they know people will be transitting.
After being screened, you then go one level up, via a lift to the AKl dep zone.
===
If MEL check in will issue a BP the whole way, that would be a great help.
So, maybe, if you don't want to go via SYD, is to get to T2 MEL as early as possible, and see what the QFi check in staff are willing to do.
Would help too, if you are HLO.

 

[RichardMEL]

Different PNR, eh, I would say.

I would not. The OP specifically says they booked the connecting flight QF151->QF3. There is no reason to think or reason that these might be separate tickets.

 

[serfty]

Do you think it's best I keep my current booking as it stands or instead, fly to Sydney? As I want to reduce the risk of missing the QF 3 flight (as much as possible).

Personally, given the anecdotal AKL transit issues with the SYD/JFK flights I'd not consider anything other than flying to AKL from MEL the night before.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Personally, given the anecdotal AKL transit issues with the SYD/JFK flights I'd not consider anything other than flying to AKL from MEL the night before.

But the OP can fly to SYD the night before and take QF3 all the way ?

 

[TyG]

Hey everyone, thanks for providing your advice. Really appreciate it. A little mixed, so will see how I go. Will keep everyone updated on how the flight goes. Looking forward to it so much!

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2023

I would not. The OP specifically says they booked the connecting flight QF151->QF3. There is no reason to think or reason that these might be separate tickets.

Yeah, they aren’t seperate tickets at all! All good, could’ve been a bit more clearer.

 

[serfty]

But the OP can fly to SYD the night before and take QF3 all the way ?

But why when coming from MEL? (Aside from SCs).

If I can avoid direct flights with stopover I do.

From experience, Qantas endeavour to schedule transits on these as short as possible and it seems rush, rush, rush.

So, I'd look to fly the 7pm MEL to AKL the night before, take a Hotel in or around AKL and make my way to the airport to catch the JFK flight at my leisure. Even the 11pm red eye would be preferable than QF3 the entire way.

Then you do not have to worry about 20-minute transit security times at AKL having any impact.
Qantas to Launch SYD-AKL-JFK (June 2023)

 

[Princess Fiona]

But why when coming from MEL? (Aside from SCs).

If I can avoid direct flights with stopover I do.

From experince, Qantas endeavour to schedule transits on these as short as possible and it seems rush, rush, rush.

So, I'd look to fly the 7pm MEL to AKL the night before, take a Hotel in or around AKL and make my way to the airport to catch the JFK at my leisure. Even the 11pm red eye would be preferable than QF3 the entire way.

Then 20 minute transit security times at AKL would not have any impact.

Qantas to Launch SYD-AKL-JFK (June 2023)

Fair enough. But there’s actually no big issue with QF3 AKL transit, particularly if you are in J.
QF4 however…….

 

[RichardMEL]

tbh I can see both points of view here.

There are potential pros and cons of both scenario.

If one flies to SYD to catch QF3 straight through then if there are any issues (ie: delays) with QF3, then you have them in SYD. Now say it's cancelled, there's an option potentially to be moved to QF11 and AA to NYC or another option (say via BNE or MEL), if in AKL you're more limited imo.

However, it's a 0930 departure (at least during the current schedule, in our summer it moves to 9:45, so no real change there) and that means a 0630 minimum departure from MEL to connect. Now currently QF have a 0525 flight out of MEL (QF400) on some days which is interesting, but usually it's 0600 as a minimum which would give a 2 hour connection. doable but definitely a rush imo (unless a delay to QF3). I'm not too sure I'd be too comfortable to do that tbh.

However, flying MEL-SYD the night before negates that, or MEL-AKL too, but then you have cost of a hotel into the mix, but does of course provide peace of mind, and specially at AKL means a very relaxed morning and afternoon to get to AKL.

So, I guess it's a mix of what's a better option? the first thing in the morning connection at SYD (which most of the time would be fine despite the early morning, but you never know) or a far less stressful, but more expensive in time and cost overnight prior.

If it was me I'd probably chance it going to SYD, specially it a flight earlier than 0600 was running, and if I was in J (and thus able to use the priority entry @ SYD T1). At 0700-0830ish is peak hour for SYD international so the transit can definitely take some time.

my 4 cents.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

If you were to connect, what's the worst that could happen? I would imagine in the worst case QF puts you on the flight the following day, but one wonders whether they could get you to New York via some other routing such as on Qantas Middle East (Emirates). In addition since both Australia and the United States are signatories to the 1999 Montreal Convention on air transport, it also means that Qantas would be on the hook for up to $7000 USD in the event of such a disruption to cover things like meals, hotels (including hotel nights in the US you couldn't use), lost wages, etc. I would also imagine that should this happen it would be trivial to get Qantas to adjust your return date free of charge, after all they already mucked up your plans.

Every delay, cancellation and mis-connect is an opportunity to extract more from the airlines. That's my motto at least!

-RooFlyer88

 

[Mattg]

If you were to connect, what's the worst that could happen? I would imagine in the worst case QF puts you on the flight the following day, but one wonders whether they could get you to New York via some other routing such as on Qantas Middle East (Emirates). In addition since both Australia and the United States are signatories to the 1999 Montreal Convention on air transport, it also means that Qantas would be on the hook for up to $7000 USD in the event of such a disruption to cover things like meals, hotels (including hotel nights in the US you couldn't use), lost wages, etc. I would also imagine that should this happen it would be trivial to get Qantas to adjust your return date free of charge, after all they already mucked up your plans.

Every delay, cancellation and mis-connect is an opportunity to extract more from the airlines. That's my motto at least!

-RooFlyer88

QF3 does not operate every day. The worst that could happen is that the OP gets rebooked on the next flight which could be 3 days later. Yes, they would get a hotel etc. in Auckland but maybe they just want to get to New York as scheduled?

And it’s certainly not “trivial” to change the return date for free, even if Qantas was responsible for an inbound delay. I tried this once, and after waiting 3 hours on hold was told they would only do it if I paid the (exorbitant) fare difference. In any case, maybe the OP needs to go back to work and would just like to travel as scheduled, even if it doesn’t mean “extracting more from the airlines”.