QF SYD D-I MCT up from 60 to 90 minutes, from 21 Aug

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Arrivals around the 6:30 am would be absolute chokers in SYD. There is at least 15 international flights landing from 5 to 7 am.

Actually the 6:30am arrival was only 45 mins (plus walking time), it was the almost 9am arrival that took over 90 minutes (plus walking time).

 

[SYD]

Arrivals around the 6:30 am would be absolute chokers in SYD. There is at least 15 international flights landing from 5 to 7 am.

I was on the QF82 monday this week and it took me over 2 hours to complete the domestic transfer thingy for my next service to CBR.

Yes, and no doubt many PAX transferring to Dom. But I’m fascinated to know how many Int -> Int transfers there are in a typical day. SYD, MEL and BNE are pretty much at the end of the line with the obvious exceptions of shortish hops across to NZ and maybe the Pacific islands. It’s not like SIN with lots of long haul to long haul connections.

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Yes, and no doubt many PAX transferring to Dom. But I’m fascinated to know how many Int -> Int transfers there are in a typical day. SYD, MEL and BNE are pretty much at the end of the line with the obvious exceptions of shortish hops across to NZ and maybe the Pacific islands. It’s not like SIN with lots of long haul to long haul connections.

Early am syd intl transit queue at security ranges from dozens to several hundred.

 

[justin23]

so Syd International was chaotic this morning, but got from Dom to International in about an hour.

8:05 flight from CBR landed
8:10 deboarded the plane @ Gate 1
8:25 Bus arrived at international. There was a queue in Domestic, which sounds bad but it meant the bus was running non stop so actually quicker than normal IMO
8:50 Cleared passport control
9:07 cleared security
9:11 in the QF Business Lounge.

Lots of people given priority though in the Business and First security lanes. but they moved through fairly quickly Women behind me had a boarding at 9:30 so she'd have made it easily but was panicking a bit further back in the queue.

 

[dylarr]

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is DOM-DOM MCT has also been increased from 30 to 40 mins at SYD, MEL, BNE, ADE and PER… i.e. all the major ports QGS was dumped in favour of Swissport.

https://www.qantas.com/agencyconnect/au/en/agency-news/agency-news-august-22/changes-to-minimum-connecting-times-at-some-airports.html

 

[jakeseven7]

Yeah, the current 60 minutes is totally ridiculous and unrealistic. I would never book it.

Hopefully now the Qantas call centre will also stop fobbing off customers calling to rebook their SYD connection due to there being "no availability" on an earlier flight, after a schedule change resulting in a 60-minute connection.

Pre covid I often did 60 MCT in Sydney, never had an issue. Now of course I wouldn’t chance it given the issues with airport staff in particular!

 

[gethsemene]

I have a 2:20 D->I next week on Wednesday and then a 1:45 I > D on Thursday connecting to the last flight to Hobart, that one could be pretty tight! All at Syd

 

[JohnK]

Had a couple of young girls on the 5:10pm BNE-SYD on Saturday. The 4:10pm was cancelled.

They were going to Vancouver on Air Canada and that departs at 8:25pm. We got off the aircraft 7:05pm and that would have been a struggle to get there.

 

[justin23]

So my Domestic to International last Friday morning took about 60 minutes.

8:05 CBR-SYD landed
8:10 Off plane at Gate 1 - I was in seat 3B
8:25 Off the buss at International. Huge queue in Domestic to board the bus, wait time in queue was shorter than the old wait time on a bus to fill up.
8:50 Through passport control
9:07 Through security
9:11 International Bussiness lounge
Things were slowed down for me, as they were giving a lot of domestic passengers green stickers to use the premium line. Many had flights departing in the next 30-60 minutes.

Arrivals and departures in Auckland though made Sydney look amateur. I did have a 60 MCT originally also, bumped it out to 2hr 20 minutes.

 

[JohnK]

How is QF730 ADL-SYD scheduled to arrive 8:25am or QF732 ADL-SYD scheduled to arrive 8:55am valid connections to QF23 SYD-BKK departing 9:50am.

QF730 was 34m late this morning and QF732 was 35m late this morning and now at 10:15am we are waiting for the last of the passengers from these flights to join us.

I like it when airlines don't leave passengers behind but we boarded a long time ago and sitting around doing nothing.

Surely under new MCT of 90 minutes neither of these flights will be offered as a connection?

And as it turns out only 2 people boarded. A male who was here when we were boarding and his wife who must have arrived from ADL. I think I heard him whining earlier that he got here the night before but wife arriving today.

 

[jpp42]

Surely under new MCT of 90 minutes neither of these flights will be offered as a connection?

Were there other flights from those ports cancelled earlier in the morning? That might be a reason why people are connecting from flights that don't meet the MCT - I think they can make exceptions in this case as long as dispatch is willing to hold the international flight for a short time.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I have a 2:20 D->I next week on Wednesday and then a 1:45 I > D on Thursday connecting to the last flight to Hobart, that one could be pretty tight! All at Syd

Guess you would have to slum it at the Ibis Budget if you miss that last flight to HBA.

 

[gethsemene]

Guess you would have to slum it at the Ibis Budget if you miss that last flight to HBA.

Yeah, then the joys of the 6:45am JQ flight...

 

[JohnK]

Were there other flights from those ports cancelled earlier in the morning? That might be a reason why people are connecting from flights that don't meet the MCT - I think they can make exceptions in this case as long as dispatch is willing to hold the international flight for a short time.

Isn't the 8:25am from ADL the first flight of the day?

They held flight for 1 person. I'm not complaining but I've seen them leave early leaving 30-40 people behind connecting from a flight to the last flight of the day/night.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Yes, that 8.25am arr into SYD would be the first flight dep ADL at 6.05am, or there abouts.

 

[gethsemene]

Just to follow up on this, flight from Wellington delayed 40mins, gave me 40mins gate to gate Int-Dom at SYD. Took exactly 32mins from Gate to Gate, was given 'express path' card, but never saw an express path, so just went through the normal route, wasn't busy at all.

 

[RichardMEL]

Just to follow up on this, flight from Wellington delayed 40mins, gave me 40mins gate to gate Int-Dom at SYD. Took exactly 32mins from Gate to Gate, was given 'express path' card, but never saw an express path, so just went through the normal route, wasn't busy at all.

That is remarkably quick. Amazing in fact. Kudos.

Data poiunt on dom->int from Friday (A friend did it MEL-SYD-LAX connecting to QF11). She told me she had 1:40 transfer time but showed up early at MEL and they put her and her family on an earlier flight (there's some common sense customer service there) so got to SYD. She said it took her over 90 minutes to get over to international and through formalities and security (Y so no priority). Then her QF11 was delayed by 45 minutes.....

 

[nj12]

I currently have a booking ADL-SYD-CGK on Qantas J Award in November. My first flight is on QF736 scheduled to arrive in SYD at 1110 connecting to QF41 departing at 1355. Is a 2.45 connecting time sufficient at this time of the day on a weekend? The earlier redeye 0600 departure from ADL is currently wide open so there is an option to change to that flight but after hearing experiences of changed domestic flights impacting international sectors don't want to "risk" a change unless completely necessary.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Main thing is that they wait for the QF bus at gate 15 to fill up, that's that "problem".
If they (the bus drivers) followed a real schedule, then that 2.45 is ok, as its on the same PNR, and you would have done OLCI, and shown your passport at ADL airport for them to swipe, so you don't have to approach the counter at SYD T1, which is good thing.
Is the lounge at T1 important to you, if so, try to change the flight to the first dep from ADL.
If the lounge is meh, then giving it 1 hour transfer, and then, few mins security screening, it would "most likely" be that you will have half an hour to walk from immi to where your CGK flight will depart from.
Its Nov, so outside of school holidays.
Edit: today, QF41 dep gate 25 at T1, which is quite a bit of a walk from int security and immi.
Good non slip shoes, min HLO, and be prepared to run, if they don't put you onto an earlier dep from ADL.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/v228i5y5k0x4/Nr7beqIUXvF7HZiVVy5Gw/556aea021ac91738d5311b15c1949b6a/FSA_9005_102_T1_Departures.pdf

 

[waz22]

So i have a QF414 from MEL to SYD on the 4/01 trasferring onto OZ602 SYD to ICN (Seoul).

It currently has a 1hr 25min connection.

This was booked as part of quite an obscure Lufstansa RTW ticket through an OTA (Not my preference however when it can save $5k i'll risk it.

What are they chances that there will be proactive changes to the booking / rebook onto alternative routing to ICN?