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

[whughes3]

Main thing is that they wait for the QF bus at gate 15 to fill up, that's that "problem".

Nonsense...they do NOT wait for the bus to fill up. They may go a bit early if the bus is full, but apart from that they go to schedule.

 

[nj12]

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.

Nonsense...they do NOT wait for the bus to fill up. They may go a bit early if the bus is full, but apart from that they go to schedule.

Thanks for the replies. If the main issue with connecting times is the transfer bus schedule What about catching the train between terminals as a quicker option instead? I don't mind bearing the additional cost if it gets me to T1 quicker.

 

[DC3]

90 minutes? What about time in the FL?

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

The train is faster, between the 2, but you do have to go out into the public area, and then into the basement between T2 and T3.
The train station is under the carpark, several levels down.
Up to you to give that train a try, there will be a minimum cost to it, about $5.50 (edit: $6.65 off peak/$7.75 peak (inc $4 gate fee)) or so, including the min 3km fare and the inter terminal (smaller) gate charge.
Personally, I would still use the QF bus in the end, as it does drop you off at T1 on ground level, the train station at T1 is in the basement, meaning 2 escalators up to int departures.
When I used the QF bus from T3 to T1, pre covid, they used to wait till the bus filled up.
Maybe nowadays, with covid, they try to have less people crowd the bus.
For the colleague going to ICN, is it on the same PNR, and can you have your passport swiped at MEL, bypassing the need to have it done in SYD, if so, its a very tight dom - int connection, you "might" miss it, so maybe get to MEL airport earlier to try an earlier dom flight from MEL - SYD.
Is that OZ flight flying as a code share with a QF flight number?
If you go to flightaware website, and check out QF414 today, you will see it did a turn around above near CBR, and then did an oblong circle, then onto SYD.
Maybe used up 10 mins of flight time.
Try to get the 6am dep from MEL if you can (QF402).
Last one from me, QF414 today arr (touched down at 8.55am, but got to gate at at T3 SYD at 9.12am!

 

[Melburnian1]

Last one from me, QF414 today arr (touched down at 8.55am, but got to gate at at T3 SYD at 9.12am!

In the delays/cancellations thread, I add 'five minutes' as the assumed time from landing to arrival at the gate (or for airlines like JQd and ZL's SAABs, the equivalent spot on the apron) but realise it's often far more than that. So the delays I calculate may often be somewhat understated.

 

[RichardMEL]

Data point from a couple of weeks ago.

D->I: I'd scheduled 2:50 between QF MEL-SYD and SYD-LAX on the 11. Flight from MEL arrived reasonably on time. at around 0735. I was at gate 15 around 0740 (I was in J, so getting off the aircraft was reasonably speedy). There was a small queue of connecting pax being checked, but quickly scanned and through and straight onto the bus. Given the pax it was full pretty quickly and we headed over to T1. It seemed to me a number of pax were connecting to NAN and their connection was quite tight as there was some effort made to give them some priority.

Anyway at T1 around 0800 or so (I didn't keep exact timings). Walked down the F/J priority lane which worked reasonably well in terms of passport control and such. amazingly eGate in use and worked flawlessly with new passport which was great. Security was a bit more of a mess - but again there was some effort to weed out pax with earlier flights and for F and J pax. It was managed... somewhat OK. All in all I was through around 0830. Given the 90 minute times I'd been seeing from various reports out there I was pretty happily sipping on some bubbles and waiting for breeky in the F lounge (escorted to table as a F pax no less) with more than enough time to relax. I was pretty happy.

On return to SYD, QF12 was delayed by near 2h due to an issue (I wasn't too worried since I was coming home so had no worries about making my internal US flights or anything). Arrived around 0830. Again eGate flawless and quick. ABF staff were good to help people out with problems I noticed as I happily passed through. Bags took a little time to show up, maybe 20 minutes, but not horrible and mine was in the first batch (though LAX did not bother with any kind of priority tag though was of course marked P on the bag tag). Customs line was longish but moved pretty smoothly and I was out into arrivals probably around 0910 or so. That's when I saw my rebooked flight had me in a middle in Y (lol). I managed to move to a somewhat better seat which was a miracle really given a bunch of cancels and very full school holidays and MEL Grand Final eve flights so I could not really complain too much.

So as a result of the delay a fair queue of connecting pax were lined up to re-check at I->D transfer. I waited about 20 minutes or so in the priority line (my flight was not for a further two hours so I really didn't mind). Staff worked as best as they could to sort pax out who had not been rebooked (I already had been as noted, and I know quite a few were on the 12 as the CSM went through at least F and I presume J as well with new flight details prior to landing).

Once bag re tagged I was through security pretty quickly, and onto the bus. It did not wait and left fairly promptly while not full. I was in the SYD J lounge probably around 0950 - just under 90 minutes from arriving from LAX - which all things considered I felt was pretty good. Obviously disappointed to have the delay and disruption, but the SYD ground service was.. acceptable.. given the situation. Quick flight home (I'd originally been rebooked onto SYD-CBR-MEL in an apparent effort to retain a seat in J, but that left even later and I was happy they rebooked me onto a direct SYD-MEL even in Y as I was home before CBR-MEL arrived). Bag arrived just fine too.

Is it perfect? no. It definitely seems to have improved a deal from earlier reports and the whole "seamless light" thing. This was basically the system as I remember it from The Before Times.

 

[JohnK]

Is it perfect? no. It definitely seems to have improved a deal from earlier reports and the whole "seamless light" thing. This was basically the system as I remember it from The Before Times.

Based on your outbound experience of ~55m as a premium passenger I'd be concerned with 90m connections in SYD especially with any delays.

 

[Anna]

Train from int to dom at SYD cost $8.60 this morning.

The queue for the QF transfer was backed up into the int terminal and I couldn’t be bothered with lining up.

 

[whughes3]

Going D-> I this morning, bus left Dom at 0945, entered the F lounge at 1010 (using the J/F queues). The regular queues, particularly for security, looked horrendous.

 

[serfty]

The queue for the QF transfer was backed up into the int terminal and I couldn’t be bothered with lining up

For referncw, did you check the T-Bus queue?

 

[Anna]

For referncw, did you check the T-Bus queue?

No, I didn't want to take luggage on a bus.

For more reference, I'm really glad I wasn't booked on the dom flight scheduled for 100 minutes after my int flight landed. I don't think there is a hope in hell I would have made a 100 minute int to dom connection at SYD yesterday morning. Even taking the train I didn't make it to the dom terminal before the cut off time to put luggage on that flight.

 

[RichardMEL]

Based on your outbound experience of ~55m as a premium passenger I'd be concerned with 90m connections in SYD especially with any delays.

That's fair for sure and the very reason I booked the 402->11 connection in the first place. Since some had reported ~90min at that time of morning I'd say under an hour was pretty good.. and I'd note that, iirc, my approx times were from docking at T2 to Flounge. With previous SYD transits (all pre covid) this was on part. Now seeing the report of a 25minute transfer is very good too. Extremly so. I'd say that 0945 is after that wave of departures (specially QF11) with a lot of connections, so possibly a bit of a lighter load at T1 contributed significantly. I recall one time when I went though connecting to MH at lunchtime out of SYD and it was probably on par with that.

My connection a few weeks ago of course was to QF11, with quite a number of other departures too and yes, it was quite a zoo at T1. F/J queue definitely helped!