Questions about SIN to OOL via MEL

[ric_melb]

Effectively Qantas swapped the outlook of the two domestic lounges in Melbourne. The Business Lounge now has tarmac views with the Qantas Club having an internal view. Total lounge capacity was increased from 750 passengers to 880 passengers. Capacity of the Business Lounge was increased by 40% to 350 passengers. Capacity of the Qantas Club was increased by 10% to 530 passengers. So the Qantas Club remains with the larger capacity of the two, but probably less ambience. Either lounge is quite acceptable if you want a lounge.

 

[justinbrett]

I've had a 5 hour layover at MEL flying NTL-MEL-LAX.

I sprung for a dayroom at Parkroyal. It was very reasonable and very much worth it, especially prior to a long haul flight. It was $89 for 3 hours which covered all but the last two hours (and given it was an international flight I would have left anyway).

 

[muppet]

If your bookings are all one the one ticket it is possible the transfer desk in Melbourne might move you forward to an earlier flight. This would be dependent on seat availability, of course, but it's not uncommon. If the 1230 is actually the first flight of the day to OOL it might be a little harder to move you. When you drop off your bags just ask if there is an earlier flight to get you home.

Really? I would say for travellers on inflexible fares, it’s fairly uncommon.

We won’t know what the deal is in 2022, but pre-rona QF would move you if it anticipated delays/irrops at the end of the day, but not because you asked. I got lucky a couple of times when travelling alone, but it was usually ‘your fare doesn’t allow changes’.

My advice to the OP would be, by all means try but don’t rely on the ability to move to an earlier flight.

 

[Zetta]

If your bookings are all one the one ticket it is possible the transfer desk in Melbourne might move you forward to an earlier flight. This would be dependent on seat availability, of course, but it's not uncommon. If the 1230 is actually the first flight of the day to OOL it might be a little harder to move you. When you drop off your bags just ask if there is an earlier flight to get you home.

I may depending on the situation. However if the kids are happy, I would like to use the lounge abit longer. Strange I know, but relaxing in a lounge before a flight just feels different.

 

[Zetta]

That is a VERY long connection imo. There is usually an earlier OOL flight (QF880) from MEL that you may be able to move to (unless for some reason it is not operating on the day of your flights, or is already full in J - which is very possible possibly).

I would agree the domestic Qantas Club is not the best place to "relax" for hours and hours. Specially in the peak morning hours between say 7 and 9 given a lot of people wanting coffee, breakfast etc. Noting if your QF OOL flight is in J then of course you can use the Business Lounge (and actually if your incoming international QF36 is in J you should have access too) and the J side is indeed a bit bigger but still I would not want to spend hours and hours there tbh.

It's probably not worth a day room somewhere close as it's just not quite long enough in my view to be worth it unfortunately. After such a long overnight flight from SIN the last thing I'd want to be doing is trying to kill another 6ish hours in domestic. ugh.

Is there any way you could, for example, look to moving to SIN-SYD-OOL or something else or to see about changing to the earlier OOL flight? I know you have kids and that complicates things, but this is really not an ideal layover imo.

Actually thinking of the kids, who may get little sleep on the QF36 perhaps it WOULD be worth a day room at the nearby parkroyal or somewhere - expensive yes, but to get say 4 or 5 hours of sleep could be invaluable for EVERYONE. I would urge you to explore this as an option imo.

Yeah. Kids are unpredictable. My kids do sleep well on flights, ships, buses, trains, cars (at least that was the case 2 years ago). They like me love lounge visits so going to one will be an adventure in itself.

If I get the option to upgrade to J, I will definitely consider.

 

[Zetta]

Don't accept a JQ flight, even if offered.
Its a pain in the **** to go out and walk from T1 to T4, not so bad if travelling alone with HLO, but with bags and kids, ... ouchy.
Its a fair walk.
Unilkely they will try to swap you, but at least you know what to look out for.
Esp if you get a QFxx_x flight number, or see one on a BP/or you see gate range of the 40s at MEL, thats T4.

That has never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. Thanks.

 

[justinbrett]

Esp if you get a QFxx_x flight number, or see one on a BP/or you see gate range of the 40s at MEL, thats T4.

Well, a QF5xx_ number. Both Qantas mainline and Qantaslink have four digit flight numbers on QF metal.

Jetstar codeshares are QF5 + JQ number (ie JQ484 = QF5484)

In my experience they wouldn't offer JQ even if you asked for it and had a fully flex fare as QF tickets aren't usually valid on it.