Recent Experiences with QF’s new terminal transfer at SYD

Oh yeah, but let's just blame Qantas again for the cough show that is SYD and their third world transfer system.

TBF Qantas shouldn't even have to go out of its way to provide the service. It really should be SACL.
Well, actually, let’s blame Qantas for the "cough show" ( charming) the Qantas transfer bus has been. Fair enough? that’s the thread topic not Sydney Airport in general.

And sure, if Qantas doesn’t want to provide the bus service they shouldn’t. Like they withdrew it for awhile; but the fact that they do offer it and do provide it then itshould be provided in a workable fashion for its customers. Or that going against the grain too much?
 
I'd be pretty bloody annoyed if I came in off a long flight from wherever.. tired etc.. finally gotten through arrivals then take the not short walk over to the QF transfer and be told nope.. you flew in not on QF so even though you're flying with us today, you can't use this service. Really?
Yep, really. "The Spirit of Australia"

Cue the choir as you stand on the curb, left behind 😊.
 
When I did the bus transfer back in May from I>D they blocked off access to the buses so that the football teams could load in from whichever flight they were coming in from. I was one of the last to walk through the bridge/walkway thing before they backed the bus in and blocked it off with security. No care given for anyone transferring flights.
 
When you look at major airports around the world, transfer services between terminals are rarely airline specific.
And to be fair to SYD they (SYD Airports) do provide such a servce via the T Bus. The big problem is that they are not frequent enough and/or inconsistent.

Probably half the reason QF set up their transfer in the first place (and IIRC VA had one at some point? or maybe AN did. I don't recall)... because the provided services weren't good enough and this was a premium service to get you through security and into the domestic terminal in a timely fashion. You know because as a premium legacy airline this is the kind of thing they do.

Now in BNE you get directed to their bus, as with PER but I suppose these are smaller stations so the cost to set up a dedicated service was probably just not going to work but SYD is another issue.

I do agree though most airports in the world provide passenger transfer services between terminals.

though can anyone think of setups that are like BNE,PER and SYD where dedicated international and dom terminals are a significant distance away or in a configuration (unliike, for exaple, LAX) where either a airside or direct access solution is not available? There must be some, but offhand I can't think of any. Even AKL one can walk between dom and int (and there's a bus too IIRC). HNL has the intra island terminal, but it's easily accessible iirc. CDG, which is a crazy place still has inter-terminal transfers. LHR of course has both airside, and landside transfers (coughbersome if coming into say T2 and going to say T5 landside) but they are there.

I suppose places like Tokyo and Moscow where (traditionally at least) international and domestic services had entire airports (remember when HND was domestic only, and there's ITM if that is still going?), or BKK where the old Dom Muang was transformed into a domestic only airport.. so that is a totally separate situation but most places are far more integrated.

You'd think it would be more efficient for the airport operator to provide these services without the airlines being involved. Problem is when they're not quite good enough....
 
And to be fair to SYD they (SYD Airports) do provide such a servce via the T Bus. The big problem is that they are not frequent enough and/or inconsistent.

Probably half the reason QF set up their transfer in the first place (and IIRC VA had one at some point? or maybe AN did. I don't recall)... because the provided services weren't good enough and this was a premium service to get you through security and into the domestic terminal in a timely fashion. You know because as a premium legacy airline this is the kind of thing they do.

Now in BNE you get directed to their bus, as with PER but I suppose these are smaller stations so the cost to set up a dedicated service was probably just not going to work but SYD is another issue.

I do agree though most airports in the world provide passenger transfer services between terminals.

though can anyone think of setups that are like BNE,PER and SYD where dedicated international and dom terminals are a significant distance away or in a configuration (unliike, for exaple, LAX) where either a airside or direct access solution is not available? There must be some, but offhand I can't think of any. Even AKL one can walk between dom and int (and there's a bus too IIRC). HNL has the intra island terminal, but it's easily accessible iirc. CDG, which is a crazy place still has inter-terminal transfers. LHR of course has both airside, and landside transfers (coughbersome if coming into say T2 and going to say T5 landside) but they are there.

I suppose places like Tokyo and Moscow where (traditionally at least) international and domestic services had entire airports (remember when HND was domestic only, and there's ITM if that is still going?), or BKK where the old Dom Muang was transformed into a domestic only airport.. so that is a totally separate situation but most places are far more integrated.

You'd think it would be more efficient for the airport operator to provide these services without the airlines being involved. Problem is when they're not quite good enough....

And possibly that's why QF wants to restrict it to QF-QF pax, to keep the pressure on SYD to improve their service.

In BNE QF don't operate their own bus but the one operated by the airport is frequent (twice as frequent as SYD, yet far fewer international flights).
 
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And possibly that's why QF wants to restrict it to QF-QF pax, to keep the pressure on SYD to improve their service.

In BNE QF don't operate their own bus but the one operated by the airport is frequent (twice as frequent as SYD, yet far fewer international flights).
I see this but a QF passenger is a QF passenger surely?

if I have a ticket to fly on QF domestic from SYD and arriving at Interational then why should I not get the same service? Heck. what if I flew in on EK with a QF codeshare? I mean this starts to get ridiculous and confusing/annoying for passengers.

As I wrote earlier I can accept it if I had separate bookings involved but if I have a through ticket, with bags checked through and one presumes an BP issued by some other airline connecting to QF then I fail to see why I, as a QF customer, should not be able to use the service for... guess what.. customers.

or is it that all customers are equal, but "own metal customers" are more equal than others?
 
Following this thread as my parents are coming over mid August.

They are arriving on BA15 and are connecting to QF504, 7.05am service to Brisbane. All on one ticket WT+ on BA and Y on QF, no status) and if BA15 is on time (hit and miss recently) they have 2hrs.
Otherwise Qantas will put them on a later flight to BNE?

So technically they are allowed to use the Qantas seamless transfer at Sydney and if BA15 is on time, it shouldn't be too busy between 5 and 6am?
 
Following this thread as my parents are coming over mid August.

They are arriving on BA15 and are connecting to QF504, 7.05am service to Brisbane. All on one ticket WT+ on BA and Y on QF, no status) and if BA15 is on time (hit and miss recently) they have 2hrs.
Otherwise Qantas will put them on a later flight to BNE?

So technically they are allowed to use the Qantas seamless transfer at Sydney and if BA15 is on time, it shouldn't be too busy between 5 and 6am?
Except NO. It seems they may well be refused.. which is ridiculous.

but yes, QF will rebook onto the next service.
 
OK sure. pax should be rebooked... either from BA or QF. there you go :D

Interestingly I had friend on a UA sold UA->QF itin a few weeks ago. UA got her to SYD fine, but she had a 90 minute connection to QF SYD-PER. When I saw it red alert sirens went off for me, but nothing I could do about it. Anyway she arrived fine on UA, but held up in customs, and I am actually uncertain if she used the QF transfer or not because she messaged that she did, then claimed they tried to drop her at VA, so that makes zero sense so I think she wound up on the T bus. Anyway while she arrived just prior to boarding of her PER flight (around 30 prior to STD) QF refused her bags but they did rebook her.. for four hours later (despite a flight with Y seats two hours later which aggravated me on her behalf) but they did do it.

Yep not another airline delay but SYD staff are clearly very used to dealing with such things and probably would just do it rather than push it back at BA.. but the point is taken.
 
Funny and sad all at the same time. Would they dare run that today? Or how about a new jingle for Qantas "We're not the worst, merely just as bad as all the others" :) .
They can't run that ad now. It makes the claim that QF is the oldest continuously run airline. AJ destroyed that the day he shut down the airline for an industrial dispute.
 
They can't run that ad now. It makes the claim that QF is the oldest continuously run airline. AJ destroyed that the day he shut down the airline for an industrial dispute.

This is getting way OT but that's just not true, cancelling flights isn't the same as shutting down an airline.

They were still taking bookings and staff were still at work; and Qantaslink kept flying.
 
Following this thread as my parents are coming over mid August.

They are arriving on BA15 and are connecting to QF504, 7.05am service to Brisbane. All on one ticket WT+ on BA and Y on QF, no status) and if BA15 is on time (hit and miss recently) they have 2hrs.
Otherwise Qantas will put them on a later flight to BNE?

So technically they are allowed to use the Qantas seamless transfer at Sydney and if BA15 is on time, it shouldn't be too busy between 5 and 6am?

TBH, if it was me I would probably book a later domestic flight up front, not rely on rebooking if (when?) it all goes pear shaped on arrival. 2 hours transit was just about ok pre pandemic but even for match fit pax I think 2 hours is pushing it these days. There's reports of bags taking 90 minutes to appear at SYD recently.
 
Does anyone know of airports besides Sydney that charge for inter-terminal transfer? As you note, it's really quite ludicrous that we have this situation in general. I think I recall that Brisbane's transfer bus did used to charge, but it's free now. Perth's bus from T1/T2 to T3/T4 is free too, although it only runs every 40 minutes due to low demand. Are there any other Australian airports that actually need such buses? (The Int/Dom transfer bus at Auckland is free too, although I preferred to walk before they unfortunately closed that route.)
The SYD T-bus is free.
The train is the normal public metro train service, that happens to stop at the airport. Of the excessively large train "airport station access fee" 15% goes direct to the airport/private company (= mega profit) and 85% to the tax payer funded metro train service (NSW govt).

 

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