SYD International to Domestic transfer desk issues.

[bossreggie]

Oh bossreggie, to have that number you called on my phone speed dial!

I think I could sell my phone contact list for a lot of money!

Now if I only knew how to work the interwebs. :shock:

 

[markis10]

You need to clear customs and quarantine upon arrival into Australia. Which means picking up your bags and then going through the procedures and then dropping them off for transfer landside.

Your bags are through checked but as per the above, customs is the issue, and often you have a connecting flight change anyway.

 

[AIRwin]

I had a bad experience as well and shared it here - once I missed my connecting flight in the morning after queueing for 2 hours to check in after retrieving my baggage and clearing customs. The next available flight was in the afternoon even though the sector I was flying is one of the busiest in the world (SYD-MEL)... And I snapped at the staff manning the entrance to the terminal transfer bus hall who told me to wait since I had plenty of time. And all this after my international flight was 12 hours late!

 

[straitman]

Aside to all this all the points and SCs posted quickly and now Sue is happily entrenched as a Platinum in her own right again :!:

 

[oz74]

I have had a couple of poor customer service experiences at the transfer area.

Once, we had come from London in F and were transferring to a DOM J flight. There were 3 of us and the DOM was on a separate booking. Hand luggage only, went through security, we were the first pax in the waiting area but it began filling up quickly. We had to wait 30 Minutes for a bus!

As we had not checked in, we had no onward boarding passes. (My bad) When we went to board the bus, the employee was very rude. Basically told us off and said we had to go back out and get a boarding pass. There was a large queue and lots of other PAX now in the waiting area with us.

I explained the situation, where had come from, showed her 2 of our 3 First Class LHR-SYD boarding passes. (I left mine on the plane. We were on paid F and paid DOM J) She was very rude. I told her in no uncertain terms not to let the bus go as I would sort it out. A quick call was made by me and within a few minutes her phone rang and her attitude changed completely.

A manager from the check in area came in and travelled on the bus with us, escorting us to the CL.

I am with Bill here. Regardless of the class of travel..... You should be treated with respect. I also think some common sense is in order. It was my error not to check in. But really...... 3 PAX arriving from LHR. Only 2 with boarding passes. One was my son, the other my assistant. It's not like we were trying to scam a free transfer to fly another airline. Matt even showed the DOM itinerary on his phone.

I wrote to Qantas after this event and suggested that at the very least, PAX travelling internationally in premium cabins, should be able to utilise the shuttle transfer service on presentation of their boarding pass.

That's a great story boss. They should have got you to sit in on this particular staff members performance review lol

 

[docjames]

There's a reason my current outbound was via SYD but took a longer transit in HK to come direct to Mel than do SYDi to SYDd transfer.



Fwiw it worked brilliantly in the other direction. Landed dom to first drink in the int J lounge took 20mins...

 

[Happy Trails]

I find the International to Dom experience close to miserable at the best of times and I'm always HLO.
I turn around and take the train if there's any sign of queueing or crowding.

 

[love_the_life]

Depending on what time our international flight gets in and how long we have been in the air, we often hire a car or even take (wait for it...) the express bus as it is only 3 hours. Most of our domestic SYD - CBR flights are Dash 8s and we try not to do them. OTOH the last flight of the day (737) is always a pain as well as the crew just want to get here and we have had some very ordinary experiences on that flight.

 

[medhead]

Oh bossreggie, to have that number you called on my phone speed dial!

You can have the number but if they DKWYA it ain't gonna help.

 

[Fifa]

Depending on what time our international flight gets in and how long we have been in the air, we often hire a car or even take (wait for it...) the express bus as it is only 3 hours.

I have only ever caught the bus once to Canberra.
IMHO it's just not worth the hassle - if your flight arrives late you miss it, forfeit the ticket and have to rebook on a higher fare plus there's that awful wait at the T1 arrivals area with the masses :shock:.

 

[Fantic125]

No issues this morning. The person at the check in counter was very friendly.

I was even happier when she told me I was upgraded to J for my SYD-ADL flight.

 

[love_the_life]

I have only ever caught the bus once to Canberra.
IMHO it's just not worth the hassle - if your flight arrives late you miss it, forfeit the ticket and have to rebook on a higher fare plus there's that awful wait at the T1 arrivals area with the masses :shock:.

Yes that's true - we tend to take the bus down to SYD rather than the other way but sometimes taking a Dash 8 (well almost always) an issue as DH refuses to fly on one so the bus is the best of the worst. Now a very fast train.....

 

[Hvr]

The bus from CBR-SYD is a real pain to get to and unless you live close by you either need a ride or take a taxi.

However, once on it I found it ok and the convenience of being dropped off at the international terminal was noted.

Have never done the return trip because after an all night flight I just couldn't face it.

 

[love_the_life]

No issues this morning. The person at the check in counter was very friendly.

I was even happier when she told me I was upgraded to J for my SYD-ADL flight.

Lucky you - glad someone has a good experience.
OT but I remember (being in the queue reminded me) arriving from South America, one of our cases did not appear. Turns out it was taken in error and was then handed in still in the luggage claim area. Anyway we get to the transfer queue (long as usual) and there in the queue behind us are the people who took the case. When I looked at their luggage it was nothing at all like ours - wrong colour, wrong size, how it could have been mistaken I have no idea. We had time for a nice long chat.

 

[Simo]

I have done the transfer desk a few times and always fine.

I have copped a bit off some paxs as I have used the express line to check in.

I had a couple doing a ADL flight connection and they where being typical american tourists. Running through the airport yelling out of our way we are in a hurry. I walked past them in the express line and the guy said can we join you in the line and I said No I am sorry. I also then said you don't need to run around like idiots and you will still make the plane. My flight was before theres.