BNE with Connection in SYD to NAN

[Tiki]

This isn’t something I was worried about before. But I’m getting spooked by the horror stories on the news. If I remember correctly, we have to go outside the domestic terminal and get a bus to the international terminal for the Fiji flight. Will they do the whole check in with vax certs and all at BNE? We will have carry on only. How much delay should we encounter in SYD international terminal? What lines would we have to wait in? Mid week, not a holiday.

 

[SYD]

This isn’t something I was worried about before. But I’m getting spooked by the horror stories on the news. If I remember correctly, we have to go outside the domestic terminal and get a bus to the international terminal for the Fiji flight. Will they do the whole check in with vax certs and all at BNE? We will have carry on only. How much delay should we encounter in SYD international terminal? What lines would we have to wait in? Mid week, not a holiday.

How long is your connection time in SYD?

Outside of the school holidays/long weekends, things aren’t that bad - particularly over at T1 for Int Departures. The recent bunfight this LWE appears to have been mainly T2 VA/JQ domestic.

If your travels are all on one ticket, they should process any Covid related paperwork and swipe your passports in BNE. Even though you’re HLO, you may not be able to complete OLCI until paperwork is sighted ie front up to a checkin counter or kiosk(?). Others may have more concise info on how that’s working at the moment. Similarly, others may have more recent experience with the T2 -> T1 transfer arrangements. Worse case, just pop down to the train (under T2) and one stop to T1. Don’t fluff around trying to get an Opal ticket, pretty much any Debit or Credit card can be used to tap in and out (just make sure it’s the same one entering and leaving).

 

[Tiki]

If flights are on time we arrive SYD 0735 and leave at 0945. That was the longest layover possible, 0600 flight from BNE. VA had a few schedule changes and tried to put us on the 2nd flight at 0630 and I had to call and get them to put us back on the earlier flight. Last time we did dom to intl it was QF to LA in 2016 and it was fine. But I think their transfer is for QF only.
At least we will have to wait in line for passport and security and there are a lot of international flights in the morning.

 

[SYD]

If flights are on time we arrive SYD 0735 and leave at 0945. That was the longest layover possible, 0600 flight from BNE. VA had a few schedule changes and tried to put us on the 2nd flight at 0630 and I had to call and get them to put us back on the earlier flight. Last time we did dom to intl it was QF to LA in 2016 and it was fine. But I think their transfer is for QF only.
At least we will have to wait in line for passport and security and there are a lot of international flights in the morning.

If your flight arrives on time, I think you’ll be ok.

The eGates are back up and running at T1 but security screening is hit and miss.

Perhaps you can update your experience here as a data point for others.

 

[henrus]

just pop down to the train

This!!!

I've connected quite a few times recently between T2/T3 and T1 at Sydney and every time I've tried for a bus (be it the Qantas or the T-Bus) it's been a mistake. The longest you'll wait for the train is about 10 minutes however most of the time it's they're even more frequent and only takes a couple of minutes once onboard.

Sure you have to pay (use any contact less payment method) for the train but the journey is faster and not impacted by traffic.

 

[Tiki]

Thanks, good to know about the train. Sure I will update after we make the transfer.

 

[SYD]

Thanks, good to know about the train. Sure I will update after we make the transfer.

According to the Opal app, the train is $4.99 each (there’s a slight Airport surcharge in that) but at least you can tell easily what time the next train arrives and what time you get to T1 (about 2 mins later!).

Plus the train entrance is right there next to VA baggage claim.

 

[henrus]

According to the Opal app, the train is $4.99 each (there’s a slight Airport surcharge in that) but at least you can tell easily what time the next train arrives and what time you get to T1 (about 2 mins later!).

The fare ranges from $6.09 (during peak 6:30am-10am and 3pm-7pm Mon-Fri) to $4.99 during other times (off peak, weekends, public holidays).

 

[SYD]

The fare ranges from $6.09 (during peak 6:30am-10am and 3pm-7pm Mon-Fri) to $4.99 during other times (off peak, weekends, public holidays).

I actually couldn’t get the app to give me the peak rate but I put in tomorrow - Monday but it’s a Public Holiday…

 

[henrus]

I actually couldn’t get the app to give me the peak rate but I put in tomorrow - Monday but it’s a Public Holiday…

Yeh it's very confusing.

Technically it's just a base train fare + the $2.43 station access fare charged between terminals. The base fare for any train trips between 0 to 10km is $3.66 peak and $2.56 off peak.

If your bank has an app it'll first show as $1 pre auth and then update to either $6.09 or $4.99 at the end of the day.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Other option to consider which will evaporate absolutely evaporate any stress from that connection would be to see if you can arrive into Sydney the night before, stay at an airport hotel, preferably near the international terminal and then proceed to take your international flight. I'm a Sydneysider and I'll tell you what, if I've got any departure before 10 be it domestic or international, I'm staying at that airport hotel. Paying $75 or $100 is my insurance policy that I don't miss the flight.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Brizz]

We flew out of Sydney on Friday (day before a long weekend) and it took about 2.5 hours to clear check-in, customs and security.

We were flying to NZ so there is a process to be followed to fly, add there are a few who choose not to follow that which slows the line down, but the real delay was customs and security.

Customs was queued out into the main terminal and to at least 40 mins, with security worse at nearly an hour.

Various attendants were prowling the lines calling people with impeding departures forward, with a staggering number of people needing to be rushed though.

I spoke to one of the security team and she said that it had been like this every day since April.

Our airline suggested to us that we needed 4 hours which we laughed at, but left a little early, however we needed every minute of the 3 hours we allowed and walked though into the gate just sad departure was called.

Give yourself the extra time is my suggestion.

Edited because of mobiles and fat fingers

 

[Tiki]

VA doesn't allow online check in for international bookings. They say to arrive 4 hours early. But we are on a 6:00 flight from BNE, I don't think the terminal is even open then! And we will arrive in SYD 2 hours ahead of the intl flight to NAN and have to change terminals.
I can't add "contact tracing information" to the booking because it is supposedly captured by border procedures. Which means I can't prefill passport details and such. I was actually torn between bookng to avoid school holidays or waiting until VA opened non-stop from BNE to NAN. I thought changing planes in SYD was the lesser of 2 evils.

 

[Tiki]

Other option to consider which will evaporate absolutely evaporate any stress from that connection would be to see if you can arrive into Sydney the night before, stay at an airport hotel, preferably near the international terminal and then proceed to take your international flight. I'm a Sydneysider and I'll tell you what, if I've got any departure before 10 be it domestic or international, I'm staying at that airport hotel. Paying $75 or $100 is my insurance policy that I don't miss the flight.

-RooFlyer88

I just looked, minimum is $159 plus transport to and from. Not sure if we can change award bookings either.

 

[Tiki]

The last few days flights have been on time. With no checked bags and using the train we can be in intl terminal at least 90 minutes before. The important thing is getting boarding passes for NAN when we check in at BNE. Does anyone know about that?

 

[Tiki]

VA181 (VOZ181) Virgin Australia Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware

Track Virgin Australia (VA) #181 flight from Sydney to Nadi Int'l

flightaware.com

This flight sometimes goes late. I hope that means they wait for connecting passengers.

 

[Tiki]

Updating from Fiji. When we arrived in SYD ground staff directed us and a few others also connecting to Fiji to take the T Bus so we stayed with the others and took the bus. About a 10 minute wait and then transfer to T1. We had boarding passes from BNE all the way through so didn't need to check in again but the VA counter was not busy anyways.
Passport line was huge, lots of intl flights mid morning. They did pull people out to the business class line if flight timings were close. Apparently we had "enough time" so we didn't get moved forwared. We made it to passport in about 45 minutes, then again another long wait at security and we were still not deemed too close to be pushed forward. Security guards were idiots, they need to be more active in bring people forward. It was 0910 when we cleared security and boarding time was 0900. We ran to the gate in socks lol. There were still people in line for boarding and they made us put on our shoes before letting us on the plane but at least we made it! Departure and arrival to NAN 40 minutes late. There was an announcememt that 2 people would not make the flight and the delay was their bags being offloaded. No idea what happened there but their bags made it and they did not.
Before all this, VA had sched changes and tried several time to put us on the 0635 flight from BNE but each time I called back and insisted on the 0600 flight. If we had been on the 0635, we would have missed this flight for sure.

 

[SYD]

Updating from Fiji. When we arrived in SYD ground staff directed us and a few others also connecting to Fiji to take the T Bus so we stayed with the others and took the bus. About a 10 minute wait and then transfer to T1. We had boarding passes from BNE all the way through so didn't need to check in again but the VA counter was not busy anyways.
Passport line was huge, lots of intl flights mid morning. They did pull people out to the business class line if flight timings were close. Apparently we had "enough time" so we didn't get moved forwared. We made it to passport in about 45 minutes, then again another long wait at security and we were still not deemed too close to be pushed forward. Security guards were idiots, they need to be more active in bring people forward. It was 0910 when we cleared security and boarding time was 0900. We ran to the gate in socks lol. There were still people in line for boarding and they made us put on our shoes before letting us on the plane but at least we made it! Departure and arrival to NAN 40 minutes late. There was an announcememt that 2 people would not make the flight and the delay was their bags being offloaded. No idea what happened there but their bags made it and they did not.
Before all this, VA had sched changes and tried several time to put us on the 0635 flight from BNE but each time I called back and insisted on the 0600 flight. If we had been on the 0635, we would have missed this flight for sure.

Well that doesn’t sound like a great experience but at least the transfer bus worked ok and checkin in BNE.

I last left SYD T1 late March and it was still relatively quiet, eGates moving quickly but it was amateur hour at security.

 

[AIRwin]

If we had been on the 0635, we would have missed this flight for sure.

Or ended up being moved forward in the queue?