International flight change / transfer time

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Evan

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Dec 26, 2006
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Hi,

I am flying MEL-PER-SIN tomorrow.

The early flight to PER only arrives 70 mins before the first international departure to SIN. but there is a required 90 mins transfer time, so i am booked on the afternoon flight (5 hrs in the QP !)

I am traveling light, just a 8/9kg 115cm roll on and my notebook. Think there is any chance or point asking if i can carry on and if i make the earlier flight take it instead of the afternoon one ??

The later flight is Y0/J0 (Was Y0, now Y8) the early one has a lot more space
Unless anybody tells me no chance at all, i will ask anyway, already have on the phone (did not mentioon i only had carry on) and was told then about the 90mins transfer and i only had 70.

How long does it really take between terminals in PER ?

E
 
Last edited:
The flights in question are...

Booked...
QF485 MEL-PER 08:15-10:20
QF071 PER-SIN 15:30-20:50

Alternate...
QF077 PER-SIN 11:25-16:45

E
 
Unlikely that the airline will accede to your request.

In this situation I usually take carry on & ask for the earlier flight when I arrive for the changeover flight.
 
gaia said:
Unlikely that the airline will accede to your request.

In this situation I usually take carry on & ask for the earlier flight when I arrive for the changeover flight.

I already asked, they would not do it, but i asked again with only carry on and they said we can't book it but do it and just ask when you get to PER.
Not that i mind 5 hours in the QP, i will just do some work i need to do anyway.
Thought somebody may have already come accross this problem and tried it before. I always prefer a half empty plane to a full one.

The did offer a sat night flight and overnight in PER, but i live in MEL so not paying for a hotel and taxi just for that. If it was a free upgrade then sure i would pay :) but that is just a day dream.

E
 
I would ask in Melbourne when you checkin and then again when you arrive in Perth if knocked back. Even ask at the QP in Melbourne if knocked back by the check-in agent. It appears to me that you may be doing them a favour by taking the first flight. With only carry-on, you have a much better chance. The risk you run is a middle seat :)shock:) but arriving five hours earlier would be nice. :p

As an aside, I would have thought 1hr20mins would be loads. I only have 1hr 20mins between QF513 and QF107 in November and I have a bus ride and change of terminals in Sydney. :shock:
 
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Evan said:
The early flight to PER only arrives 70 mins before the first international departure to SIN. but there is a required 90 mins transfer time, so i am booked on the afternoon flight (5 hrs in the QP !)
I have answered for you in the other thread. If you stick with your original 3:30pm departure then please take note of the following advice.

Oz_mark did mention that you have dragged up a 1 year old thread but I just wanted to pass on some potentially useful advice.

Take it from past experience that you will not have almost 5 hours in the Perth International QP. Immigration for that flight does not open until 2 hours before departure and QP does not open until 1:30 hours before departure. If you are lucky like me and be the first through immigration and wait at the doors of the QP then the staff may actually take pity on you and open 15 minutes earlier than usual.

Otherwise the best advice if you have anytime access to QP, which I don't think you have yet with just QF Gold, is to stay in the Perth domestic lounge for as long as possible before the flight.

Evan said:
How long does it really take between terminals in PER ?
Way too risky in my opinion and you will not really know the exact transfer time until you get to PER. There is no way to know in MEL if you will make it or not. It can take at least 30 minutes to get between terminals and not sure you can get through immigration and security quickly enough to make the flight. If your flight from MEL arrives even 10 minutes late then you will really be struggling assuming that boarding closes 15 minutes before flight.

Say you land on time it will take you 5-10 minutes to get from aircraft to transfer point. In theory the bus between terminals runs every 12 minutes but that is on a good day and you need to ring someone to tell them you are waiting for the transfer bus as it could be waiting in the international terminal for passengers. It doesn't just go back and forth on a schedule. If I remember correctly there is only one bus that goes back and forth so if you just miss a departure then it could take at least 24 minutes before it gets back to domestic and add another 12 minutes to get to international. You will need to go to checkin counter in international terminal as you will not know in MEL if you can make the early flight or not and you will not have boarding pass and this could possibly take 10 minutes. Clearing immigration and security could well depend on other flights departing at the same time so there is possibly another 10-15 minutes.

Don't take my advice as gospel but it is just cutting it too fine to make a 65 minute connection in PER.
 
JohnK,

Thanks for the advice, i guess thats why QF say 1:30 min transfer.
I think i may be able to sneak into immigration for the first flight :) The QP really shuts between flights ? wow that sux ! But the web site does say 90 mins before first departure until last departure, so from that i would say it should remain open.

As a QFF Gold and QP life your right probably no any time access but i would be rather supprised if i could not convince them to let me stay in domestic until the internation one opens again if it really closes, i think i will check that in MEL before i leave.

E
 
Evan said:
JohnK,

Thanks for the advice, i guess thats why QF say 1:30 min transfer.
I think i may be able to sneak into immigration for the first flight :) The QP really shuts between flights ? wow that sux ! But the web site does say 90 mins before first departure until last departure, so from that i would say it should remain open.

It certainly does shut if the departures are far enough apart, which means after most flights it will shut. I have had to leave while waiting for an MH flight when it closed after the QF flight to SIN left!

Another issue is that MEL-PER flights seem to run late (at least the ones I get :confused: ), QF485 was an hour late into PER today.
 
Evan said:
Thanks for the advice, i guess thats why QF say 1:30 min transfer.
It's OK Evan I just wish I had better news. I actually made a quicker transfer on a previous visit but that was due to me not knowing what was going on and as I was the only passenger the bus driver rang through to QF and sped most of the way to international and then fast tracked me to immigration.

Evan said:
I think i may be able to sneak into immigration for the first flight :) The QP really shuts between flights ? wow that sux !
Yes you will be asked to leave.

Evan said:
But the web site does say 90 mins before first departure until last departure, so from that i would say it should remain open.
Information is a little misleading as QP is definitely not open all the time.
 
I wonder how many others will be doing the same flights i am... interesting to see. Misleading for sure, oh well i will stay domestic a while then head over to international later, let you know how i go.
E
 
Evan said:
I wonder how many others will be doing the same flights i am... interesting to see. Misleading for sure, oh well i will stay domestic a while then head over to international later, let you know how i go.
E

Given the code-share fest that the flight is, there may be some on the same planes, but not the same flights numbers! (QF71/9W4071/BA7374/AF8093 all different numbers for the same flight)
 
Confirmed by PER domestic QP, the International QP does shut between QF77 and QF71.

Sitting in domestic, was welcomed to be in there, since of course i have an onwards oneworld flight that way, no matter if its domeestic ot international.

Anyway now its 1 hour late my flight anyway, 16:35 departure expected.

E
 
Evan said:
Anyway now its 1 hour late my flight anyway, 16:35 departure expected.
I notice you are still online so has the flight been delayed further? Still scheduled to depart at 4:35pm.

You could have made the connection this morning anyway as QF485 arrived 18 minutes late and QF77 departed 1:05 hours late.
 
At that time it was not known that QF77 was late so we thought it was a no go :( Yes i was online late.. QF71 left almost 2 hrs late, but QF6 & 9 + BA12 and a few others waited at SIN for the late in-comming planes.

Anyway i made it eventually !

And the bus too 45-50 mins for the transfer !!! if you want a fast transfer, take a taxi. Crazy.

Also seems the international QP is open all the time but immigration may not be. So i was told when i got to the interntaional terminal.

Transfers in PER are not so good ! i prefer sydney etc. But i guess if the fare is right and your not in a rush, why not :)

E
 
Evan said:
.. Also seems the international QP is open all the time but immigration may not be. So i was told when i got to the interntaional terminal. ...
My experience last year:
  • Arrive PER Intl 12:00pm for 3:30pm flight. - Checkin does not open until 12:30pm.
  • Check-in 12:40 - find immigration does not open until 1pm
  • Get Through immigration 1:15 - Sign on QP "Opens 1½ hours before the scheduled flight departure"
  • QP opens 1:40pm
It may have changed since then ...
 
FWIW,

I have done this route quite often. Mostly I take the MEL-PER flight on DJ (6.05AM - 8.15AM) then xfer to Int'l and spend the time in the Qantas Lounge until the 11.25am departure to SIN.

This has been discussed in another thread but the 11.25AM Per-SIN flight is the only Qantas flight from anywhere in Australia to reach Singapore before 5.00PM!
 
I wasn't worried when i got to SIN, my original reason for asking was to avoid a long time in the QP ... such a hardship ;)

But its very useful infomation to know, not that i am keen on flying DJ most of the time as my tickets are usually OW and involve more than just QF (mostly CX and BA)

E
 
browski said:
This has been discussed in another thread but the 11.25AM Per-SIN flight is the only Qantas flight from anywhere in Australia to reach Singapore before 5.00PM!
I think it would be fantastic if QF, not JQ, scheduled a 9:00am daily service from the east coast SYD/MEL/BNE-SIN. It would get into SIN around 2:00-3:00pm and leave plenty of time for transfers to other Asian destinations.

Interesting sight during the F lounge run a few weeks back were 2 BA aircraft parked away from the gates. The SIN-SYD and BKK-SYD flights get in at around 5:00am and then do nothing until late afternoon. What a waste of aircraft....
 
Just have to get QF to let BA do some domestic flights for them :) Probably not hugely likely...
 
As BA are not going to continue through flights to LHR-SYD via SIN and replace the SIN-SYD route with a 777 why not have this aircraft constantly in use. Late departure SIN with early morning arrival SYD and mid morning departure SYD with mid-late afternoon arrival SIN.

I am sure QF and BA can come to some arrangement and I can almost assure you that those mid morning SYD/MEL/BNE-SIN flights will be very popular with all passengers including business passengers, working people not business class passengers, who would like to be in their hotel in SIN before midnight....
 
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