MCT at Changi Airport

[Franky]

Good afternoon AFFers - we're booked out of SIN on EY473 at 1925 in J on Saturday 07MAR20. My wife's employer has her booked into Singapore the whole of the week prior, and I am booked to fly up from Perth on the Wednesday, so MCT was not an issue for either of us. There is now some doubt that the lectures she was to deliver will go ahead, and we may have to change both of our initial trips to QF71 on the Saturday. Its ETA is 1745. EF has a mass of data about MCT which I find hard to comprehend, but it appears to say that intl to intl MCT is 1 hour. I suspect boarding on EY473 will start around 1845. Is that within the requirements, or should we be looking at taking QF71 on the Friday, or another option earlier on the Saturday on SQ or others. Appreciate your advice.

 

[Matt_01]

I would have thought the with an arrival of 17:45 and a departure of 19:25 there should be no problem unless delayed out of PER or arrival into SIN. The gates in SIN for your EY will most likely open around 18:25, you will have to go security at the gate. You will land at T1 and will need to get to T2 (I think this is the terminal EY use, but may be wrong) this can be done by the train, or walking. It may be a tight but achievable.

 

[Franky]

I would have thought the with an arrival of 17:45 and a departure of 19:25 there should be no problem unless delayed out of PER or arrival into SIN. The gates in SIN for your EY will most likely open around 18:25, you will have to go security at the gate. You will land at T1 and will need to get to T2 (I think this is the terminal EY use, but may be wrong) this can be done by the train, or walking. It may be a tight but achievable.

Thanks Matt, was thinking the same, possible late arrival included. The outcome of my wife's lectures should be known fairly soon, and at the moment there are a few spare J seats on both the Friday and Saturday from PER so hopefully it will be a non issue.

 

[Mike65]

Changi is a very efficiently run airport. I am often in a taxi within 20 mins of the plane docking, including going through immigration (which you don't need to worry about if both flights are on the one PNR and your bags are checked through). 1:40 hrs should be plenty if your arrival is on time. However, Changi is a big airport so changing terminals will take some time and you will need to go through screening at the EY gate as Matt said. If EY have priority boarding lanes through security at the gate that should be pretty speedy too. You need to consider the what ifs - what if arrival is late and connection is missed? - would EY put you on their next available flight? - would that get you to destination in time? - could you tolerate an unscheduled night/day in Singapore? etc

 

[serfty]

OK, separate bookings ... even at SIN I'd be wary of a 100 minute connection.

In any case, looking at ExpertFlyer, MCT for QF-EY is 60 minutes (T1 to T2); but since (I presume) separate bookings, MCT is irrelevant.

Results from https://www.ExpertFlyer.com

Minimum Connect Times:
Connecting at SIN, Incoming airline QF, Outgoing airline EY, Flight type International to International

STANDARD.D/D...D/I...I/D...I/I.
ONLINE    .20  1.00  1.00  1.00
OFFLINE   .20  1.00  1.00  1.00
** OR * ARE ALL
QF-** II  1.30 FLT  319 -  319 - ALL CDS  ** - N/A TRM 1 - **
QF-** II  1.30 FLT 4270 - 4270 - ALL CDS  ** - N/A TRM 1 - **
QF-** II  1.30 FLT 5145 - 5399 - ALL CDS  ** - N/A TRM 1 - **
QF-** II  1.45 FLT  200 -  299 - ALL CDS  ** - N/A
QF-** II  1.30 FLT  319 -  319 - ALL TRM 1 - **
QF-** II  1.30 FLT 4270 - 4270 - ALL TRM 1 - **
QF-** II  1.30 FLT 5145 - 5399 - ALL TRM 1 - **
QF-** II  1.45 FLT  200 -  299 - ALL
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  2Z
**-** II GLSUP CDS  2Z -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AD -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AR -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  B6 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  BC -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  BT -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  D8 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  DI -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  DY -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  EK -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  EW -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  F9 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  H2 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  HX -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  KC -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  NK -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  O2 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  PC -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  PD -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  QS -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  RO -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  SY -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  TR -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  TS -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  UX -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  VA -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  VB -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  W6 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  Y4 -  AA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  AR
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  B6
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  BC
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  BT
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  D8
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  DI
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  DY
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  EK
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  EW
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  F9
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  H2
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  KC
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  NK
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  O2
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  PC
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  PD
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  QS
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  RO
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  SY
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  TR
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  UX
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  VA
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  VB
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  W6
**-** II GLSUP CDS  AA -  Y4
**-** II  1.30 TRM 4 - 1
**-** II  1.30 TRM 4 - 2
**-** II  1.30 TRM 4 - 3
**-** II  1.30 TRM 1 - 4
**-** II  1.30 TRM 2 - 4
**-** II  1.30 TRM 3 - 4
**-** II  1.00 TRM 4 - 4.

 

[Franky]

Thanks to you both for the above, and overnight that which was highly probably occurred with Singapore General cancelling the course Mrs Franky was to teach. Her early flight to SIN has not yet been booked as it was a late decision by her employer. The 2 award flights to AUH were booked 6 months ago as she needed to be there on the Sunday for a conference, and EY no longer flies from Perth. So now we have to re-book my award flight, and find one for her. A quick look on QF has 6 (!) J seats to SIN on the Friday night, nothing for the Saturday, though SQ has a couple of J seats on Saturday leaving at 0640 so that might be the best option - plenty of connection time. After her experience yesterday flying to Sydney on QF which resulted in a 2 hour delay on the tarmac in Perth waiting for a part which never arrived, and then 90 minutes doing laps over Sydney is probably an omen to take no chances. Thanks again to all for your input.

 

[Matt_01]

OK, separate bookings ... even at SIN I'd be wary of a 100 minute connection......

You raise raise a good point and reminded why I rarely provide input into connection type questions. I usually have HLO and in SIN I can also use the eIACS as I am enrolled via FTP.

 

[Franky]

You raise raise a good point and reminded why I rarely provide input into connection type questions. I usually have HLO and in SIN I can also use the eIACS as I am enrolled via FTP.

Agree, we're away for almost a month so HLO won't be a factor. SQ on Saturday morning will be the go.

 

[dajop]

OK, separate bookings ... even at SIN I'd be wary of a 100 minute connection.

Agreed, it's the lack of protection in case things go pear shaped with the inbound flight that could cause problems. Of course on fully flexible to ticket to KUL it's probably a reasonable bet, but on a restrictive ticket to a medium haul destination with a single daily flight, then the risk increases significantly.

One other comment - just for clarification - in these instance no need to worry about security being at the gate. That is a blessing for tight connections (compared to airports with centralised transit security points).

 

[JohnK]

@Franky most times these types of connections are ok but can also be stressful. If you're travelling business you should be ok.

I had wife and daughter on QF51 BNE-SIN on Wednesday connecting to 3K513 SIN-BKK.

The connection was 80 minutes. It's not the type of connection I'd book but it was offered and we booked it. Flight took off ~30 minutes late due to heavy rain but made up time and landed at 17:48 or 2 minutes early.

Wife went to transfer desk C and it was very busy. When it was her turn the person told her your flight has started boarding and luckily she had one of those trolleys that's like a stroller and had 3 year old daughter in there. She ran all the way to D48 and just made it.

That's not my idea of a suitable itinerary and struggle to understand why it's offered. Protected connections mean nothing to me as we had BKK hotel booked that night and separate PG flight to CNX yesterday.

My comfort level is mininum connection of 3 hours and even that has been tested at times.

 

[Quickstatus]

I’ve had (without me asking) an escort with golf buggy at SIN connecting a QF to MH when the QF flight arrived late. Might be a WP/OW benefit at SIN.
Shortened my transit. Buggy took me to air train very quickly.

 

[Franky]

I’ve had (without me asking) an escort with golf buggy at SIN connecting a QF to MH when the QF flight arrived late. Might be a WP/OW benefit at SIN.
Shortened my transit. Buggy took me to air train very quickly.

We have had that in the past when our QF flight PER to SIN was late and we were connecting to an AY flight, which was held for us. We were quickly put to the front of the queue to dis-embark and when we boarded the AY flight, somebody had already taken our bulkhead row seats and were a bit put out that they had to go back to their own! Another one quite surprisingly, was when we flew GA from CGK to SIN to connect with the QF flight home to PER, and we arrived late. We were met by a man in a blue suit who took hold of us and rushed us to a transfer desk and then to the gate. He said he worked for GA and as their flight was late, they took the responsibility to get us to our next flight in time.