Pop into Sydney to kill time during transit?

[niccyka]

Hi all,

We are heading to Brisbane from New Zealand tomorrow and have about 4 hours in Sydney between connecting flights.

As our bags will be checked in through to BNE, would we be able to leave the airport and hop on a train into the city for a couple of hours (of course, we'd have to clear customs on the way out and security clearance back in again)?

Has anyone done this before? Is it do-able? Are there any taxes to pay?

 

[NM]

Assuming you are on a domestic service from SYD to BNE, you will need to clear immigration and customs in SYD, then re-check your bags at the domestic check-in (assuming Qantas, but still required for Virgin Blue, just slightly different process) and catch the bus to the domestic terminal. If your arrival is before about 10am into SYD, then that process itself will eat up most of the 4 hours you have in SYD.

Even though your bags will be tagged to BNE, you will still need to collect them in SYD and escort them through customs/quarantine and re-check them for the domestic flight. The only way to avoid that is to use QF19 SYD-BNE (continues to NML) that only operates on Thursdays, as this is an international connection. But that would also means you must remain air-side in SYD international terminal. All other SYD-BNE flights are pure domestic services and depart from the domestic terminals so you need to clear immigration and customs/quarantine in SYD.

 

[straitman]

Hi all,

We are heading to Brisbane from New Zealand tomorrow and have about 4 hours in Sydney between connecting flights.

As our bags will be checked in through to BNE, would we be able to leave the airport and hop on a train into the city for a couple of hours (of course, we'd have to clear customs on the way out and security clearance back in again)?

Has anyone done this before? Is it do-able? Are there any taxes to pay?

Hi niccyka,

Welcome to AFF,

As NM said the transfer can take up most of that time. I arrived from NZ on Monday and had a 4 hour transfer window.

We actually arrived at 0745 instead of 0730 due ATC restrictions. We went straight through Duty Free and used the Smart Gate processing, then went to collect bags. My wifes bag came out in the first 10 or so but we waited about 15 min for my bag as it looked for a while like it may have gone on a separate holiday. We then went straight through without requiring the bags to be scanned and went to the transfer desk. As FF Gold we by passed the lines there and checked in straight away. I asked about an earlier flight and we were brought forward from an 1130 to a 1000 flight, went through security and then waited about 10 min for the transfer bus.

By the time we got to domestic it was about 0930 and we went to the QP for about 35 min as the flight was late due ATC requirements once again.

In essence it was 2 hrs from when we were due to arrive and when we reached the domestic terminal and we had a relatively smooth transfer. Any hold ups and we would have eaten into the time line significantly.

In other words a 'quick' trip into the city sounds good but probably is not going to work. You could however ask at the transfer desk for an earlier flight and from experience you will probably get it even though your ticket may in theory preclude it. My success rate for this is 100%

Good luck.

 

[niccyka]

Thanks NM and Straitman for your prompt replies.

I guess it all hangs on whether the bags are going straight through or not. I know we have 'popped' into the city en route to the UK... but then that's International/International connection - and as mentioned, our SYD/BNE connection is most likely domestic - so collection/recheck required

I am glad I asked the question now - otherwise would have blindly hopped on a train into the city and not realised the kuffuffel we'd go through on return!

If we get through the transfer fairly quickly, we will definitely enquire about an earlier flight.

Thanks again for tipoff

 

[drron]

We often do this in reverse.Fly BNE-SYD.Pop out to see the grandkids then back to the international terminal for our flight out.We always leave 7 hours between flights to do this-only possible because we check our bags through from BNE and get our onward BPs there.
Do not tell the checkin agent-we did the first time and were given a lecture about not being able to leave the airport between flights-promised to go to the lounge instead-well like everyone i can tell a good lie.
With 4 hours you are likely to find as the others have said 2 hours gone before you leave the airport,need to be back ~30 minutes before flight.20 minutes on train each way leaving you less than an hour in the CBD.Not worth the expense.

 

[drewbles]

We often do this in reverse.Fly BNE-SYD.Pop out to see the grandkids then back to the international terminal for our flight out.We always leave 7 hours between flights to do this-only possible because we check our bags through from BNE and get our onward BPs there.
Do not tell the checkin agent-we did the first time and were given a lecture about not being able to leave the airport between flights-promised to go to the lounge instead-well like everyone i can tell a good lie.
With 4 hours you are likely to find as the others have said 2 hours gone before you leave the airport,need to be back ~30 minutes before flight.20 minutes on train each way leaving you less than an hour in the CBD.Not worth the expense.

I do similarly MEL-SYD-SFO. I'll take an early MEL-SYD flight, having checked my luggage thru, spend the day in SYD having lunch with friends, then take the afternoon flight to SFO. Works a treat that way.

As everyone else said, 4 hours is not really much time to do anything in the city. drron summed it up nicely

 

[harvyk]

Did you end up getting an earlier flight, or did you have the full 4 hours?