Qantas Cairns lounge query

[Catardale]

Hi all, I have a flight this week going from Cairns to Melbourne. We are flying Jetstar and I have Qantas lounge passes attached to our bookings, so all good there. Jetstar is telling me our flight is leaving from the international terminal so we need to get there early to go through immigration and customs (at departure and arrival I think). My query is will there be enough time to use the lounge in Cairns (even if just a quick coffee and snack)? Do I check in at Jetstar in the international terminal, then walk to the lounge which is in domestic, then back to international, then go through immigration etc then onto to the gate in International? All a bit confusing, and annoying if I am really honest. Cheers.

 

[aikman]

It will be exactly as you described. I've done it myself and yes it is annoying and time consuming. I think it was at least a 10 min walk from the international terminal to the lounge. Note that the international terminal is boring so don't go through immigration too early.

 

[TomVexille]

And don't forget photo ID

 

[AIRwin]

And keep the boarding pass for arrival formalities

 

[Catardale]

I thought I would close this off with the exact process and a thought. Essentially if you are flying Jetstar domestic but leaving from the Cairns international terminal, you cannot check in online so need to check in at the international counter, walk to the domestic terminal (10 mins), go through domestic security then go to the Qantas lounge in domestic. They do not show your flight there on the screens so that is on you to do via your phone or computer. It is obviously a 10 minute walk back, then you have to go through immigration and security at international. All a bit fiddley but doable. The worst bit was back at Melbourne having to go through immigration there again, which was quite slow. All up, a 3 hour flight took about 7 hours - if I could avoid leaving from international next time I definitely would.

 

[jastel]

Annoying but you need to read the fine print.

I used to enjoy getting the INT early Qantas to BNE, it was usually half empty and you could often get a row to yourself. Once there was only like 20 people on the whole plane so they sat us ALL in Business and shut economy. Not sure if it was Business Grade service/food but better seats for sure.

 

[Catardale]

Annoying but you need to read the fine print.

I used to enjoy getting the INT early Qantas to BNE, it was usually half empty and you could often get a row to yourself. Once there was only like 20 people on the whole plane so they sat us ALL in Business and shut economy. Not sure if it was Business Grade service/food but better seats for sure.

That is true about reading the fine print, however I did in fact read the fine print. Unfortunately two days after we booked Jetstar sent me an email saying they had changed our departure terminal from Domestic to International, so all my reading was in fact a waste of time in this case.

 

[jastel]

Qanats did it me back in the day too...I was at DOM checking in when they cancelled the plane once and sent me to INT. Only a 5 min walk.