Sydney International "stopover"

[fersea]

I am currently looking at the 30% classic reward discount to fly to London in August. (yes I know Economy Classic rewards are not the best use of points)

I was also potentially looking at travelling to Auckland in early August. Just as an experiment, I put in a search of a rewards flight from Auckland to London and then return to Sydney. Interestingly enough it comes up over $200 cheaper in taxes!! (SYD / LHR / SYD on QF1 / QF2 is about $730 in taxes whereas AKL / LHR / SYD is only about AUD 515). First of all does anyone know why it is cheaper? If I was to do this I would probably just get a Jetstar flight and fly to Auckland for the weekend.

There are a couple of options flying from AKL to SYD to meet QF1. I could catch QF144 which gets to SYD only an hour before QF1 leaves or I could catch QF142 or QF140 and have a number of hours in Sydney before catching QF1.

What I want to know is if I catch the earlier flight, is there any restriction on my leaving the airport in Sydney and coming back? Sorry if this is an obvious question, but I have never thought about stopping over in Australia? Aussie citizen born and bread, travelling on Australian passport.

 

[Hvr]

With an Australian passport no restrictions at all.

 

[Mattg]

I did similar last year (flying with Star Alliance, not QF) and had no problems entering the country etc. My bags were checked through from AKL to Japan.

Heck, take the savings and enjoy a weekend in Auckland

 

[Kangol]

Taxes difference is likely due to departure taxes. Can you get a tax breakdown?
Or you can look at Matrix - ITA Software by Google to search for commercial flights and it will show you all the taxes and charges.

 

[Mattg]

Taxes difference is likely due to departure taxes. Can you get a tax breakdown?
Or you can look at Matrix - ITA Software by Google to search for commercial flights and it will show you all the taxes and charges.

There are some small differences in the departure taxes, but the main difference is due to Qantas' carrier charges being lower ex NZ.