Sydney Qantas domestic transfer desk stuff up

[kevind]

Hi,

A friend and I arrived at Sydney airport, from Bangkok, Tuesday morning, the 28th April. As expected, in order to connect with our domestic flight to Melbourne, we headed for the domestic transfer desk. There was a line of anxious passengers longer than the a line of football supporters trying to get a grand final ticket. After waiting for what seemed like hours, an official came running down the line saying there was a wait of at least 1 1/2 hours, she also said that those who could not wait should follow her to a commercial bus waiting outside the terminus. Fortunately, we had a two hour lay over, not so for many others. If Sydney is truly an international airport, then standards here are pretty low.

 

[jamesatfish]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

I have a feeling this might not be an isolated occurrence...

I've had the same thing a few times arriving back from LHR/SIN - whilst the customs & immigration hall is fairly empty, walking out to the domestic transfer desk results in a queue back past the groundside shops and signs advising of a 90+ minute wait.

Last time I arrived a bloke who was sitting a couple of rows in front of us in F was met by Qantas ground staff and given the special red-carpet treatment - assistance with his luggage, accompanied through the quarantine / customs inspection, and guided towards a coach where a surly driver chucked his expensive-looking luggage into the hold and he stood in the isle to be bounced across to the domestic terminal as inelegantly as possible.

Certainly doesn't work well for tight connections - that last time my wife was trying to get back to CBR as urgently as possible and missed two morning flights waiting for transport over to the domestic terminal.

Perhaps it would have been easier to open up the train link between the two terminals which would have been a much quicker way to disperse the crowds than shuffling them around with 2 coaches - but I assume CityRail wouldn't be happy with that.

 

[MelUser]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

So exactly what was your problem?

Did you miss your domestic flight?

It sounds to me that they were busy that day with many passengers transferring - hardly a "stuff up".

Presumably there are taxis also for those who don't like buses!

[NB comments directed at first post]

 

[jamesatfish]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

In my case yes it was an issue because my wife did miss her flight back to Canberra as a result of not being able to transfer across quickly enough.

Whilst it is not a 'stuff up' if the transfer process gets bottlenecked once or twice due to unusually large passenger numbers attempting to transfer, it is an issue if this happens on a regular basis and the airport isn't making changes to rectify the issue. I don't have any objective data as to whether this is a regular occurrence, but my own observations have been that arriving on an early morning weekday QF flight from SIN or the US means you are likely to encounter these types of connection delays.

Forcing passengers to wait up to 90 minutes just to transfer to another part of the airport that's 5 minutes drive away sounds like a problem that should be addressed - particularly if Qantas still suggests that a suitable transfer time from arriving in SYD on an international flight to leaving on a domestic one is 90-120 minutes (referencing two telephone bookings I made for flights in June where the Qantas agents selected the actual flights allows a 115 min connection time flying in from SFO and a 100 min connection time flying in from SIN).

Edit: MelUser I just saw your edit after submitting my reply. Will keep the post as originally entered for general information anyway.

 

[kevind]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

As I said in my original post, we did not have a problem, except for the inconvenience (as our plane from Bangkok was an hour late arriving, our domestic connection had been changed, so we still had enough time to make it to the domestic terminus). A number of other passengers missed their connecting flights because of the time it took to transfer - up to 1 1/2 hours. Qantas must know how many passengers are due to arrive at the transfer desk - it should be an easy matter to get them from international to domestic without such a long wait.

 

[ColinP]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

I experienced exactly the same situation when arriving from Bangkok on Tue 21st April so it's certainly not an isolated occurrence.
People were missing connections left right and centre.

With a 2:30 connection time, I was able to make my connection to ADL with just enough time to pick up the mandatory box of KK doughnuts at T3

 

[Evan]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

Had the same issue before, but also had a different issue, transfer domestic to international and get the the customs / immigration area and there was so many people it was looking like 2hr wait ! thankfully i was given some red carpet treatment when i asked what to do and they realised i would otherwise miss my flight.

I guess they just need to run more busses between terminals at peak times, but its hard to justify the cost if peak times is not very long or often, or only when planes are delayed, land out of order etc.

 

[taswegian77]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

i think SYD transfer is one of the worst of any airport I have had a pleasure transferring to and that includes the LHR to Gatwick transfer. It only takes one or two instances to sour the taste, an as one comment suggested QF would know how many transfers are expected. The issue is the amount of staff working the desk, QF are nortorious for sickies.

 

[Evan]

Re: Sydney Qantas dodmestic transfer desk stuff up

SYD & PER, the 2 airports i hate to transit.... but i will do it in SYD (Domestic -> International) just to get a nice Flounge experience if i have to transit due to direct not being available.

 

[Lucky_man]

I too have been diverted from the Domestic checkin in the international terminal out to the bus collection area. It was very badly done. We were just told to go through a door and a bus would come. Well a huge line of tied up Trolleys restriced where we could go so we had to stand in the rain. Then finally a bus came and people prepared to get loaded on. Any way I check with the driver who advised it was not a special Qantas transfer bus but going to Melbourne. So there we were - about 20 of us with our luggage being rained on dutifuly following instructions - no staff no signs nothing. I rang qantas and they said they would find out what was going on and get beck to me. Before they did a bus arrived.

As the bus was leaving a Qantas staff member hailed it, got on and asked if Mr Lucky_man was on boards. But I kid you not he asked loudly "Is Mr Special Lucky_man on board". I revelaed myself not knowing what I was in for and he attended my seat and offered a personal apology.

I could give you dozens of funny stories about that transfer area. On another occasion a panicked QF staffer was trying to get passengers for a soon departing flight to the front of the masses waiting for a bus. But she could not be heard three people away. So I was enlisted to be her megaphone.

The only good thing that can be said about the Sydney inward transfer is that it functions most of the time.

I and many others avoid it. It is confusing at times like this even for experience traversers. People dump the proverbial on Melbourne airport but I find it logistically great for transfers.

 

[farstar]

I have a 2h 5min connection T1-T3 on a Friday afternoon arriving 5.30pm and flying out at 7.30pm and now I am worried it will not be enough.

 

[serfty]

AT that time of day it should be a breeze.

In the afternoon, the bus departs every 20 minutes, on the hour and :20 and :40.

 

[dajop]

Unfortunately this is not uncommon. Most times I've flown into SYD in the morning, it's been a similar debacle, and has been for years. Afternoons, by contrast are a breeze.

It is simply a matter of not having enough check in infrastructure and when it is really busy it just gets worse as people start missing connections, which means they take more time to process. It's actually quite pathetic for Australia's gateway airport and QF's hub. When it's really bad, the most efficient way of transferring is probably on the Cityrail train.

By contrast MEL is great for domestic transfers - but as has been outlined in other threads the hold up can be exiting customs if there are several planes there at once.

My next intl->domestic connection is at ADL (SIN-ADL-MEL). First time I've done that, and I could have gone via SYD, but I do suspect that and ADL transfer will be far more pleasant.

 

[straitman]

Whilst not disagreeing with what people have written I have to say the majority of my SYD transfers have been in the mornings and I've never had a problem.

Having said that, the system still sucks :!:

 

[serfty]

Coming thru from QF22 two weeks ago (at Gate 7:25am) we were given the green stamps - so straight out the door - no Customs/AQIS check. We were into the arrivals hall by 8am. We did have to wait a little for luggage and also collected some pre-paid duty free.

The queue for the "Seamless" transfer was 60 metres out the door nmear to lifts to the train station and we would have taken much longer except a Qantas staffers came through asking for people on specific flight numbers and "Premium Passengers" to come forward.

We were rechecked, carry-on x-rayed and awaiting the next bus by 8:35 and into T3 by 8:50.

So, even with express cards, no customs/quarantine x-ray and a "premium" queuing it still took nearly 1½ hours.

Contrast this with Sunday, arriving at gate 2:45pm. Again with the green quick exit stamp we just missed the 3pm bus - had to await the 3:20pm* and were in T3 by 3:30.

So with farstar's 5:30pm they should be fine.

*The buses run at least every 10 minutes in the morning and and every 20 minutes in the afternoon.

 

[Bundy Bear]

After coming in from NZ on EK the transfer area for Qantas was deserted. I was off the plane at 7:30pm and was at the check in area at 8:05pm and there was no one around. There were 2 of us on the bus at 8:20pm. Pity that Qantas then has a delay of the flight of 40 minutes.

 

[MEH]

I'm a US citizen, and I'll be making my first trip to Australia in September. I have a few options for return flights, and after reading some horror stories, I want to make sure I give myself enough time to make all my connections! The two options I'm leaning towards now are:

1. Fly BNE-SYD-SFO-BOS (all through Qantas) This is my cheapest option and, assuming I make my flight in Sydney, the most painless. I can have up to a 3 hour layover in Sydney, which *should* be enough time to make a domestic-international connection, right? (This would be mid-morning/early afternoon on a Friday.) This option would require leaving Brisbane 1-2 hours earlier than for option 2, and I'd run the risk of getting stranded in Sydney if I miss my connection.

2. Fly BNE-LAX then separate flight from LAX-BOS This wouldn't be too much more expensive than option 1 and would eliminate the need for the extra flight and hassle of going through SYD. Overall, it would be a lot less stressful and would give me 1-2 more hours the morning of my departure. The main drawback is that if I miss my flight in LAX, I have no protection since it'd be a separate ticket. I could book the whole thing through Qantas, but that costs 100-150 USD more than if I book the LAX-BOS leg through a different airline. On a related question, if I go with this option, do you know how much time I should give myself in between flights? I'd be getting to LA at 7 AM on a Friday morning.

It seems both SYD and LAX can be pretty hectic with long lines, so I'm trying to pick the lesser of two evils... Thanks so much in advance!!

 

[NM]

MEH, welcome to AFF. Given you are a US citizen, you should not be significantly delayed at immigration processing upon arrival at LAX. While 3 hours should be ample for domestic-international transfer at SYD, I would be taking the direct BNE-LAX and shortening the overall travel time and minimising the connections.

Do you have the option to buy BNE-JFK (via LAX) from Qantas which gets you much closer to home on the single ticket. I assume the only reason for not buying BNE-LAX-BOS from Qantas is cost.

 

[MEH]

Thanks, NM! I appreciate your help. I ended up booking a single ticket with Qantas directly through to my final destination...figured it was worth the less hassle and stress.

 

[kpc]

If the Q is so long to catch the transfer bus between the international and domestic terminals, catching the train for $5 seems a quick, easy solution (I think you could easily manage with 1 large suitcase and a cabin bag)...I know it's $5 vs free but if it is the difference between missing and catching a connecting flight....:idea:
Terminal Transfers :: AirportLink