Does Qantas Offer All-Day Check-in at Sydney Airport?

From 2014 until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qantas offered all-day international check-in at Sydney Airport. This meant that you could check in and drop off your bags any time from 4am on the day of your Qantas international flight departing Sydney.

All-day check-in was a great benefit for Qantas passengers who happened to arrive at the airport early or wanted to maximise their lounge time. Sadly, Qantas hasn’t brought it back since 2020. So, when does Qantas now open check-in at Sydney Airport in 2025?

Qantas international check-in times at Sydney Airport

If you’re flying out of Sydney Airport and you don’t have any checked baggage, you could theoretically still check in any time on the day of your flight.

However, if you try to clear immigration many hours before your flight is scheduled to depart, there is a chance that the smart gate won’t be able to process you. If this happens, you’ll need to see a Border Force officer and hope they’ll manually process you or “open” your flight. (There is also a small chance they might not open your flight yet if you’re really early and the terminal is especially busy that day.)

AFF member Warragul explained on the AFF forum how this works:

In the ABF processing system, outbound flights are generally opened ( as opposed to closed – live movements will not be processed) each morning and choose automatically a few hours after the ETD or manually by staff. When there are flights that maybe mixed up in data input when using non smartgate processing, eg QF1 & QF11, if feasible the later flight will be closed to aid accuracy of data. Obviously this is not possible when the flights departure are within hours of each other.

Warragul on the AFF forum

If you’re travelling with checked luggage, the earliest you can check in for a Qantas international flight departing Sydney is around six hours before departure. That’s because Qantas doesn’t have enough space to store bags for longer than this in the international terminal.

If you arrive at Qantas check-in counters more than four hours before departure, there is a chance that the flight might not be “open” for airport check-in yet. But, if there are less than six hours until your flight departs, the airport staff should be able to make a quick phone call to get the flight opened.

This is exactly what AFF member sudoer experienced last year:

I’ve had similar at SYD F check-in last year – the flight wasn’t ‘open’ yet. The agent went off to speak to someone and said they’d open it. Just had to stand to the side and wait for a couple of min.

sudoer on the AFF forum

You can’t check in at Sydney Airport the night before your flight. Even if your flight leaves early in the morning, Sydney Airport closes after the 11pm curfew kicks in. The airport does not have a facility for storing luggage overnight.

As AFF member madrooster explained on our forum:

SYD intl hasn’t had all day check in post covid unless you are HLO. They can open the flight at any time which is just a phone call to make. The issue is the airport has not re-allowed QF to hog up the baggage make up room, which is why HLO is fine but not with checked baggage.

Flights are open for airport acceptance at T-6 hours normally.

madrooster on the AFF forum

Passengers connecting in Sydney from domestic to international flights

It is possible to book a “domestic to international” connection through Sydney Airport with a transit time of more than six hours. As long as you book both flights on the same ticket, and the international flight departs on the same calendar day as the arriving domestic flight, Qantas will check your bags through.

This means you are effectively treated the same as a “hand luggage only” passenger on arrival into Sydney. You can catch the terminal transfer bus and immediately head into the international departures area if you want.

Madrooster also explained why this is possible:

As for why a pax who is through-checked from domestic is able to get around this restriction… checked baggage going to international can always be held at the domestic side if required, until closer to departure if there is insufficient baggage make up capacity at the international terminal. That obviously cannot happen for a pax checking in at international.

That said, this procedure isn’t 100% foolproof. Last year I flew from Canberra to Queenstown via Sydney, with a six-hour transit time in Sydney. My checked bag did not turn up in Queenstown, and Qantas had to send it on another flight the following day.

Qantas domestic check-in times at Sydney Airport

It’s a similar story for Qantas domestic flights departing from Terminal 3.

When travelling on a Qantas domestic flight, you can check-in online and get a digital boarding pass up to 24 hours before departure. You can even head through to the airside departures area and get to the lounges without checking in at all, as you don’t necessarily need to be flying to clear security at Australian domestic terminals.

However, Qantas generally only accepts checked bags for domestic flights up to six hours before departure.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

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