United IAH-SYD connecting to seperately ticketed domestic flight - a few questions
I was able to book a business saver award last Thursday within a few hours of the new route being announced. Currently it shows 8pm departure on Wed 1/24/18 from IAH and 6:30am arrival on 1/26 in SYD.
I need to book another ticket to Melbourne that day, as I want to be at the Australian Open by about 3pm.
My plan was to book a 10am flight from SYD to MEL, giving me enough time for the flight to be late an hour and for it to take 2 hours to get through immigration, customs, quarantine, transfer terminals, etc. But if United changes the schedule and suddenly I'm arriving at 7:30, I could be in a tight spot.
Question 1 - How likely is it that United changes the schedule by more than an hour?
Question 2 - Is my only option for lounge access (other than business class domestic) to book Virgin Australian domestic and buy a one day pass for $65/passenger? I think I'll want to take a shower before continuing on.
Advise is greatly appreciated. I've been getting great info from Flyertalk for over a decade, this is the first time I've posted.