Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Connection time?

Hello...

Im planning my trip to the South Pacific and I was wondering if 80 minutes should be sufficient connection time to arrive on a QF international flight, go through formalities, and transfer to a TG international flight??

Thanks,
N674Uw

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by N674UW:
Hello...

Im planning my trip to the South Pacific and I was wondering if 80 minutes should be sufficient connection time to arrive on a QF international flight, go through formalities, and transfer to a TG international flight??

Thanks,
N674Uw</font>

There are a lot of "ifs" here, but as no-one else has tackled the question I will at least give it a go.

I don't know whether QF can interline baggage to TG. If so you can check your luggage through and not pick it up in Sydney. Also I don't know whether QF will be able to give you your TG boarding pass at your originating port. I would guess not.

Best case: Luggage is booked through and you have a boarding pass. In this case 80 minutes is plenty as you will remain airside and can stroll over to the gate an await the TG flight.

Worst case: Luggage is only booked to Sydney and you do not have your TG boarding pass. 80 minutes could then be a problem. Depending on how many 747s have just landed, immigration can take from two minutes to over half an hour. Luggage collection after that, then customs - maybe another 15 minutes. You will then need to go upstairs to TG check-in - another 10 minutes (?). The whole process could take 15 minutes or it could take an hour. Then you need to go back through immigration and security which normally does not take too long, but can easily be 10 minutes.

Middle case: Luggage booked through, but no boarding pass. Don't know whether boarding passes can be done at the gate or whether you will have to "enter" Australia. Even if you have to enter, 80 minutes is probably OK without luggage.

Bottom line is that you need to find out whether QF can interline your luggage to TG. A phone call should sort that one out. If so, fine. If not, probably still OK but no room for contingency - personally I would be looking for an alternative, but then again I am very risk averse when travelling.

Hope this was of some help.

Alan.

Have you done the trip yet, and was 80 minutes OK?