Originally Posted by
findark
Still a long line for the bus?
I arrived in Sydney earlier this week. I budgeted 4-hour transit for my connecting flight to Melbourne on VS.
It took over an hour for the ground staff to unload the luggage from the UA flight, and by the time I received my bags, it was 90+ min after landing. There were quite a few flights arriving in the early morning and Sydney airport is so short staffed to deal with unloading baggage from Emirate, Ethiad, SQ, TG and other flights during the peak morning arriving window.
it was a 10-min wait to clear customer due to large number of arrivals.
There were quite a number of passengers connecting onto VS for other destinations. It was about a 15-min wait to check bags with VS.
Then, there was the line to wait for the bus. Yes, it was long but three buses happened to arrive within 5 min of each other, so the wait was only about 15 min. The ride took about 25 min due to traffic and road construction.
By the time I clear security at domestic terminal, it was about 3 hours after landing. A 30-min stay at VS lounge and my flight was ready for boarding.
This was my second UA-VS experience at SYD in less than a month, and I am glad I budgeted 4-hour transit for the connection on both occasions.