hirohito888

Another update, my Expedia AU booking finally ticketed, 12h+ after booking.

So in summary, for those waiting, it should finally go through. My datapoints are:
Expedia AU - 12h+ to get ticket number
Amex Travel - 7h to get ticket number
Orbitz - a few minutes after booking to get ticket number

Now to cancel the tickets I don't need, and see how this fare plays out.

kade Reid

They are based in QATAR. How could I fight it? They are trying to refund me.

dss

Thanks, that is kind of what I figured. Just struggling with the extra leg. We're actually going from SYD to SFO so that makes 4 flights (and 3 distinct carriers/tickets) on this leg (booking a cheap WN LAX to OAK segment to complete the journey) so while i'm thrilled to have premium for the AKL->LAX leg, it comes at a huge routing cost given there are plenty of (Y) flights to take me SYD->SFO (but it's in early Jan during peak season so even those are expensive/unavailable for mileage).

I have a few additional questions so thanks in advance for the help.

There is plenty of Qantas (Avios) inventory for the SYD->MEL leg. Will Qantas let me check through (on ANZ) all the all the way from SYD to LAX?

My flight from MEL to AKL leaves at 4:05. We're a quick moving family, but with checked bags (which may or my not need to be retrieved and rechecked depending on previous answer). What time would be safe to arrive into MEL to allow enough transit time to go from a domestic Qantas flight to the ANZ flight?

We're a family of 4. It looks like row 9 is the only row left on the ANZ->LAX flight (there is a scattered middle in row 4 and row 10). Row 9 gets poor reviews due to proximity to lounge/lavs. Any thoughts on if it's worth splitting up into row 4 and 10 vs row 9?

Thanks everyone for your help!

nk15

The fact that all these tickets went through 12 hours later is definitely an encouraging sign.

irishguy28

No, absolutely not. Qantas will not check your bags through to a competitor on a separate ticket. Last time I asked before a SYD-MEL flight, as a oneworld emerald connecting to a Qatar Airways (and hence, same alliance), they politely told me to p**s off.

(A nice agent *may* through-check for you, but this is certainly not a given. [If, however, they do check your bags through - be sure to verify the labels placed on each bag to make sure that each bag is checked through to the destination you think it should be checked through to (also shown on the baggage receipts). You must also SHOW THE BAGGAGE RECEIPTS to Air NZ ground staff at MEL WELL BEFORE BOARDING - they are not expecting bags to be in transit for your ticket, so even though they may have been throughchecked by Qantas, they may not actually get transferred to your flight until you bring Air NZ's attention to this fact...otherwise your bags may go missing] You should book ENOUGH TIME BETWEEN FLIGHTS to allow you to account for delays to the flight, delays to your luggage, and to ensure you have enough time to haul your bags from domestic to international and check in before the deadline. You really don't want to miss your "big" ticket by cutting things too fine....if it was me, I'd spend the night before in MEL.

Why did you book from MEL, though, when you could have booked from SYD???)


See above. You should not be aiming to cut this as close as possible, but to give yourself AS MUCH TIME as possible.

Imagine that something goes wrong on the SYD-MEL flight - and you get there just 2 minutes too late. That's your tough luck - the "main" ticket is gone and you won't be able to fly, without paying through the nose for a walk-up rate.

I would really, really recommend you start your holiday a day early, and spend a night in MEL.

kade Reid

These guys have contacted me though and saying that they have requested to refund me without me requesting it. I really should have not replied.

qasr

This is actually irrelevant. Since you have to collect bags to clear customs in SYD, you can recheck them at the international terminal onto QF. Expect a line in the mornings, but they work fast. Then you can get the bus over to domestic.

irishguy28

The OP is departing from SYD, and flying only domestically with QF. There is no customs to be cleared at SYD. There is no international flight operated by QF. As clearly explained by the OP, they are travelling on 3 different tickets as follows:

Ticket 1:
SYD-MEL, Qantas (Avios booking)

Ticket 2:
MEL-AKL-LAX, Air NZ (this "sweet deal" fare)

Ticket 3:
LAX-OAK, Southwest (additional separate booking).

ricktassie

additional datapoint - booked yesterday with expedia au.

Both stuck with no eTicket, called a few times (expedia, NOT air nz ) and while it took time ("dunno, the system is down, "sometimes it takes a few hours", "here is the phone number for air nz, plz call em", etc) they were finally able to force it through, I have the eticket now as well as am able to log in and manage booking on the air nz site.

I intende to do a b2b at sydney, is there a visa requirement or can this all be done airside? (planned transit time at syd would be at least 3 hours)

davem4

Sent them a email, they immediately sent a response back saying case open / case closed.

So the call centre laughed. "we refunded everyone, we dont care"

dss

Thanks for the advice. I tried booking from SYD but couldn't find anything that priced out at the "desired" fare. For some reason, the dates I was looking for were only pricing out from BNE or MEL.

I had a feeling that was going to be the answer to the baggage question but figured it couldn't hurt to ask!

I was thinking of allowing 2.5 hours in MEL to retrieve bags, transit terminals and recheck on ANZ. Seem reasonable?

irishguy28

2.5 hours should be enough in most cases. However, on any particular day, things may go wrong. And you won't know until the day arrives, by which time it's too late to recover from it.

With so much riding on this flight running smoothly, I would strongly advise you to max the buffer to the greateset extent possible....spend a night in MEL. Take the last flight of the day before, and you don't even need to take time off work that day. You're saved at least $20,000 so you can afford it...

yoonny

I didn't realize Google Flights took me to xp.au but now I can pull my booking on AirNZ's website. I am surprised at many occupied seats for my flights over the Memorial Day weekend already.

I've been wanting to try Thai F on the BKK - SYD 747 route using 40K UA miles (starting in HKG for extra 747 F experience) before it goes up to 65K. This fare made me pull the trigger.

Now I just need to position to HKG (I see Cathay First availability but 110K AA miles is a bit much and I don't have many Alaska miles). It looks like I will be mostly just flying around the world the entire Memorial Day weekend.

snuniyar

Finally got the eticket number on expedia au. I was able to change my seats on ANZ website.

Nappes

Does anyone know if AirNZ allows short checking of baggage. We got two tickets SYD to LAX via AKL, but we are based in CHC and on the return we don't want to take the last AKL to SYD leg and just book a domestic AKL to CHC leg, the layover in AKL is 4 hrs so maybe we can make a reasonable case to have access to our bags in AKL