SYD arrivals Fast Track - J ticket?
 

I did a search on "Sydney Arrivals Fast Track" and got no hits (DPS yes, but not SYD) so going to ask here:

We'll be arriving SYD from HGK on CX (AY5091) 09:35 on a Friday morning and was wondering if there is a fast track arrival available for J pax?

There is an express path at SYD for arrivals and departures. I’m not certain if CX provides access although in my experience I have always been allowed access with a J boarding pass and no card. That said it is far more useful on departure than arrival

I haven't seen an active Express Path for arrivals in recent times.... (that may be because the flights I usually arrive on are NOT in the busy times) In fact the last 2 departures (in the last 4 weeks) there has been no OUTgoing Express path either... Having said that there was no appreciable wait either way...and the "new" arrival procedures seem to work well.... arrived on NH on the 8th and was in the terminal less than 20 minutes after getting off the aircraft, with checked bags.

The OUT express lane at SYD was revived 2 weeks ago.
I am not sure about the inward though

It was functional in August when I came in last, although there was no queue for the smart gates and I had quarantine stuff to declare so it made no sense to use either part of it on that occasion

Express path for Sydney arrivals is barely ever open. The airport/customs barely caters for premium passengers.

Don’t expect it to be open.

I haven’t seen it open for at least a couple of years, yet airlines still hand out shiny express arrival slips prior to arrival.

If you have a good customs record and aren’t declaring anything, you’ll be processed pretty quickly even at the busiest times.

The walk to the passport checks and the wait for your bags will take much longer than your passage through customs.

Thanks for the replies all...

As we never have been to SYD before, let alone Australia, is 09:35 + whatever taxi time etc, considered rush hour or is it considered quite enough?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2edca56e1.jpeg
I flied CX101 J a week ago. CX prints express on the boarding pass. When flying back to HKG from Sydney, the express was printed on BP too. Anyway, the fast track card wouldn’t be given onboard like it was used to before

With AU its best to understand that:

"were all equal here - mate"
"no rich tall poppies jumping the queue - mate"

I took QF118 in Y and arrived SYD at 10:00 on Tuesday with carry-on only. There was no line at the immigration and customs and I was in the arrival hall within 10 minutes.

express path should be reopened after recent closure

for arrival specifically, there are 2 areas.
passport control: use the auto kiyosk/gate, unlikely to be issue

quarantine (called biosecurity): this is the real bottle neck, after you pick up baggage and try to exit you have long line usually for this check. make sure you look around for express path exit.

While I agree that this is generally the attitude in Australia (and I appreciate it), this is an attitude for the local pub, not the airport. If there are fast-track queues and you have a right to use them, there's no reason not to. I've never received or seen anyone receive any negative attitudes for doing so. A great deal of the passengers won't be Aussies anyway...

We arrived October 24 on AA 73 in J and were given blue Express passes. But there were no lines whatsoever at Smartgate or at the kiosks issuing the Smartgate tickets so there was no point in going the Express route. Even Customs was smooth. We were sent to secondary as usual because I declare everything but only had to do what I call the “dog run” where we were briefly sniffed at.

With smartgate the express passes tend to be more useful at customs.
But I still have some in a draw and not likely to use them.