Sagey

My partner is flying from Brisbane to Auckland - with a 1 hour stop in Sydney. My question is will he need to clear customs in Brisbane or Sydney, and will he have enough time to get from the domestic terminal to the international terminal?

will he have to make the trip to the international terminal himsef?

madrooster

There is currently no international transfer bus operating from gate 15 at Sydney due to COVID. That means he will need to collect his bag at SYD domestic and take the train or a taxi over to the international terminal at his own cost. He would clear outbound immigration at Sydney and extra time is required as each passenger has to be essentially manually cleared for travel due to Australia's ban on outbound international travel.

1 hour is unfortunately far too short to complete all of these formalities.

kangarooflyer88

If the entire thing is booked as one single itinerary (e.g. all tickets are booked at once with same airline) then it's considered legal. This means that the airline operating the itinerary (e.g. Qantas) is confident you will have enough time to transfer at SYD from Domestic to International. If you were to mis-connect, the onus would be on the airline to fix it (either by putting you on a later flight operated by them or another airline). In addition, if you have to overnight it in SYD the airline would also generally cover your hotel, meals, etc.

All that said, there is a difference between a legal travel connection and a sensible one. A sensible connection is one where you are reasonably confident that you will make the connection even if the weather turns sour, or in this case if a pandemic is making navigating the airport challenging. Generally speaking, an hour connection time is never a sensible connection time since the assumption being made is that you won't encounter any departure or arrival delays, you'll be able to deplane quickly and you'll know exactly where you need to go in the terminal without having to clear any security or immigration. So the ultimate question is, are you comfortable being inconvenienced missing your connection and having to overnight it somewhere? If the answer is yes, then go for it, otherwise a longer connection (e.g. 2 hour) is advisable.

Yours Truly,

Kangaroo Flyer

Mwenenzi

Sagey Welcome to FT
If all on one QF ticket any checked bagged will be interlined at SYD by QF.

Before leaving AU and entering NZ the airline will (at check in)

• check with AU border force he has authority leave.
• check with NZ he has authority to enter. Need the print out of the MIQ slot

All this takes time. When I did AU NZ in September the check in (border force) procedure took ~15 minutes per passenger, mainly waiting for AU & NZ border force to answer the phone. Possibly may be more automated-streamlined now. Would guess they will do this at BNE, but not 100% sure. If at SYD 60 minutes will not be enough time.

Before Covid-19, 60 minutes between SYD T3 domestic to T1 international, while legal, could have been tight. For SYD I allow more. SCT sensible connection time being more then MCT minimum connection time. With the free T bus and QF's airside bus both not operating I would be looking for more time now.
https://www.sydneyairport.com.au/air...ur-next-flight

He will do the usual AU emigration formalities (security, passport scan) at SYD, being the port of AU departure.

If the flights are not on one ticket IMHO no hope of making the SYD AKL flight.

Kiwi Flyer

Welcome to Flyer Talk Sagey

I would change to a much earlier flight BNE-SYD for the reasons noted above it is a risky connection. Further, missing the SYD-AKL flight may have severe consequences - these days there aren't many international flights, you could lose your place in NZ's MIQ and have to wait weeks for a new place to become available, during any delay the rules may again change (e.g. your approval to leave Australia could be rescinded).

Mwenenzi

QF only have 2 flights a week SYD-AKL (Monday & Friday). So cannot be missed!! A year ago QF had 4~5 flights a day.
Air NZ fly SYD-AKL 8 flights/week and BNE-AKL 4 flights/week. https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/trav...2LxJlTgnojABxF
In these times a non stop service has advantages, even if at a $$ cost.

og

The shortest MCT I can see on EF for this combo of flights is 1:15. Therefore a 1:00 connex is “illegal” (if on same ticket) and justifiably warrants a request for an earlier first flight. If it’s separate tickets then it’s bad news especially if bags are not checked through.

LTN Phobia

I would recommend travelling to Sydney the day before if the proposed domestic flight is the earliest one on the day.

Dave Noble

Looking at EF, connecting from T3-T1 can be as low as 1 hour, so could well be a valid connection

QF-QF DI 1.00 TRM 3 - 1

og

Hmmm. I missed that one. A 1 hour connection may well be valid, but it’d be high stress. 1 hour certainly is too short for the Minimum Sensible Connection (IMHO).

Hvr

How would this be viewed by NZ? Coming from a COVID-19 hotspot as Sydney is currently may cause further delays or even a denial of travel.

I strongly suggest that the OP look at the the NZ COVID entry requirements or they may be stuck in Sydney for way longer than expected.

madrooster

QF is not through-checking bags between domestic and international at the moment due to the transfer services not being operational. The only exception to this is MEL where the terminals are neighbouring.

Kiwi Flyer

At the moment no difference for arriving in NZ. However that could change (eg when bubble finally gets here it could be limited to states without current or recent community transmission).