alfrie

I have an itinerary on a single ticket:
Day 1: CNS-MEL 6:30pm - 9:50pm
Day 2: MEL-LAX 2:40pm - 12pm
Will Qantas check me thru to LAX at CNS, or just the first flight because there is an overnight stay?
Either way, do I have to get a covid test on Day 0 or Day 1 before the first flight, OR I can get tested at MEL on Day 2 before the US-bound flight, which should be easier to arrange?
I really hope US will have dropped the test requirement by the time I travel which is two months away.

Dave Noble

You can do the test at any time on day before or day of travel
You could do it on arrival at Melbourne airport on Day 1 - you are arriving at 21:50 and histopath is open until 23:00 - the antigen test only takes 30 minutes to take place and issue the results

alfrie

Thanks for the reply. I prefer to get tested at MEL airport too, but my biggest concern is that Qantas may require test report before I board CNS-MEL flight, as this is a thru-fare ticket. Do you know Qantas will only check the report before MEL-LAX flight?

Dave Noble

I didn't think that Qantas would check baggage through with an overnight domestic stop in Melbourne

alfrie

This would make my plan easier. Still wishing the requirement would be eliminated altogether.

Dave Noble

Other than the $59 cost ( and risk of being found positive ) , it was pretty easy I found when I departed on Friday last week. On Thursday, went to one of testing locations here ( in NSW there are places other than airport that Histopath has ) at 8am ; showed them the QR code from booking online and went round and they took swab. They asked for phone number , since if it comes back positive or indeterminate, they get you back for a PCR test. After taking test at 8:10. the person mentioned that they would call within 15 minutes if they needed me back. No call came before 08:25 ( which was a relief ) . At 09:50 I had the text message confirmation of negative test and a link to the certificate plus email with certificate attached.

United's manage booking application was really good - Its travel ready tool showed what was needed and had nice eady step through to scan passport, upload certificate and complete the Covid Attestation ; once done it then completed check in and issued boarding pass

Hopefully Qantas has a similar feature

The only part of journey which was horrendous was that security queue at Sydney took 50 minutes to get through - and made worse by screens displaying that approx queuing time was 12 minutes - everything else in US was easy

kcupp95

Interesting choice.

Any reason you're not doing the CNS-BNE 0600-0805, BNE-LAX 1000-0630 option to save on transit time and an overnight hotel?

Or even CNS-MEL 1350-1710, MEL-LAX 2150-1850 if wanting the B787 instead of the A330.

I actually have no idea how you've managed to book these flights as one ticket given it's a 35.5 hour total travel duration and there's a tonne of shorter options available. Hell even going CNS-TSV-SYD-HNL-LAX is still shorter that your flights.

Dave Noble

Perfectly easy to book CNS-MEL-LAX - on QF's fares the listed routes for cheap fares are

It seems quite reasonable to want to break the journey, rather than do a 3.5 hour flight , immediately followed by a 14.5 hour flight. The stop in Melbourne is < 24 hours, so counts as a connection, so no impact there. Leaving on the 06:00 from CNS the next day would create exactly the same number of nights in a hotel. Either spending the night in Cairns or spending it in Melbourne. Also avoids a very early departure time, so can actually sleep in until a reasonable time

kcupp95

Why would OP need to spend that night in a hotel in CNS? Wouldn't they just spend that night at home?

Yes - but the options that the Qantas website give do not give that long transit. They give the option that has a much shorter transit in Melbourne as I mentioned above. Leaves CNS at 1350 (so you can have your sleep in) and connects to the 2150 flight out of MEL to LAX.

og

Have you tried Multi City booking? Much more capacity to control the flights (i.e. connections).

kcupp95

True.

Just more interested in why you'd choose that option when there's far shorter options available.

Dave Noble

The OP's information suggests that he or she is based in USA

Not everybody books on the airline's site - also it is quite possible to create such an option on the site using multi city

alfrie

OP here. Thanks for the discussion.
I am indeed US based. My trip was booked as J award using AS miles, so the transpacific availability is quite limited, but routing limitation is loose. Last week I learned that I could do a CDC-approved proctored antigen test in a virtual meeting and the report would be ready in 5 minutes. Such tests have been widely used by US travelers to neighboring countries such as Canada, Mexico and central America. I plan to bring a few test kits too. As for my itinerary, I can still change to the same day connections CNS-BNE-MEL-LAX with 6AM departure, but I will play by ear.