Mwenenzi

Arrival lounges are not common. No airport in Australia has an arrival lounge.
Due the large numbers of passengers arriving on early morning flights (06:00 08:00) SYD hotels are used to guests showing up before official check in time.
How they handle these guest's will depend on the hotel

And you will not be able to access the UA departure lounge at SYD on arrival

Airport info SYDNEY (SYD) - amenities, transfers, transport Click to open the wiki

Repooc17

I always book an extra night and communicate with the hotel (ahead of time) I will arrive the following morning. During peak travel seasons there (November to January), it is not uncommon for hotels to sell out. Not taking chances.

mmthomps

Thanks to everyone for guidance on the transfer from United to Qantas at Sydney; with a 90 minute "layover," we made the Qantas flight to Perth, but with no time to spare: walked straight into the line for boarding.

Now we have to do the reverse: fly Qantas tomorrow night to Sydney for UAL 842 home (with a 3 1/2 hour layover). Can we check our luggage straight through from Perth to LAX? Will we reclaim and recheck at Sydney?

I know we can access lounges at Sydney, but so far as I can tell there's no way for us to get any access to a lounge at Perth (with a midnight flight on Qantas, economy), to Sydney ..... Ugh.

Mwenenzi

As LAX-SYD-PER-SYD-LAX is 1 ticket QF will through luggage leaving PER. Keep the baggage tags. At SYD T3 gate 15 (airside) is where bus to T1 leaves from

As PER-SYD is not in business class you will not have lounge access in PER. Lounge access is by class of service (business) or Oneworld mid/top level status.

Hope you enjoyed your time in the west

mmthomps

We had a great time in WA.

But when we got to Perth airport tonight, QF did not have any "record" of our ticket from SYD-LAX on United. I showed them the itinerary on my United app, but they said there was nothing they could do to add the SYD-LAX leg. It's odd, because the United app tells me I can't check in since my first flight is on Qantas.

So, what they told us, is that we have to claim our checked bags in Sydney, and then check in from "scratch" with United. I gather we get our bags in the domestic terminal 3 at Sydney, and then schlepp them on the shuttle to T1? We have 3 1/2 hours, so I"m hoping this goes well. So much for a shower in the lounge ...

docbert

Presuming this is a UA ticket then it certainly should show up for them, and even if it didn't the agent would have had the ability to check them through anyway, although as a matter of practice they would have as they don't do that on separate tickets (which I'm guessing this isn't, but that would be the presumption given it wasn't showing for them)

You'll need to collect your bags, then somehow get to the international terminal. The cheapest option is the free T-bus that runs between terminals - just look for the signs outside. You can also do the train or a taxi, but both will cost you.

If your bags are relativity small (maybe slightly larger than carry-on side) and have no sharps (liquids are OK), then you can potentially collect them, then go back airside and catch the Qantas bus - but really I'm not sure that's worth the effort given the land-side bus is free.

With 3.5 hours you'll have no issues, and will almost certainly have time for a shower!

findark

Not all that surprising to see this hiccup - QF will be a different PNR, and since the UA segments are none of QF (marketed, operated, ticketed) then quite plausible they are missing from QF computer.

docbert

I've flown QF segments on UA tickets multiple times in the past, and never had a problem with QF seeing the UA connecting flight to check bags. (QF policy is that they won't check bags unless it's the same ticket) In general, (at least) one segment before and after the QF flights will propagate to QF as an info segment so they can see the connection.

There's even a report above of UA being able to issue a QF boarding pass which is something I've never experienced, so it seems the integration between the two is actually getting better not worse - but that of course doesn't explain what happened here...

mmthomps

Our flights were on one ticket (016 bought on the UAL website). We were able to check bags from LAX through Sydney to Perth, and even got QF boarding passes from United in LA. On the return, QF couldn't (or wouldn't) check our bags through or issue the boarding passes. Not sure why -- and they didn't know either, but said there was nothing they could do.

As is turns out, we got our bags in Sydney (although they were just about the last ones to come on the carousel, which was a bit unsettling); got the transfer bus to the international terminal; and then breezed through check in, passport control and security, and did manage to get a nice breakfast and shower in the ANZ lounge. So, in spite of the hassles of claiming bags and hauling them over to T1, all worked out!

rdh0924

Ugh, we're flying LAX-SYD and MEL-LAX one two separate one-ways. We've successfully applied GPUs both directions.There was a very minor schedule change on the return segment... Any chance the 1K desk would allow us to change flights to MEL-SFO (obviously connecting in SYD) without any fees and still clearing those upgrades?

Guessing not, but would love to fly true Polaris instead of Fauxlaris haha. We're ultimately needing to end up in MSP, so right now we're flying the last segment home on Delta LAX-MSP, but I would happily cancel that and book SFO-MSP haha!

Anyone have experience with something like this?




OK, answer is no...unless it's a 2+ hour change. Just called and was alerted that there's not a confirmable upgrade available right now on the SYD-SFO leg...even though 41 of the 50 Polaris seats are currently open. Oh well...figured it can't hurt to ask.

daKav

I applied for MUA+Co pay upgrade on SYD-LAX. I am waitlisted. I am flying on 12/2. Is there a way to know my waitlist number? fwiw miles is deducted my account and my card is charged.

wxguy

No; and it will change as others are added to the waitlist that have higher status and/or fare class than you.

flyerbjorn

Are you 1K? Call the 1K line and ask?

daKav

Thanks!


Nope, no status!

docbert

Realistically, your position on the upgrade list is "low enough that there's no chance you'll get upgraded".

A week out there's currently 5 business class seats left available - on a route that is difficult to upgrade at the best of times. The changes of there not being at least 5 people ahead of you on the list (based on status) is pretty much zero, and that's not including any seats that sell in the next week, or people that pay to upgrade at check-in/etc.