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for those of you very familiar with Sydney airport..


Camelia-
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We will be flying into Sydney (from Vancouver) on an Air Canada flight next month. We won't be staying in Sydney though (till later in the trip) but will be flying directly to Auckland with Air New Zealand. These are not connecting flights unfortunately because we decided upon the second flight after the fact.

 

Is Sydney Terminal 1 International airport easy to get around in? I imagine that upon arrival we will proceed to directly to customs/immigration and then on to baggage pickup. Once through we will have to find our way to the Departures level and look for Air NewZealand to check in for our second flight. Does Air New Zealand have a dedicated check in gate? We will have about 5 hours between flights (if all goes well) so I'm hoping that this is more than enough time.

 

Any advice or info would definitely be appreciated!! First time to this part of the world and am super excited!!

 

Camelia

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sadly yes we have one of those kinds of tickets and so had to do it this way - it's a good lesson to do better planning next time rather than constant modification of plans!! Appreciate your help though...next time it will definitely be the way to go!!

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You shouldn't have any problems at Sydney International Terminal (T1). Once you pop out into the arrivals area head towards the central part of the terminal building (look for signs to the Meeting Point, it's near that) where there are escalators and lifts up to the departures area. There you will find displays telling you which checkin area to go to for your Air New Zealand flight (probably H, J or K). You should have tons of time. The hardest part of getting through Sydney airport is navigating the damn duty free shopping area, especially for departures. Signs are up high so keep your eyes open, as you will probably need to turn right and take a fairly long walkway to the pier that Air New Zealand usually departs from.

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Couple of years ago i flew in from Honolulu, the Intl side was great, no hangups at all, stayed at the Rydges Hotel literally across the street from the arriving terminal. Problem is the next day was getting to the domestic terminal, requires a long long trip by bus, difficult with luggage, and the domestic terminal was a nightmare! Virtually no air conditioning, rude people, and they charge you every which way. Never again!

I left Australia out of Brisbane, by far the best airport i have ever been to.

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I imagine that upon arrival we will proceed to directly to customs/immigration and then on to baggage pickup.
Assuming that you hold a Canadian or US passport (or another eligible passport), then your fastest way through immigration is likely to be to use the automatic gates. More details here: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/ente/goin/arrival/smartgateor-epassport

 

There is a two-step process. You first visit a kiosk which reads your passport and issues you with a small card/ticket. Then you go to the actual gate where you insert the ticket before the machine reads your face. One thing worth remembering is that when a flight disembarks, passengers tend to head for the nearest kiosks, even though queues rapidly build up there. If that is happening, ignore those kiosks and queues and keep walking towards the actual immigration control. There are plenty more kiosks, including some near the gates, and the closer you get to the gates, the less the kiosks seem to be used and the faster your overall journey through immigration.

 

It will be worth you asking Air Canada whether your bags can be through-checked to Auckland. I would expect the answer no - but if you get lucky, then you will skip a lot of steps. You will be able to go straight to international transfers, which basically involves only collecting a boarding pass for Sydney-Auckland if you don't already have that, and then security screening before going upstairs to the departures/gate level.

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Wonderful tips..thank you! Yes - I will definitely ask whether our bags can be checked through to Auckland. It would make it so much simpler! I was told that Air Canada isn't obligated to do so and it depends on who is doing the checking in. Given that - I'm going to assume that it isn't going to happen and I will be delirious if it actually does!!

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Since you’ll be going back to Sydney, I’m sure it goes without saying but make sure you have your Australia visa before departing YVR. You will need it to transit on split tickets if your bags are not through checked, not just when you return to SYD. (And even with through checked bags, it might be difficult to get the airline to view you as a transit passenger on split tickets.)

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The question here is why you would want to go through customs or immigration in Sydney.

You are connecting from one international flight to another international flight. Follow the signs for reconnecting flights or international transfers.

You can check your bags through . No need to collect them in Syd and recheck.

As long as you have a confirmed onward connection there should be no problem whatsoever. Doubly so if the booking is on one booking code.

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I wish that were the case and that Air Canada will choose to check the bags through but I understand that they are not obligated to because these are two separate bookings (even though both are part of Star Alliance). I absolutely would prefer not to collect my bags and go through customs/immigration if I don't have to and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will be spared but I just wanted to be ready - just in case!

 

Thank you for your thoughts on this!

 

Camelia

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You can check your bags through . No need to collect them in Syd and recheck.

As long as you have a confirmed onward connection there should be no problem whatsoever.

There are many airlines which simply will not through-check bags if the two flights are on two separate tickets. In some cases, that includes the situation in which the second flight is on the same airline as the first flight.

 

If that is your first airline's policy, then having a confirmed onward connection will mean nothing: you will have to clear immigration, collect your bags, clear customs, and then check in for the onward flight.

 

So the OP is absolutely correct to be working on the presumption that the bags will not be through-checked.

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As long as you have a confirmed onward connection there should be no problem whatsoever. Doubly so if the booking is on one booking code.

 

If it’s not on one ticket, then it isn’t a connection.

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If it’s not on one ticket, then it isn’t a connection.

Rubbish! The ticketing is irrelevant. Especially when a connecting flight is on a confirmed flight with an alliance partner. Of course it is a connection. :rolleyes:

I do something like this all the time.

Say Muscat to Doha on Oman Air connecting to Bangkok on The Flying Goat (aka Qatar Airways) on ticket #1, then CONNECT a few hours later to Sydney flying Thai Airways on ticket #2. Luggage checked all the way through. A few hours in BKK, Business meeting and massage included.

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Rubbish! The ticketing is irrelevant. Especially when a connecting flight is on a confirmed flight with an alliance partner. Of course it is a connection.
No, it isn't. It is you who is talking rubbish. And alliances have nothing to do with this.

 

If you have one ticket covering both flights, the first flight is late and you miss your second flight, you have a contractual right to be reaccommodated on another flight to reach your final destination.

 

In contrast, if you have two separate tickets, the first flight is late and you miss your second flight (eg if your DOH-BKK is late in your example, and you miss the BKK-SYD flight), you are at the mercy of the second airline's goodwill. Many airlines will now simply require you to buy a new ticket for the second part of the trip, as they are legally entitled to do.

 

You will also see this for baggage through-checking, as I have already posted. Two tickets = no guarantee of through-checking. And if you haven't left enough time at the transfer point, you could be in serious trouble.

 

At least Camelia- has got this correct, even if you haven't. And I also often do what you do - but equally, I am not doing it under a misapprehension about what is involved.

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Rubbish! The ticketing is irrelevant. Especially when a connecting flight is on a confirmed flight with an alliance partner. Of course it is a connection. :rolleyes:

I do something like this all the time.

Say Muscat to Doha on Oman Air connecting to Bangkok on The Flying Goat (aka Qatar Airways) on ticket #1, then CONNECT a few hours later to Sydney flying Thai Airways on ticket #2. Luggage checked all the way through. A few hours in BKK, Business meeting and massage included.

 

Lots of people fly on split tickets. I've done it plenty of times. I know the risks. Most of the time, it works out. And sometimes (though less and less common) airlines will interline bags on split tickets. And sometimes, some airlines will even bail you out on split tickets in cases of irrops, though less and less frequently these days.

 

It doesn't change what I said. If you're on split tickets, you're not a connecting pax. It doesn't make a difference to airline 2 how you got to the airport, whether you walked in, swam in, or flew in.

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Thank you once more to everyone. I really appreciate everyone's comments and I promise that when I return home I will let you know what ultimately happened - just in case you're curious! I know that I sometimes follow threads regarding situations and am forever left wondering how it was resolved!!

 

Camelia

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(y)

Thank you once more to everyone. I really appreciate everyone's comments and I promise that when I return home I will let you know what ultimately happened - just in case you're curious! I know that I sometimes follow threads regarding situations and am forever left wondering how it was resolved!!

 

Camelia

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Thank you once more to everyone. I really appreciate everyone's comments and I promise that when I return home I will let you know what ultimately happened - just in case you're curious! I know that I sometimes follow threads regarding situations and am forever left wondering how it was resolved!!

 

Camelia

 

Yes, please come back and let us know what happened.

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  • 1 month later...

As promised I am reporting back!

 

It couldn’t have gone smoother I’m very happy to say. When we were about to drop off our luggage in Toronto I asked a couple of Air Canada agents if it was possible for our luggage to be checked right through to Auckland and they seemed very happy to do so. We gave them all the flight info and left our luggage in their capable hands! When we arrived in Sydney we just had to get a boarding pass for the Air New Zealand flight and our luggage was waiting for us in Auckland. I must admit that I did wonder if it could possibly be that easy and had a twinge of worry that our luggage might not arrive but all was well. I honestly don’t know if it was because we were travelling first class (via Aeroplan points] and if they would have been so agreeable if we had been in economy..I’d like to think that it would have been the same. Maybe I will find out on another occasion!

 

Thanks again to all of you for your help and advice..truly appreciated!

 

Camelia

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