Qantas Int'l/Domestic Transfer - SYD

Qantas has managed to change its SYD terminal transfer so badly that calling it a mess is flattering.

At the start of the pandemic, all the bus drivers employed by QF were retrenched and replaced by contract bus drivers. The issue is the QF drivers had airside licenses so were able to do the transfer on the internal roads between the terminals. The contract drivers do not so have to use public roads outside the airport. How bad this is during peak hours is anyone's guess.

To make matters worse, QF has decided that transferring pax will no longer congregate and check-in luggage in the transfer room near the freight terminal. Instead they queue on the footpath leading to this room and are handled by a single person who checks boarding passes, handles changes etc and then instructs pax to leave their luggage on a crowded luggage belt near the door.

This morning, despite their only being very few flights, the transfer queue stretched over 100 metres and many people were missing their domestic connection as they stood in the queue for over 20 minutes, then waited for the bus to depart on its slower circuitous route to T3 where you joined the security queue with everyone else.

I understand QF has lost money over the pandemic and, as a shareholder, I want to see it succeed but this type of penny-pinching risks alienating passengers. I can only imagine what foreign arrivals into Australia must think of the shambles they are confronted with if they need to transfer.

Hopefully, QF revises how this whole process works sooner rather than later. In the meantime, if time is tight, you may be better jumping on the train even though it is pretty ordinary too.

This is one reason I've taken my business elsewhere for years. If Qantas seriously wants to be regarded as anything other than "Sydney Airways" for international business travellers then in addition to offering better connectivity out of other Aus ports, it needs to fix the joke that is moving between Domestic and International terminals at Mascot.

This is one reason I've taken my business elsewhere for years. If Qantas seriously wants to be regarded as anything other than "Sydney Airways" for international business travellers then in addition to offering better connectivity out of other Aus ports, it needs to fix the joke that is moving between Domestic and International terminals at Mascot.

I have a connection flight May 18th morning BNE-SYD-JNB, i wonder if they would have fixed/improved this situation. With more people travelling and $’s coming in, you would think they would be pro active about call centre and transfers?

I flew into SYD on 21 Mar on Japan Airlines, a Oneworld member airline, with a connection through to Canberra flying Qantas Link. On arriving at the domestic transfer building was informed that they were only transferring people who flew in on Qantas. I was redirected to the T Bus, which takes the public roads, instead. Ridiculous. "Oneworld"....not so much.

Wondering if anyone have experience with domestic-international transfers at SYD?

I am looking at BNE-SYD feeder route onwards to international destination but the connecting time is only 90 mins.

In the precovid times the baggage is transferred automatically at SYD and the QF transfer bus offers no fuss, well, transfers.

Anyone can tell me please if this is still being done?

Yes, baggage is automatically transferred to the international terminal. The transfer bus is also operating, but it's now using public roads, rather than the old airside transfer. (Apparently because the new drivers don't yet have ASIC clearances.) This means the transfer can take considerably longer. If it was me, I'd be more inclined to catch the train, I think. And while 90 minutes is certainly within minimum connection time (MCT), that is way too tight for my liking - especially if your BNE-SYD ends up arriving a bit late. I'd be changing to an earlier connection ex-BNE.

Thanks John!

BA at LHR has turned into a shambles, now QF at SYD following the same path. A far cry from their golden days. "Full service" airline seems to have a different meaning now.

In case anyone is wondering, the international transfer bus is still working, but pax traffic after 9 am is heavy, but the worse is the immigration and security checks which is heavy and queues are very long. 3 hours is bare minimum transfer time and that's assuming you have already checked in all the way through from your first flight.

The automated immigration scanning machines shuts down every 15-20 minutes just because of the overwhelming numbers (IE nothing has changed/improved since 2020) but strangely I had never seen that happen in other countries.

Many flights' departure time (of all airlines) are held back due to the delays today but there are circulating staff pulling out pax stuck in the queue who are really late (some still in the queue at 0950 for a flight boarding time of 0905 for example) but frankly it's a bit of mess.

I suspect that many of the pax are transferring via SYD as many airlines are still not restarting routes out of capital city airports other than SYD and MEL so this is going to be what it is for at least next few months.

And no, express lane for premium pax is not in operation.