22nd August . Qantas QF525 (as BA codeshare) to Sydney, then British Airways BA 16 to London via Singapore.
Flight left Brisbane at 12.25pm, arriving Sydney Domestic at 14:00. I had one and half hours to get from Domestic to International, through Border Security - immigration and customs. The BA flight was leaving at 15:30. Sounds easy, but in peak hour, it would be almost impossible at Sydney airport I'm told. Lucky mine was the afternoon but I was nervous!
I got to Brisbane Domestic around 10:30ish hoping I could snag an earlier flight. The line for International transfer didn't seem that long, but it took ages for the two operatives to process us. No go on the earlier flight - "perfect amount of time!" I was told. Tip 1: make sure you have plenty of time for all that processing, especially if it is peak hour.
Popped upstairs to wait and have a coffee. Krispy Kreme had a stall right where my gate was. Lucky I don't like them, but myriad Chinese apparently did. Lots of Chinese families on my flight that day. It was noisy!
Flight arrived on time and I jumped up and grabbed my bags ready to exit through the rear door as I had done so many times before. No rear door today folks. So we shuffled through the front one and my anxiety was increasing! My flight came in at one of the early gates and I had to get to Gate 15 for the transfer bus. It is sooo far! I never realised how much room one gate took up till I tried to zoom my unfit body carrying two bags. There were lots waiting for the bus to come and when it pulled in, I zoomed again to the front of the line. Lot of slow mo zooming went on today. I'm sure a lot of people didn't get on it. Tip 2: get in the front of the line.
On arrival at Sydney International, all I had, theoretically, to do was go up the escalator, through Border Security and turn right for the BA gates. Tip 3: - get in the right line for the Smart gate! It was fairly quiet actually and I got through pretty quickly. But my right turn was blocked. Some kind of construction going on - go this way to Gate 51 (10 minutes). More zoom. I was thirsty and I needed to pee!
Finally made it to Gate 51, hot and red faced. Found Alex and left my bags while I went in search of toilets (none in close proximity with the renos) and a drink machine that had signs about coins and notes, but no actual slots to take any. No peeing was done. Back to the gate and we were boarding.
So, in reality, you need every bit of that hour and half if you don't plan on the zoom method. And more, if your connecting flight was late. Note: make sure there is a bigger gap next time!
Flight left Brisbane at 12.25pm, arriving Sydney Domestic at 14:00. I had one and half hours to get from Domestic to International, through Border Security - immigration and customs. The BA flight was leaving at 15:30. Sounds easy, but in peak hour, it would be almost impossible at Sydney airport I'm told. Lucky mine was the afternoon but I was nervous!
I got to Brisbane Domestic around 10:30ish hoping I could snag an earlier flight. The line for International transfer didn't seem that long, but it took ages for the two operatives to process us. No go on the earlier flight - "perfect amount of time!" I was told. Tip 1: make sure you have plenty of time for all that processing, especially if it is peak hour.
Popped upstairs to wait and have a coffee. Krispy Kreme had a stall right where my gate was. Lucky I don't like them, but myriad Chinese apparently did. Lots of Chinese families on my flight that day. It was noisy!
Flight arrived on time and I jumped up and grabbed my bags ready to exit through the rear door as I had done so many times before. No rear door today folks. So we shuffled through the front one and my anxiety was increasing! My flight came in at one of the early gates and I had to get to Gate 15 for the transfer bus. It is sooo far! I never realised how much room one gate took up till I tried to zoom my unfit body carrying two bags. There were lots waiting for the bus to come and when it pulled in, I zoomed again to the front of the line. Lot of slow mo zooming went on today. I'm sure a lot of people didn't get on it. Tip 2: get in the front of the line.
On arrival at Sydney International, all I had, theoretically, to do was go up the escalator, through Border Security and turn right for the BA gates. Tip 3: - get in the right line for the Smart gate! It was fairly quiet actually and I got through pretty quickly. But my right turn was blocked. Some kind of construction going on - go this way to Gate 51 (10 minutes). More zoom. I was thirsty and I needed to pee!
Finally made it to Gate 51, hot and red faced. Found Alex and left my bags while I went in search of toilets (none in close proximity with the renos) and a drink machine that had signs about coins and notes, but no actual slots to take any. No peeing was done. Back to the gate and we were boarding.
So, in reality, you need every bit of that hour and half if you don't plan on the zoom method. And more, if your connecting flight was late. Note: make sure there is a bigger gap next time!
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