Australia: Cairns to Sydney to USA Question

[SteveLaz]

My son and I just booked a trip to Cairns to dive the Great Barrier Reef with Mike Ball mid-August. We are trying to put together our flights and hoping someone with experience flying out of Cairns to Sydney to USA can help us out.

Coming home we end the live a board and disembark at 8am on Tuesday . We are planning on going right to the Cairns airport for a 12:10 Virgin Aust. flight to Sydney that arrives at 3:05pm... then catching our next flight out of Sydney to Los Angeles at 5:45 with American. .....

SO MY QUESTION: Is 2 hours 45 minutes going to be enough time to get our bags form virgin air and make it to the international terminal for our next flight?

The next flight out of Sydney is at 9 something pm which would give us more than a 6 hour wait that we really didn't want to do unless absolutely necessary. Thanks

 

[Seepferdchencam]

My son and I just booked a trip to Cairns to dive the Great Barrier Reef with Mike Ball mid-August. We are trying to put together our flights and hoping someone with experience flying out of Cairns to Sydney to USA can help us out.

Coming home we end the live a board and disembark at 8am on Tuesday . We are planning on going right to the Cairns airport for a 12:10 Virgin Aust. flight to Sydney that arrives at 3:05pm... then catching our next flight out of Sydney to Los Angeles at 5:45 with American. .....

SO MY QUESTION: Is 2 hours 45 minutes going to be enough time to get our bags form virgin air and make it to the international terminal for our next flight?

The next flight out of Sydney is at 9 something pm which would give us more than a 6 hour wait that we really didn't want to do unless absolutely necessary. Thanks

If you can get it on a single ticket (you may need an agent) they'll check your bags through. The bus ride between terminals is 10 mins.

 

[nadwidny]

Just make sure your carry-ons are 7kg or less and you should have time.

 

[hotsong]

Travelling through Sydney, no issues with that layover time, it's just an easy bus transfer between terminals domestic to international, as long as it's a linked through ticket. Really straightforward.

If they aren't linked - too risky missing / forfeiting your international flight if the domestic one is late, and you need to deal with collecting bags, terminal transfer / jnternational check-in / immigration in Sydney. In that case, I'd suck up the 6 hrs.

 

[SteveLaz]

Well, what we are planning is NOT a linked ticket. I do not believe there is anyway we could do it on one ticket, but i will look again.

 

[Living4Experiences]

American is a OneWorld Alliance partner. Virgin Australia is a Star Alliance partner. Since they are not partner airlines working within the same partner network, you likely will not be able to link the tickets. 2 hours, 45 minutes, in my opinion, is not enough time to logistically and comfortably make the connection. I have had a similar itinerary to yours on several occasions using different carriers to hop around the globe. I prefer at least 4 hours layover to make it work.

If your layover is 2 hours, 45 minutes, you have to factor in boarding time on the second flight which is generally 30 minutes before take off. Now you've got a 2 hour, 15 minute layover. If you're seated anywhere other than the front of the plane on the first leg, plan on a long wait to deplane.