Customs in Auckland and Sydney?

Hello. I'm flying to Australia in July of this year, from the U.S.
I land in Auckland, layover for 2 hours, change planes, fly to Sydney,
and have another layover (hopefully only 2 hours) before flying to my
final destination.

I'm wondering about going through customs in Auckland and Sydney.
Will I have to go through twice? How long should I expect it to take?
The reason I ask is that I have a choice of bookings for the final
leg of my flight out of Sydney. I'm afraid that 2 hours won't be
enough to make it through customs, but my next choice of flights out
of Sydney means an 8 hour layover.

Does anyone know? I appreciate any info!!

TIA,
Stella

(stella) writes:

I'm wondering about going through customs in Auckland and Sydney.
Will I have to go through twice? How long should I expect it to take?

Regarding Sydney, no, you won't need to go through Customs twice. When
you get off the aircraft listen to the flight attendants instructions
about going to the terminals, bypassing Customs. You should be able to
make your next connection safely.

Call the airline and check to make sure.

On the other hand, if you choose the 8 hour layover, you could catch a
train into Sydney, enjoy the sights for about four hours, and still make
it back in time to go back through customs in plenty of time. The train
takes about 20-30 minutes to get into the centre of Sydney, and it's
another short train ride to get to Circular Quay, where the Opera House
and the Bridge can be visited.
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And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep
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On 22 Apr 2004 19:24:54 -0700, (stella) wrote:
[msge snipped]

Hello. I'm flying to Australia in July of this year, from the U.S.
I land in Auckland, layover for 2 hours, change planes, fly to Sydney,
and have another layover (hopefully only 2 hours) before flying to my
final destination.

No, you won't have to clear Customs & Immigration at Auckland *unless*
you chose to go outside of the arrivals/departure area i.e. into the
main terminal itself. Which in turn, means you have to be processed
to re-enter. Not worth the time or risk.

Auckland has some rather cheap duty free shopping so you might like to
spend your time looking through the stores.

For your info:

http://auckland-airport.co.nz/
There are links to the international terminal and duty free stores.

Cath

stella wrote:

Hello. I'm flying to Australia in July of this year, from the U.S.
I land in Auckland, layover for 2 hours, change planes, fly to Sydney,
and have another layover (hopefully only 2 hours) before flying to my
final destination.

I'm wondering about going through customs in Auckland and Sydney.
Will I have to go through twice? How long should I expect it to take?
The reason I ask is that I have a choice of bookings for the final
leg of my flight out of Sydney. I'm afraid that 2 hours won't be
enough to make it through customs, but my next choice of flights out
of Sydney means an 8 hour layover.

Does anyone know? I appreciate any info!!

TIA,
Stella
Surely in Auckland you would be a transit passenger and wouldn't have to
go through customs ? Unless you are changing to a domestic carrier in
Sydney, the same should apply there - you would go through customs at
your final destination. If you do have to go through customs in Sydney,
2 hours *might* be enough, but not if your plane is late coming in or
they have a scare on or are doing a blanket quarantine search as
sometimes happens. It's also quite a way from the International to the
Domestic terminal.
Anne
South Australia
Anne
South Australia

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The privacy.net address is a spam trap.
Please reply to

On 22 Apr 2004 19:24:54 -0700, (stella) wrote:

Hello. I'm flying to Australia in July of this year, from the U.S.
I land in Auckland, layover for 2 hours, change planes, fly to Sydney,
and have another layover (hopefully only 2 hours) before flying to my
final destination.

Out of curiosity, what are you flights?
i.e. AKL to SYD and SYD to final destination?

Cath

in article , Widya Santoso at
wrote on 23/4/04 3:33 PM:

(stella) writes:

I'm wondering about going through customs in Auckland and Sydney.
Will I have to go through twice? How long should I expect it to take?

Regarding Sydney, no, you won't need to go through Customs twice. When
you get off the aircraft listen to the flight attendants instructions
about going to the terminals, bypassing Customs. You should be able to
make your next connection safely.

The op said they were "going to Australia" - surely that implies that the
onward flight ex SYD is a domestic. IMH:
#1 - You will remain in transit in AKL & will not see your luggage nor
officials from customs & immigration.
#2 You WILL clear customs in SYD and this should be easily done in 1 hour
unless there are many flights arriving at once (sometimes between 6 & 8 am
this happens because of the curfew). You will then take your luggage to the
transfer desk and they will point you to a bus within the airport fence to
the domestic terminal.

Note: If both flights are ticketed on IATA paper there will not be a
problem if your Intl flight is late - the airline will rebook you (This
happened to me in AKL last Sunday). However - if you are buying a cheap
Jetstar or Virgin internal flight you will forfeit the ticket if you are
late.

Vicki

On Sat, 08 May 2004 17:31:20 +1200, vicki Steven
wrote:

in article , Widya Santoso at
wrote on 23/4/04 3:33 PM:

(stella) writes:

I'm wondering about going through customs in Auckland and Sydney.
Will I have to go through twice? How long should I expect it to take?

Regarding Sydney, no, you won't need to go through Customs twice. When
you get off the aircraft listen to the flight attendants instructions
about going to the terminals, bypassing Customs. You should be able to
make your next connection safely.

The op said they were "going to Australia" - surely that implies that the
onward flight ex SYD is a domestic.

Depends - some domestic flights operate between international
terminals in order to provide convenient connections - QF 26 does
this, flying LAX-AKL-BNE-SYD. Customs and immigration is undertaken in
SYD for through paxs.

IMH:
#1 - You will remain in transit in AKL & will not see your luggage nor
officials from customs & immigration.
#2 You WILL clear customs in SYD and this should be easily done in 1 hour
unless there are many flights arriving at once (sometimes between 6 & 8 am
this happens because of the curfew). You will then take your luggage to the
transfer desk and they will point you to a bus within the airport fence to
the domestic terminal.

Unless you are flying between international terminals.

Dave

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