I have a few question I need help with. I just booked 2 FF tickets from LAX to SYD on United leaving in about 2 weeks. Our flight arrives at 6:10 AM. I would like to fly to BNE that day on QF.

How much time do you think I need to go through Customs and get over to recheck our bags? I'm thinking about booking a ticket at about Noon to give us plenty of time. Do you think this is enough time.

Prior posts seam to indicate QF does not normally allow standby for earlier flights. Should I ask anyway. Once I check bags I will just stay with whatever flight they put us on.

I will be taking 2 other flights while I am there on QF. Should I buy one way for each leg? Other than possibly being strip searched are their any advantages to puting them all on the same itin? Other than the first leg to BNE I am not sure of the exact timeing yet of the other 2.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Short

If you are arriving at 06:10 a flight at 09:00 would be perfectly adequate to go for I would suggest

Unless you go for a flexi-saver or higher, the fares do not allow changing to an earlier flight on the day; once in a while you might get away with it, but the norm is that you will have to wait for that which you have paid for

I wouldn't book a noon flight unless sitting for 5 hours in an airport terminal appeals

Dave

You have allowed yourself plenty of time.
I would be more inclined to go for a 9.00/10.00am departure.
SYD/MEL airports are now very busy early morning, to give you an idea I usually get through MEL very promptly in 30minutes without baggage, but last weekend it took 90 minutes with 5 lines of passengers waiting in the baggage hall, just to get to the customs check point. This was the hold up, once there they pushed me through a side door, but most were on their way to be checked for foodstuffs. To make life easier for yourself, do not bring in any food or seeds of any description, and if there is anything on the declaration card that you might say yes to, discard it in the bin outside of the plane and state NO. On exiting customs you will notice signs to Qantas domestic, follow these. It is true that Qantas will not put you on an earlier flight, but do not let that discourage you from asking. Most times they say no to me but every now and then they will throw me on an earlier flight home.
I would say, get to BNE, settle in and work out your itinerary from there. OW tickets domestically do not ring any alarm bells, but expect security checks prior to entering all our domestic terminals, usual culprits like water bottles toe nail cutters and large bottles of after shave. Enjoy your flight, Brisbane is warm and sunny at the moment, daytime temp of 27, regards bkkrop

United has a terrible on-time performance (and cancellation rate) on that route. At least it did have, I haven't checked lately. It was bad enough that there is a long thread specifically on that route in the UA forum - link and in particular this post. With more than 1 in 3 chance of very late or cancelled flight, I would be going for a long transit time myself, unless I had a very flexible QF ticket (or all on a single ticket).

My two recent SFO-SYD UA flights (since March 08) have been on-time. Statistically, that makes them 100% reliable. Can QF108 match that?

No it doesn't. Poor confidence interval on just 2 flights. I'm referring to the reports of many FTers, and flightstats data. Having said, that since I posted I checked and more recently UA has improved to about a 1 in 4 or 5 chance of lengthy delay or cancellation. Still not great odds.

FlightStats Mar-Apr 08: UA863 - 59 Flights, ontime 76% Average Delay 18 mins - max 65 mins.

right and 59 flights from 61 days implies 3% cancellation rate

Not to split hairs but it still does make og's flights statistically 100% on time....

Of course sample size is probably to small for it to be a true reflection of population.

I find it slightly amusing that people jump up and point out that theres no U in Qantas in an instant, but we're not so patriotic about there being only one I in australia We must be getting used to them Amerikans

Another consideration is that domestically at most ports they will only check in your bags at T-3 hours max. This is due to limited bag holding areas. So if you allow a lot of time you may be sitting around waiting for a while.

Eg: xmas time i flew HKG-MEL in CX J. Late notice got told to come straight up to SYD so that was on QF domestic (CX flight was personal and couldn't be changed), non-linked PNRs, so I allowed plenty of time just in case of delays. Get to QF check in counter and she quite rudely refused to take me as it was still 4 hours till my flight. So i spent an hour on the floor near the J* counters, quite a comedown from cathay business!

The OP is a train gunzel!

Dave

You should know that I used QF instead of Quantas for just this reason and then I spelled Australia wrong?

Short

Not sure what you are referring to here. If you asking if you will get more rigorous security checking for having one-way domestic flights, then the answer is no. Security is the same for all, so by the one-way flights if more convenient.

Don't be ridiculous.

There is no "i" in "Ashtraya".