Anyone flown long haul with China Southern?

[SayrraT]

We are going to New Zealand in November and have been looking at flights.

Flights with China Southern seem to be around half the price compared to pretty much every other airline! It's around £1600 a return for two us in economy compared with just over £3/3500 with others so it's a lot of money that could be used on fun in NZ!

I've looked at reviews but just wondering if anyone had an first hand experience they can share.

From what I can tell in-flight entertainment and food are not as good but we can deal with that. Seats seem to be comparable in size/pitch to others and planes look to be up to date.

I don’t know anything about China Southern, but have you looked at different airports, even flying via somewhere like Paris/Amsterdam?

I have recently booked to go to Aus via Singapore (albeit for this summer rather than winter, which is peak season down under) and there was a real range of costs.

Heathrow is much cheaper than eg Manchester, and I could have got it even cheaper going with Air France via Paris.

Do you land in China with CS, and if so, where, and will you stay overnight?

Is the journey much longer than the main routes (which are long enough as it is), especially coming back.

I have flown short haul with China Southern. Food was standard Chinese airline speciality: rice, meat and bones in a sauce and pickles in plastic sachets. I would take plenty of snacks! Safety wise everything was fine. Transit through Guangzhou was straightforward although queues were quite long.

I've look at quite a few different options (we are in Scotland) flying from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, London into any of the airports in NZ.

The overall flight time is a bit longer (35hrs compared to 27hrs) and the wait in Gaungzhou is long. We looked at spending time in China but its not practical so just planning to stay at airport.

Just looked again and there is a new option come up with BA/Qatar which is slightly cheaper (£2900 ish). We can cope with longer flights and long waits!

We know we are going at a more expensive time of year but we wanted to go for the start of their summer.

Thanks ShanghaiDiva

Not bothered about the food really as we will just take snacks anyway, neither of us drink (saw a few reviews saying they didn't offer as much alcohol as some other airlines) so that's not a problem either.

Most concerned about safety, comfort and getting there with luggage! Will definitely take clothes in hand luggage.

Friends travelled to NZ recently (with BA) had no luggage for 5 weeks!

I lived in China for 12 years and flew short haul (domestic and international) with several Chinese airlines. Never had an issue with lost luggage, comfort seemed pretty standard although economy to NZ is going to be ‘uncomfortable’ after a few hours regardless of airline. Planes can be a little ‘grubby’ and I guarantee that two hours into the flight the toilet floor will be ‘sticky’.

The long layover would put me off, unless it was in a beautiful airport like Singapore where you can get little rooms to freshen up/shower etc.

I think you need transit visas for China which is an added hassle? You certainly did, happy to be corrected.

Luggage wise, my DD has flown to/from NZ & OZ this year as part of a gap year, and had no problems. One way was Qatar and she got messages in the App saying her bag had been loaded onto second flight, the other was Emirates, again no luggage problem.

She did struggle with the length of flight, esp outbound, but she was alone which didn’t help.

Hey @SayrraT , I just found your thread as I am looking at going to NZ with China Southern (or Singapore for £1000 more....) soon. Can you tell me if you went with them in the end?

I particularly wanted to know about transit and whether it's straightforward in Gaungzhou or if you need to go through security there. Thanks!

Hello!

No, we ended up going with Qatar in the end. The China Southern flights ended up having a long layover when we went to book.

Ah, thank you for replying! So hard to find any info on this, I might just have to go for it!

@LambChopsMcGee Just wondering if you ended up going ahead with China Southern to NZ? How was the transit, flight, safety etc?

I am planning to travel with my 2 boys aged 9 & 10 to Aus. Flights with CS are £900 savings compared to other flights.
Just want to hear it first hand from someone who has used the airline as many of the reviews are quite puzzling with some saying good and others saying poor.

I am rather looking at enjoying the flight, not fussed about food and comfort but safety is def a priority.

Thanks.

Yes. I have done a long haul.

Very very basic economy offering. Like a short haul fitout with seat back screens.

My family are very tall and they really struggled in a seating configuration designed for shorter people.

We changed at Shanghai and honestly it was organized chaos, time consuming and stressful.

In short. Never again.