China Southern Airlines (CZ). Business Class. International long haul and Domestic.

[Austman]

This is a trip report about China Southern Airlines (CZ) in Business Class.

The route is MEL-xCAN-KMG return. That’s Melbourne-Guangzhou-Kunming. All in Business Class.

MEL-CAN is a B787. CAN-KMG varies - for me it was a B737 or an A320.

Ticket cost was approximately $2,800 when booked directly on China Southern’s website. The cost was charged in AUD and billed in Australia.

CZ is not a member of any major alliance. They have FF arrangements with several airlines including AA and BA. Their own FF scheme is called Sky Pearl Club.

It’s my first time flying CZ.

Off I go!

 

[Austman]

Flight 1. MEL-CAN 10:20-18:05 CZ322.

After booking, it’s possible to select a seat. The B787-9 has the following seat layout:



With the table area on the aisle side, it’s a bit more private. I managed to get 5K. Business Class has 2 toilets.

Online check-in was not possible. But it was quick and easy in MEL. Both boarding passes were issued in MEL. As you can see, this flight was code-shared with Qantas.




CZ use the Marhaba lounge in MEL. Business Class gets an offer of a “secret” wonton soup in the lounge.



I could see, from the lounge, the incoming flight arrive:

 

[AIRwin]

With the table area on the aisle side, it’s a bit more private. I managed to get 5K.

Is 5K better for left-handers?

 

[Austman]

Priority Boarding was done. On board is pretty nice!

Pre-departure cold towels, drinks, including champagne are offered. Together with nuts and dried fruit. And Evian water:



The amenity kit is Ferragamo:



And good quality slippers are supplied.

Seat 5K reclines to a fully flat bed with excellent legroom.



One problem with 5K is that there’s a large cupboard in front of it on the passenger side of the curtain. The crew were constantly accessing that cupboard. They weren’t noisy but were opening and closing the curtain a lot which might become annoying if you are trying to sleep.

 

[Austman]

I had been watching the on-time performance of this flight for a while. It’s good. But my flight was delayed an hour due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft.

There are two full meals served on this flight. Food quantity is not an issue!!

Before the meals, a towel service is done.

The menu:



There’s no wine list but there’s a choice of two whites, one was Australian the other German and two reds, one was Spanish, nicely presented:



And to the food:




That’s just some of the courses! I skipped the soup and cheese offerings. I was stuffed!

It was a bit wow!

 

[Austman]

The second meal was quite substantial but the presentation was perhaps a bit less fancy:

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks for sharing this information @Austman. It looks pretty nice!

I am quite interested in what the Chinese carriers have to offer. I blow a bit hot and cold about visiting China, mainly because some of the visa questions seemed a bit problematic for an ex-ADF person. But now that travel is visa free, I may get interested again. Have you used any of the other Chinese carriers?

 

[Austman]

I didn’t watch much on the entertainment system but it had a large selection on a clear and sharp screen. The moving map was particularly good.

There were no individual air vents on this 787 and the cabin temperature was kept on the warm side, so lighter clothing can be in order when in flight.

Typically, as with other 787 operators, the window shades were kept under crew control and were dimmed for most of this daytime flight.

In flight WiFi actually worked. It was slow but free for business class.

The China Southern app also worked in-flight and provided some interesting information:




The flight actually arrived on time.

CZ seems to have a policy of having seat belts on for about an hour after takeoff and an hour before landing regardless of the weather.

There’s a very visible on-board sky marshal as well!

Crew were delightful.

All up, I was happy and impressed.

Next is my Guangzhou arrivals and transit experience and the CAN-KMG domestic flight.

 

[cambriamarsh]

I didn’t watch much on the entertainment system but it had a large selection.

In flight WiFi actually worked. It was slow but free for business class.

The flight actually arrived on time.

CZ seems to have a policy of having seat belts on for about an hour after takeoff and an hour before landing regardless of the weather.

There’s a very visible on-board sky marshal as well!

Crew were delightful.

All up, I was happy and impressed.

Next is my Guangzhou arrivals and transit experience and the CAN-KMG domestic flight.

Tagging along, hope it goes well. A colleague of mine flew them pre C19 and wasn't impressed but they seem to have improved.

 

[Austman]

Is 5K better for left-handers?

All the control buttons were on the left as was a storage cupboard and power etc.

 

[Austman]

Thanks for sharing this information @Austman. It looks pretty nice!

Have you used any of the other Chinese carriers?

Only Air China. And that was many years ago.

By any measure, China Southern is in the top 10 largest airlines in the world. And I think they are now the largest Chinese airline.

 

[clifford]

I have to admit that I avoid Chinese airlines, well, because they are Chinese, and I would have to negotiate a transfer in, well, China.

That's not to say I haven't done it in the past, but it can be a huge pain.

So, I don't bother with them, even though they can have some quite attractive fares. But YMMV.

 

[Austman]

I have to admit that I avoid Chinese airlines, well, because they are Chinese, and I would have to negotiate a transfer in, well, China.

Stay tuned. That bit is next.

 

[Austman]

As mentioned earlier, the flight departed about an hour late but it arrived on time.

Guangzhou airport (CAN) is huge! It’s China Southern’s hub.

Just before landing you fly directly over Hong Kong. You get some nice views with the windows now in clear mode.

We arrived at a bus gate. It had been raining and both the air temperature and humidity were high. A bit of a shock after leaving winter in Melbourne!

Business Class gets its own deluxe mini-busses. It was all done quite nicely. If you had awkward cabin baggage assistance was given.

At the terminal some CZ staff were waiting to assist pax that had tighter connections. I had more than 3 hours before my next flight so was directed to the regular arrivals.

 

[Austman]

Australians no longer need a visa for tourist visits of up to 15 days.

On board, you are given an arrivals card to fill out. It was reasonably simple.

It’s a huge airport terminal so be prepared for some walking! There are lots of travelators too.

First up is an automated health check. It’s quick. Then a line-up for passport control. Although the line was long, it moved quickly. At the booth your fingerprints are taken and a question or two might be asked. For me, that part was quick and easy. No documents other than my passport and arrivals card were needed.

It was really no different to many airports. Time-wise it was better than many!

Next was baggage claim and customs. I was HLO and went through the nothing to declare lane.

Then it was off to Domestic security.

 

[Austman]

Domestic security was pretty simple. The lines were a bit chaotic but moved quickly. I later found out that this was a separate domestic security area just for international arrivals.

I had a duty free bottle in a tamper-proof bag that was no issue.

It was fine, if a bit pushy from some of the other pax.

The domestic terminal is massive. I knew CZ had a domestic lounge but couldn’t see signs for it. I went to a CZ transfers counter and was pointed to an up escalator and told to then turn right.

This took me past the airside of the “regular” domestic security. And then there were signs to the CZ domestic lounge!

The lounge is huge and rather nice! There’s a large amount of food and drink options:

 

[Austman]

I found a comfortable chair which just happened to be near a refrigerated cabinet of wine offerings. A French white was refreshing. I noticed there was a sleeping area with separate rooms that had beds. I guess you had to request one.

There were lots of flight screens and no flight announcements, thankfully.

Many flights were showing delays but mine was still showing as on time.

For some reason, one of the lounge staff approached me and asked where I was flying to. I showed my BP. He said the gate was at least a 20 minute walk away. He expected my flight might be delayed. He told not to pay too much attention to the screens and that when it was time to head to the gate he’d return to let me know. How nice!

So I stayed put but of course kept an eye on the screens. With my flight still showing a 21:00 boarding time, at 20:45 I was starting to worry. There was no sign of the lounge staff member and no delay shown on the screen. So off I went to the gate, looking for the lounge staff member on the way.

It was about a 12 minute fast walk to the gate. At the gate the flight was still showing as on time. But there was no aircraft and no one was waiting to board.

At 21:00 the screen changed and showed about a one hour delay! So back I went to the lounge. The lounge staff member then found me and I was nicely told off for not “trusting” him, haha. I didn’t make the same mistake twice. At the actual time, I was indeed escorted to the gate!

This is what the CZ app eventually showed:



Next up is the domestic flight. It turned out that I was the only pax in Business Class!

 

[Austman]

Flight 2. CAN-KMG 21:40-00:10 (+1) CZ3419.



This time I’m on a B737-8, with just one row of Business Class:
Pre departure soft drinks and a cold towel were offered.

There was a choice of two meals. Drinks were all soft except for beer.

By now I was really tired and not hungry or thirsty. I thought I ordered some dim sum, so was a bit surprised when this was presented:




I could only pick at the meal and didn’t even finish the single glass of beer.

But what can I say? It was pretty impressive for a domestic flight!

 

[Austman]

Both the departure and arrival used air bridges this time.

Kunming airport is not small by any means! And again there was a fair bit of walking to do.

In the arrivals hall, I asked INFORMATION for the location of an ATM. I thought I might need some extra cash in case I had to catch a taxi. The only ATM was way down the other end but it at least was working!

There is no Uber in China. They have DiDi instead but you need the Chinese app version. While in the CZ domestic lounge in CAN, I had downloaded it. And managed to add a credit card. But of course, I had never used the app before.

There were very clear signs directing you to the ride-share pick-up area in the car park area. That was no problem.

Then I tried using the app. I did manage to get this far:




Then it all went wrong.

Some of the information then appears in Chinese only and I was lost.

 

[Austman]

I tried asking nearby people for help but they thought I could not use DiDi with my foreign card.

No problem, I thought, I’ll get a regular taxi instead. I was told to go to another floor for the taxis. I did that but couldn’t see any taxi rank there.

Again I asked someone and was asked to follow them. It turned out I was given the wrong floor for taxis and was being taken through the car park to a “private” taxi!

Oh dear, I was about to bail and go back into the terminal. But the car was there, ready for go and they wanted CNY 150 which was about the same cost as DiDi after tolls were added.

I decided to take my chances. And about 50 minutes later was delivered to my hotel. Phew!

So that last part was a bit of an unintended travel mistake. But it ended well.