[Anonymous]

[stevescoots]

China southern 787 LHR to CAN

I have flown CZ several times ex AMS to CAN and have tried to avoid them due to poor service levels unclean aircraft and bad food. This time the flight cost was coming in around 2K GBP in business for LHR direct flight so I thought I would give them a go again. I don’t do wordy reviews so it’s short and sweet.
Lounge, this T4 sky team so most of us know what that is like, but they should rename their “living wall” to “dead wall”. Looks like no-body has been watering the plants ?
Boarding: organised and efficient.
Aircraft: it’s a new bird so it’s nice and clean. Layout in business is 2 2 2 across. Seats have the industry average basic settings and power points, lay flat, wide and very comfortable.
Cabin design is china standard so a little bland in nature but I would say exactly on a level with major EU carriers. You get a nice thick duvet, vanity bag and slippers. Headphones are rubbish so if you have your own bring them. I just test tried them before slipping my own on. I got a good 8 hrs. Sleep on this 11.5 hr. flight.
Service: excellent way better than most carriers and close to ME carriers, that right blend of politeness and friendliness without being overbearing.
Food. It’s not on demand service but set times, just like most carriers. Overall very good and well presented, individual dishes served on a table cloth not in a tray. Mixture of Asian and western food. If you are a wine snob then you will be disappointed, but then I am not so I don’t care. Red or white will do for me.
Disembarking in CAN. On this occasion we were bussed to the terminal instead of the jet bridge. Business is separated from economy and driven strait to the main immigration hall. Priority bags were first off the plane

And that’s about it! I do this trip every 3 weeks and in the main use QR or go into HK on BA/CX. If CZ maintain this standard and pricing I will abandon QR who you cannot get below 2600 without an 8 hr layover in their mess of Doha’s new airport and BA/CX sky high pricing

[CXDiamond]

Great review thank you Steve.

I think for those of us working with Chinese companies we will increasingly use their carriers as they will develop very competitive products and may even give the Gulf carriers a run for their money.

Standards are obviously on the rise, compared to what I remember 10-15 years ago standards are now unrecognisable whereas in the west things have really not moved on at all.

[stevescoots]

Just following up on the review. I took the return flight yesterday, the lounge at CAN is nothing to write home about, as are most mainland lounges. boarding efficient, business class passengers are shown to their seat. Food was very good as was the dining service. they offer 2 blankets, a lightweight and a heavy duvet. service was very good through the entire flight with approx 3 mins being the longest I waited on the 3 times I pressed the call button. This was also the 787 and I had a peek in economy class where the seats looked a lot more comfortable than QR’s 787 economy seats when I had a peek a them before. on this flight they had also changed the headsets to better quality ones. One thing I noticed on this plane was the AC charger. Usually my brick of a laptop charger trips out most aircrafts points as it pulls so much juice, not on this one though. we were almost an our late departing but arrived on schedule.

So, all in all I give CZ a thumb up on the 787 and this route and will be ore than happy to fly this one again as long as the price remain about £500 less than QR who were my prefered carrier on this route.

[AMcWhirter]

CZ lost money this year (as against a profit over the same period last year) so I hope the higher standards will be maintained.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-11/china-southern-air-sees-first-half-loss-as-yuan-weakens.html

[stevescoots]

Have taken the fight again and it was just as before, except they have gone back to awfull headsets, so bring your own!

However something to watch out for in LHR check in. They have introduced a max weight per bag of 23kgs. I was a little over this so they let it go. If you go over its £150….or go buy another case from the luggage shop in T4 as it will be cheaper as the allowance is 3 bags in business each no heavier than 23kgs each (if Sky Team gold as I understand)

In true “only on china” style business passengers were taken of to a VIP bus at CAN whilst economy use the jet bridge, the theory being VIP’s get shuttled directly to the Immigration hall……only the bus actually takes longer than walking so you end up in the immigration hall after all economy passengers!

[LuganoPirate]

Then Steve, they should hold back the Economy passengers for 10 minutes giving Business class pax a chance to get there before them 😉

[DavidGordon10]

I used this flight a couple of weeks ago, changing at Guangzhou to go on to Australia, out to Melbourne then back from Sydney. I echo almost all of Steve’s comments, and I would use CZ again. The arrangements for transit from one flight to another were good and very smooth.

The ticket to Australia was certainly good value for money.

The only negatives are that the CZ lounge in Guangzhou is nothing to write home about (as Steve says) and the drinks are slow to appear! No champagne as you board unless you specially ask for it – when it comes with a smile. There was only one white and two red wines, but all good, one very good. One main dish for lunch was an exceptionally good combination of scallops and goose.

A negative – not CZ’s fault – is that it took about 20 minutes to attach the jetway on arrival at LHR, but then it is, after all, just an airport with third world standards……

[Author]

Posts