looking for prices from Bris to Europe (though specifically in July).
skyscanner came up trumps
bris to amsterdam.
found a nice price in march - depart 10th return 17th $1377.
nice and cheap
Agreed. Chinese carriers have a bad reputation. China Southern Airlines gets a 5 out of 10 on Skytrax. Quite low. I'd recommend Royal Brunei Airlines, they have fares to London for about $1,200 (regularly).
Royal Brunei Airlines - flying from where? I'm interested because we'll be going again in the next 10 months but can't find any Australian departure point. Do they share routes?
Skytrax does not give ratings out of 10.
China Southern is a 4 (out of 5) star airline on Skytrax - and they serve alcohol.
Royal Brunei is a 3 star airline on Skytrax - and they don't serve alcohol.
Do you have any first hand knowledge of what you are talking about?
my experience with them was fine.
Altomic, Can you elaborate on your experience? Seating, food, cabin crew service etc.
I was flying shanghai to narita.
only a short flight but we got a snack.
seat/leg room was fine.
cabin crew were in attendance.
nothing struck me as bad or any different from any other carrier i've flown with.
my worst flight was Niigata to Vladisvostock on an old propeller driven Tupolev. after that flight everything is good.
Overall experience - would rather go by boat than this zero grade shit airline.
It's a no deal, it's a torture flying this airline.
Lol. Tell us what you really think.+1 for not pulling your punches
fyi - been to China few times in last 12 months..
re#1 above - there's been somewhat of a relaxing of visa requirements…upto 72 hours, may not be necessary… google is your friend, or try this http://www.travelchinaguide.com/embassy/visa/free-72hour/
For direct transit - you don't need a visa. Otherwise, 72 hour transit visa on arrival.
China Southern average fleet age 6.4 years.
3 & 4 China Southern - 4 star Skytrax rating
5 Guangzhou Airport - 3 star Skytrax rating
Perhaps you had a bad flight - doesn't excuse your misinformation.
By far not the best airline I've ever flown with, but for their pricing, their a damn site better than Tiger back here… or the likes of slEazyjet, Ryanair, a lot of the AirFrance services in Europe and a heap of the cheaper American ones too!!!
I travelled 3 times with china southern (just coz it was bit cheaper), every single time I missed my connecting flight and then the nightmare starts, you have to wait atleast 2-3 hours at the airport before being transferred to a hotel 30-45mins away from airport.
upon arrival at hotel we were given a small packet having a smallest orange, a 250ml drink and 2 cherry tomatoes at dinner.
when I and other fellow passengers protest then the hotel staff just talk in chinese and laugh at us.
and THIS HAPPENED EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRAVELLED WITH THIS BLOODY AIRLINE.
I have flown many many times and never have I been subject to the sort treatment that China Southern Airlines inflicted upon my wife and I. We were flying from Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Sydney with 2 connections in China. All the the flights were China Southern Flights. We had two bicycles with us. Having flown many times before with bikes we I knew that MOST airlines charge around $50 or do not charge anything as long the bike is properly packed. However we though better safe than sorry so we checked with the airline at Tashkent. We were delighted to be told we could take the bikes and they would not be charged for (if there had been an excessive charge for the bikes we would simply have arranged to ship them home) and sure enough at check-in everything went fine.
However when we got to our first transfer point in Urumqi we were horrified to be told we must pay over $2,000 in excess baggage fees. We tried to negotiate and asked repeatedly to speak to someone in charge but all the staff would say is "You must pay. If you do not pay you will not be allowed on the plane". When I asked why I had been been told there was no charge in Tashkent they just said the staff in Tashkent had made a mistake. I asked why I should pay $2,000 as a result of their staffs mistake and was simply told "You must pay. If you do not pay you will not be allowed on the plane". The staff also made it crystal clear that if we did not get on the flight we would have to buy new tickets and still pay excess baggage AND that we would probably be breaking our transit visa conditions in the meantime by not having onward tickets. In other words they had us over a barrel and knew they could charge what they liked.
In my opinion this is extortion and theft but having persued it since returning to Australia it appears there is no-one with any power over the way these foreign airlines opperate.
IF YOU FLY WITH THESE CROOKS BE VERY CAREFULL YOU GIVE THEM NO LEVERAGE OVER YOU.
I've travelled twice with Southern and both times service was great and once they gave us a lot of extra snacks and spent time talking to us - most friendly experience ever on any airline that I've been on.
I think that if you are the sort of person who will always prefer holidays in the swiss alps than in downtown Guangzhou then you should choose an airline that is commensurate with the Swiss Alps experience.
Just makes sense to me
Southern China Airlines was the worst flight I have ever experienced, and I have been on a lot of flights. More than worth paying $100+ to fly with a proper airline that doesn't treat you like cattle/a Western spy.