I have been searching from every comparison website, it seems China southern to be cheapest. Is there a particular reason for this.
Why Is China Southern Cheaper than Other Airlines?
abhishesh on 07/02/2015 - 22:44
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China Southern is what i would call a mid-tier airline. Definitely not comparable with your good full service airlines (Qantas, Qatar, Emirites, etc), however better than your budget carriers (Air asia, tiger, etc). Generally have a long stop over somewhere in China. Personally if you can save $500 to $700 pp flying with them I reckon it is worth it. If it is more like $100 - $200 pp I would fly with one of the better full service airlines.
* I paid $900 a few years back flying to Amsterdam return during peak season, saved about $600 off next cheapest airline. The food is poor/average, service is the same, but seats and entertainment much better than budget carrier.last year i flew melb to Japan and melb to Nepal with China Southern. saved about a grand all up with nearest rivals air malaysia or Vietnam air. Stoped 3 days in Guangzhou…never again, its a dump and an expensive one at that. No Dramas with the flight, adequate leg room, good english movie selection, plenty of spare seats, food a bit naff but free alcohol….warm beer tho. Biggest plus is they give you 2 x 22kg checked lugage plus 15kg cabin bag!! thats a heap of snowboard gear to japan at no extra cost or as most people on the return, a shit load of cheap souvinirs.
What is it with warm beer on airlines - it seems to be an industry norm !!
was guangzhou expensive to asian standards or western standards.
sorry for late reply….expensive to Asian standards, similar to Japan for accommodation and food. cheap to get around in taxi
s tho. You must haggle a lot but that's expected. Lots of Rich Chinese....and I mean very rich, designer clothing, flash sports cars everywhere on the main water front drag of Guangzhou. This also brought a big intimidating police presence on the streets at night. Im talking mobs of 10 or more heavily tooled up and not the type to take any crap. The whole place had a funny vibe at night, like it could all kick off at any minute. saying all that Shamian Island was a little sanctuary amongst all the blade runner style chaos and is home to the best star bucks I have ever seen.
Qantas has good service???
Good for the bogans who haven't tried anything other than Jetstar. Lol
They are trying to muscle in on the traditional stop-overs cities of Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong.
I have read that industry people think China Southern get subsidised fuel from the Chinese government (as do some of the gulf airlines).
If true, this explains the pricing advantage.prolly right
also they have been very aggressive in trying to get businessalso all china airlines got approval from Australian government to increase the number of direct flights to china, means they want to start being aggressive (also why Cathay needs to step up their game, cause before heaps of mainlanders had to fly to hk before aus)
I had a friend who used to work at Rolls Royce in Hong Kong where they serviced the engines for all the airlines that flew through the airport. He told me never to fly this airline (or any other Chinese airline) as they don't conform to Rolls Royce recommendations on turbine blade life, and when they used to come in, they were in a terrible state. Take that for what you want.
No real need to neg this, it is what I was told by someone who had first hand experience. If you want to fly China Southern, go ahead, I'll steer clear.
Seeing as to how RR designed and QA passed a flawed engine to A380 that nearly caused a Qantas plane to crash, I'd be taking what your friend advice with a grain of salt. Maybe its another flawed engine and your friends company noticed again?
Yeah, I don't think chunks missing from turbine blades is a design flaw.
Where are you going?
To LA they are a few hundred cheaper on average, BUT you transit in China. So what is normally about a 15 hour flight is now 24+ hours AND you need to apply for a transit visa which is an additional hassle.Just to note that via Guangzhou you can now get a 72 hour transit visa on arrival at no cost if you're on an Australian passport.
It costs an extra ten hours of having to sit on a plane.
only flew with them once .. crap..
they loaded everyone on the plane and then told us we are delayed for 2.5 hrs so we had to sit in the plane on the tarmac for 2.5hr before it left off.. was not happy
Very similar experience but we sat on the tarmac over 5 hrs in Beijing. The plane was full, the food was cold, the beer was warm, they put on films but no-one bothered to tell us why we weren't taking off. Then there is the joy of dealing with Chinese airport officials who make sure they sap any last vestiges of your remaining holiday enthusiasm.
Good Going……
I rekon becoz of their service.
The food is only basic… At least with Qantas you get some free wine and the food is semi-edible.
Booked yet to fly, but I already regreted.
If you are less mobile and need accessible services, try avoid them like the plague. Don't give them the chance to humiliate you.
Despite flying Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Jetstar, AirAsia without any drama (some being extremely friendly and helpful), we met China Southern, the airline that is so special. They strictly demand medical certificate to prove that the person is fit for fly and requires wheelchair assistance. Even with full medical history, even after they saw the condition with their bare eyes, they refused to budge. At one stage they even imply they may not allow the person to fly at all without medical certificate ("Since we have your name, we will take special care of you at the airport").
Reckon low cost carriers' customer service is poor? Think again. On China Southern's au contact page, there are no email address, no local phone number, no office address. All you can find are the +86 international numbers to China. Finally I managed to find the email address for membership service, the reply is "Thank you for writing to us. Agent No.****** service for you. Could you please contact our hotline +8620-95539 / 4008695539 / +8620-86682000 to consult?" You call this service?!
I'm confused. So you managed to contact them about accessible service, but you say they're uncontactable? I don't get it…
Also, did you try another agent? Sometime you get duds.
The do have local office and 1300 number but they are not published anywhere, e.g. official website. I got the address and number from my friend.
You get what you pay for…