• long running

Free 1 Night Hotel Accommodation for Eligible Transit Passengers @ China Southern

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Having just come back from a trip with China Southern , I didn't know about this deal so thought I would post it as I only found out on the plane back!

Looks like some Ozbargainers have already tried this out ( https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/460227 \ https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/448433 )

Cities that provide free accommodations for transfer passengers are ( and each city has different rules and hotels )

Beijing - https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/transit_flow/beijing/mian…
Urumqi - https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/transit_flow/Urumqi/trans…
Guangzhou - https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/transit_flow/flightsTwo_h…
Dalian - https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/transit_flow/daliantransi…
Wuhan - https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/transit_flow/wuhan/
Chongqing - https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/transit_flow/chongqing/
Shenyang, Guiyang, Changsha, Shenzhen,

China Southern Airlines offers passengers who are qualified for free transit accommodation a free stay for one night (including a free breakfast) and transportation between the terminal and the hotel. Any costs for additional services need to be paid by passengers. For the length of stay, refer to the requirements of the hotel.

For non-intercontinental connecting tickets

  1. Platinum card passengers: any cabins of an international and regional segments except for G;
  2. Other passengers:the cabins of an international/regional segment should be: F/ J/ C/ D/ I/ O;

For intercontinental connecting tickets

  1. Platinum card, Gold card, Silver card passengers:any cabins of an intercontinental segments except for G;
  2. Other passengers:the cabins of an intercontinental segment should be: F/ J/ C/ D/ I/ O/ W/ S/ Y/ P/ B/ M/ h/ K/ U/ A/ L/ Q/ E.

Note: Intercontinental routes refer to those travel between Asia and Europe/ Oceania/ America/ Africa.

Standards

  1. VIP passengers, or passengers flying in first/business class on international/regionalsegment of thewhole flight or connecting flight,or Sky Pearl Platinum Card members are entitled to a Grade A partnered hotel of China Southern Airlines.

  2. Passengers flying in first/business class in the domestic segment of the international/regional connecting flight, and Sky Pearl Gold Card,Silver Card members are entitled to a Grade B partnered hotel of China Southern Airlines.

  3. Other passengers are entitled to a Grade C partnered hotel of China Southern Airlines

Check out all the latest Hotels Coupons & Deals

Related Stores

China Southern Airline
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Comments

    • -6

      So much CCP on Ozbargain

      • -8

        Once in a lifetime opportunity to be patient zero

        • -1

          Down vote party

          • +2

            @Pikaloo: Joining the party to help people increase their social credit score, can I be censored too? pwetty pwease UwU

  • +2

    Yeah they've been running it for a few years now. Better to pre-book the hotel as you often have better choices. Our flight was delayed and had to choose from a couple in the airport that weren't as nice as the one we could book.

  • +12

    I personally recommend China Southern Airline. Their seats are comfortable, and they provide media options and charges in the airplane.
    One thing please notice for this free accommodation is you ticket class needs to be beyond 'E'. I bought a ticket from BYOjet which was about $700 return but when I phoned them, they said it is not eligible as my ticket is class T. They said normally your ticket needs to be over $1300 to be eligible.
    JFYI

    • +2

      Thanks mate. A hotel for a night in some of these cities would definitely be $100 or lower if on budget.
      With a return price like that maybe getting your own accom is cheaper overall.

    • I recall getting free accomodation on a roughly $1000 ticket before, and that ticket was the cheapest available at that time (flight centre, student flights, ctrip etc)

      • +1

        that must be prior to Covid. They removed this service during covid and only recently bring this service back with more conditions.

        • That sounds about right then, I think it was late 2019 when I went.

    • How are the flight attendants with their service? Cathay has been average and Qantas not good unless business class

    • They have be swimming in organ pool having a few million expats entering China every year

  • so only for one night, not 144 hrs?

  • -3

    CN 💪💪💪

  • +2

    I just can't see many OzBers taking up the transfer deal in Urumqi!

    (I was there in 2009 and can definitely recommend it though).

    • I did in 2016 :)
      Loved Urumqi

  • +1

    Having just done this, I wouldn't fly through China again to save $200.
    You get treated like a criminal when you go through Visa on Arrival. You're photographed, fingerprinted and interrogated as to why you're in China. You have to show receipts for your hotel and your air ticket out. You also have to go through a long process to explain your Covid status which takes forever. The whole process took me 3 hours. After a long flight, I don't need to go through this. Oh, and you have to go through a similar process on the way out.
    If you must do it, I suggest you bring a burner phone or avoid the Airport Wifi because they want to download stuff to your phone so you can use the "free" airport wifi.

    And there are cameras everywhere on the streets. It really is a police state.

    • +22

      congratulations on describing the passport control policies of most countries

    • +1

      Thanks for this post.
      I'll have the opportunity for Visa-On-Arrival (due to a China Southern flight) soon,
      and this has been great insight for me.

      I want to ask, if you were able to move around inside the country,
      without WePay, etc… basically, can you still use ca$h and not use the (burner) phone too much?

      • +2

        technically you can but good luck on trying to get change from most places. china has pretty much become a cashless society.

        • OK.
          Understood.

      • From memory and I believe it's still true that RMB cash has to be accepted by law.

        Would it be easy to open a WePay or AliPay account?

        • +4

          Not the least, you need a local SIM card to register Alipay and WeChat but in most telecom service shops, they barely accept Passport. In addition, most shops don’t accept VISA or Mastercard unless some luxury ones. It is impossible for you to open a bank account in China. I worked in China for several years, not a very wonderful experience. The government has tightened the outflow of money. When I moved back to Australia, it was painful to transfer my deposits back to Australia even though I had provided all the legal documents they asked for.

          • @nned2say: I have a Wechat account and it asks for ID check every time I try to top up, so that I don't bother to continue. Back then when I studied in China I was able to open a bank account and shopped on Taobao without issues. Yes I got a student phone number which was quite cheap and also a QQ account. Recently since the Gov applied age limits to many online platforms, many apps like Tiktok Chinese version and Tencent Games that I was able to use/play before now require ID checks and some need Chinese ID to function normally.

    • +2

      China has around 200 million CCTV cameras, followed by the USA’s 50 million and Germany’s 5.2 million. The United Kingdom closes in at the fourth position with 6 million CCTV cameras.

      The list goes on with Japan with 5 million, Vietnam with 2.6 million, France with 1.65 million, South Korea with 1.03 million, and the Netherlands with 1 million CCTV cameras.

      However, if you count the number of cameras per capita, the USA leads the race with the highest number of CCTV cameras per person.

    • You get photographed and fingerprinted when you enter Japan, you also get interrogated when you enter US and potentially denied entry if the bloke doesn't like you. What's the deal?

    • I appreciate you sharing your experience.
      It doesn’t sound unexpected. Perhaps you could provide us with some tips on how to expedite the process like you mentioned with hotel receipts or other useful documents to prepare before departing.

      Receipts, travel phone, Covid status, travel plans are pretty standard. I’d assume, if you act like you have something to hide, you may be subject to a more thorough vetting process

    • He's not wrong. I had a very similar experience in Guangzhou.

    • Why are you worried about cameras on streets? Doesn't this make it safer?
      Must be nice to go somewhere lawless like the US where gun violence is the norm and there's no cameras 🇺🇸

  • +3

    Hi used them few years back and this was what I found: 1. You have to find someone that has the following wording written on their vest at the airport “ I can speak English”. 2. Once you are with them, don’t try to talk, they don’t understand, show them your ticket. 3. After you get visa and all, wait for 2-3 hours and someone will take you to hotel 4. Depending on which airport you use, the toilets are on the ground, so if you have knee problem good luck. P.S: before landing, 90% of passengers start exercise. I will never use them again.

    • +1

      Username checks.

  • +2

    Travelling to the UK with Korean Air and Japan Airways, they both had a free night accommodation plus breakfast.
    It was great. Would do it that way again (assuming time isn't important).

  • +1

    I've done this free hotel thing a few years ago. The hotel was good. There was a free full head face mask in the hotel. This was before Covid. The face mask was for the air pollution.

    The main reason why I think this exists is because of how frequently flights are delayed over there. I often saw lots of people waiting at airports for hours.

  • The super cheap tickets are often in the no accommodation level.

  • Flew with China Southern in May 2023 and never again.

    Both legs of our trip were delayed and departure times adjusted by multiple hours via SMS, only few hours before planned departure.

    On return leg, our Intra-China stopover flight was pushed back /rescheduled on the morning of the planned flight, resulting in us missing our China-AU 2nd flight. At the point of us being made aware, we were at the checkin counter.

    They didn’t care much and we had to sort the mess out with their call center instead. Hotel offered on stopover in Guanghzhou was nothing special and food was not included.

    Be aware that this offer exists so they can wash their hands clean when they will mess up your itinerary to meet their flight passenger quotas. Where you try to take advantage of it, they will bump you to another time slot so you are no longer eligible (happened to us on the departing leg to China where we tried to take advantage of this and meet a family friend).

  • Planning to travel using Southern Airline. Can I ask anyone to share their experiences at Guangzhou airport with 7 hours of transit time. My flight will arrive Guangzhou at 23.55pm. My next flight out is 11.05am the next day. Do we wait at the airport transit lounge or book a hotel nearby? Also for those who are holding Australian passports, do we need to apply for visa if we are there for just 48hours (I read we don't need a visa, just to be sure so that we dont get into trouble)? if no visa is needed, where can I get a transit visa to tour nearby? I want to be prepared because I don't read or speak Chinese. Thank you.

    • Those are tough hours. I would book hotel nearby, but be aware immigration/visa might take quite a while.

      We were there at T2 last week on way back from Tokyo and stayed 1 day to take a look at the city. 144hr “visa free” really means “free visa”… we went to immigration but were directed to a visa desk and effectively had to apply for a visa, we had to show accommodation booking, onward boarding pass. The staff went on a 30 min break and we were just stranded waiting. It was pretty tedious and took 1hr+. We stayed in city (1hr drive), but there are airport hotels incl one at the other terminal. Immigration back out on departure was fairly quick for us, but might depend on time of day.

      Your other option is to stay airside in the terminal, which is prob not great. Airport still quiet and volume still coming back from Covid. There is a lounge which you can pay for called Premium Lounge (which we did on our way to Tokyo) but I suspect not open the hours your need, although was open at 5:30am when we arrived. Has shower but no towels. Try calling to see their hours. There is also a hotel inside T2 (and next door to lounge) but it has been closed since Covid. If you stay inside then bring own supplies as the handful of shops would prob be closed. Pacific Coffee was open at least from 530am. On our departure at 9pm we did see some travelers seemingly settling in for sleep in airport.

      The other tip (unless it changes) us to do the health declaration on WeChat in advance (declare you’ve done neg rat test), you get a barcode you need to show even in transit. Tedious online form (for first time) so don’t want to be doing that when you step off plane. Screengrab QR code if you won’t have cellular in China as airport wifi was also a pain.

      Overall, we had good experience on CS, v nice new planes, everything on schedule, would fly again.

      Good luck!

      • Thank you so much for sharing the information. Really grateful. Sorry to hear about the long wait to apply for visa. This is what I cannot afford as my son can't even stay put for 1min! Would be great if Premium Lounge is open 24hrs as we can have free access to PL through our credit cards. Will call them. My issue is my partner is holding a passport that is not entitled to a free visa. We need to apply for visa just to get out of the airport for a few hours. Thank you once again.

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