China Southern begins Sydney-London flights on 'Canton Route'

The problem with this route is mainly the visa requirements to be able to transit through Guangzhou Baiyun Airport.

I like the idea, the more alternatives we have to SYD-SIN-LHR the better, would be better yet if we had an alternative to LHR! As long as the connection time for incoming from SYD is not too long to wait, the SIN flights line up pretty neatly.

The design of the airport is not efficient that passengers on connecting flight need to go through immigration and not just head straight to the gate directly. This applies to LAX as well where to change to next flight e.g. Canada requires transit visa.

Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Hong Kong, Seoul airports are quick and efficient where you just walk straight to your next gate.

I would never consider flying with China Southern after my latest trip to China. I flew them from Sydney to Guangzhou. After landing I was considering flying another airline back! The crew were so rude, their seats are a joke and very lacking in In Flight Entertainment. The food was horrible aswell. The only benifit is, I got to see beautiful China and they were cheap. Definalty wouldn't recommend them to anyone, especially when you have to sit on the plane for 9 hours!

sagidec and swan2281 have said enough to make me want to fly with someone else. Seriously, apart from the fact that it is cheap, what makes it better than anyone else?

So not worth flying economy on Chine Southern. Also Guangzhou airport is the worst place to transit in.

I have not read many positive reviews on China Southern, regardless of cabin class. I have read pages of reviews on China Southern and found only a handful of positive reviews.

Whether its first, business, premium or economy, the overall and majority of reviews are not very positive.

Yes its cheaper compared to $6,700 to $8,000 the other airlines charged, but for $5,000 grand to London, I think passengers still expect a good business class product.

And they can't exactly argue that the product is inferior to the other airlines due to costs, because its not as if China Southern pays its flight attendants western wages. According to world salaries, an average Chinese flight attendant get paid around $200 Australian dollars per month compared to western flight attendants who get paid around $60,000 to $80,000 AUD per annum.

Besides for $5,700 you can fly Qatar Airways to London and Qatar Airways has superior service.

Until China Southern improves its service, I doubt the canton route will catch one with business travellers.

And China Southern doesn't have to look very far for inspiration on how to be a top airline, they just need to look at Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific, who are only 100km away from Guangzhou.

hi everyone
i just wanted to let you all know that i am one of a group of australian girls that have recently been hired by china southern to be flight attendants on the up and coming canton route. we have been put through the proverbial ringer for the past few months training for our new position and i can garuntee that you will receive nothing but the highest quality of service whilst on board. china southern is trying to turn its service reputation around and there is alot of retraining going on. while there are only 13 of us in my crew there will be at least one of us on each flight to help with any communication barriers you may be having during the flight. the next hiring process is happening right now and so im sure our numbers will multiply very quickly. there was also a dutch crew starting their training as we were leaving and a french crew have already graduated aswell. it is a prerequisite for all of their newly recruited international flight attendants to be fluent in english so that the service provided to customers is never second best.

Are the J class seats flat or angled beds? The article talks about flat beds at the top, but then mentions angled lie flats when describing business class. Also the first three pics which seem to be of J class, don't match the photo of the business class cabin (which looks like fully flat seats). 

There's the issue that has been reported elsewhere that while in transit in Guangzhou there are no lounges for business/first. This is a major let down given that connecting flights to DXB are 5hours+ away. Instead you would have to pay for your food/drinks from the retail outlets. 

Congratulations to Heather who will no doubt be on some of the debut services.  However, my prais ends there.  I have been in China several times reccently and have multiple issues with several of their airlines.  I flew internally with China Southern to Guangzhao and found the waiting times and chaos at the airport terrible, it has nothing on Hong Kong or Singapore (both of which I have been through multiple times with multiple carriers and found relaxing and enjoyable).  As for onboard product, some of the glamour shots of J look half deccent, but what I have flown on was nothing compared to that, older and tackier than the oldest of QFs 'Dreamtime' seats....China Southern will need to seriously be ontop of their game with hard product if they want to offer a serious alternative.

As for lounges, well OW are generally touted to have the best lounges of all the alliances, and if you combine the Syd F lounge with Cathay F offerings in HKG, new QF F offerings in SIN/HKG and BA's Galleries First in Heathrow then China Southern has nothing on OW to offer high teir FF.

I can immagine some first time uni backpackers being lulled in by cheap fares, but unless there is some real game changing action in place a few western smiles and accents on board wont cut it when you have to spen 26 hours in a cramped china southern ecconomy seat and hours in Guangzhao Int. airport they may think twice before booking again.

AusBT I am eager to see you trip R/V, which I anticipate.  I have one question though, can you confirm if the 'First' class seat really is as coffin like as it appears?!?

Cheaper flights, tempting.  Stuck in an aircraft on the tarmac in China because the Chinese military keep shutting down the airspace for military exercises, no thanks.  I have missed so many connections due to that and it happens at nearly all airports.

There is much talk of the inflight experience being attributed to the nature and quality of the cabin crew and the airline's hardware such as seats and inflight entertainment systems.

However has anyone ever considered the nature and characteristics of your fellow travelling companions in affecting one's inflight experience?

It is my expereince that each airline is predisposed to attract a certain type and calibre of passenger due to its network bias and its postion as price maker/follower.

It really is far more sensible in my opinion to consider these other factors, when considering a flight. You will after all be trapped in a cabin with people whom you would otherwise not voluntarily associate with.