China Southern - first time booking experience

Joined
Sep 25, 2013
Posts
963
Qantas
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Virgin
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Background:
We're off to Europe late May - first stop Malta. Our outbound flights were booked using Velocity points (via DOH) - we have now cancelled these as Virgin has suspended its wet-lease flights indefinitely. Backup flight booked the day the 'war' started - using AC points (PER-BKK-FRA) - the best available at the time. Now since we live in Sydney this was not ideal so we looked around (just yesterday) for paid alternates. The best we could find (all the way to Malta and avoiding the ME) - one-way in J at $7200 pp.

Solution:
So yesterday I stumbled across a China Southern flight SYD-CAN-IST for $2900 pp in J. Adding the IST-MLA would be another $350 pp in J.
So I went through the online booking - and after entering all the passenger details, seat selection, credit card details - I clicked "PAY" - oh dear blank screen!!
So I called the China Southern local number - amazing - answered immediately - obviously a Chinese agent who spoken totally fluent English. She found my orphan booking - checked the details, sent me a payment link - paid and all good - itinerary and e-ticket came through.

One small problem:
On trying to look up my booking on the China Southern website - I cannot do it (I am only a guest not. a member) - tried PNR and "order number" - both said invalid format. I really only wanted to check that my seat selections were still in place. I'll call again later today and sort this out (I'll report back). If anyone has any tips - please advise.
I'll report back our experience on China Southern (both flight are 1-2-1 flat beds so should be OK) - other aspects of business class have a much lower priority to us.
 
Have you tried their app, most of the Chinese airlines have apps to do everything that seem to be more functional than their websites.
 
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Same problem when I booked in Feburary- it takes 24 hours to populate in the CZ mysterious database before it shows up as a booking where you can manage your reservation.

When you are on board just remind yourself the price you pay to lie flat all the way. I found that for the price it is a great product. CZ biz lounge in CAN is a little chaotic though- probably because they allow in all types of paid lounge access.
 

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