China Southern is leaving SkyTeam

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Still can't see CZ joining unless CX goes to Star and doubt SQ would support that.
 
CX and CZ have very few overlapping routes. CX is almost non-existent in China.

I guess, their "overlapping" routes are connecting traffic from far afield (eg. from an Australian perspective).

Nevertheless, CX has 20 destinations in mainland China, whilst CZ has >130. Having CX as the alliance option to cover China, is a bit like having AC as the option to cover the US.
 
Still can't see CZ joining unless CX goes to Star and doubt SQ would support that.
I would expect the mainland government to "inform" CX, as to what CX's position would be regarding CZ joining oneworld. (You think CX won't do as they are told!!?)

I think China's CP strategy in the Pearl River Delta, seems to be to turn Guangzhou into the main centre of the region - and reduce the impact, integrity and importance of Hong Kong's economy across the board, as part of the 30 year mainland integration timetable. (CZ joining oneworld is presumably just another cog in that wheel.)
 
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CZ have tried v hard to get better at where they are weak... cabin staff. However I think a lot of their poor attitude reflects who they serve the most. Generally their clientele consists of many first time flyers who simply do not understand that u don’t squat on toilets nor hawk and spit to the floor ( yes I’ve seen that) or that farting profusely in a confined space is unpleasant. I must say that this is what happens in J but it is compounded by arrogant ‘business men’ who treat cabin staff like cough. So god know about down the back. Well actually I do because my Chinese business partner flies there a lot and she has told me tales!! So it’s not pretty. Cabin staff respond in kind she says and are v unhelpful.

However there is a generally low level of expertise.... meal presentation in J is only so so at best and wine often gets wheeled out already poured in glasses. Red is well, red...oh u mean they are different???? Etc
CZ did say at one point they were trying to recruit English speaking cabin crew but I haven’t seemed to have seen any great improvement.

I’ve flown on most of their metal over the past 15 yrs I have worked up here and generally it’s a young fleet and in good nick. It’s a big airline and great reach not just through Asia but into Europe as well.

Be good to have them in OW... still a work in progress though.
 
I must say that this is what happens in J but it is compounded by arrogant ‘business men’ who treat cabin staff like cough. So god know about down the back. Well actually I do because my Chinese business partner flies there a lot and she has told me tales!! So it’s not pretty.

Aaah, don't worry about that, once Big Brother is watching, that will all stop ... i.e. once cameras are installed on board, and linked up with the Chinese government facial recognition / social credits program then the behaviour will start improving considerably.

China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system — here’s what you can do wrong, and the embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you

Social Credit System - Wikipedia


When I flew Air China last week, there was a separate announcement from a "Security Officer" that mentioned the presence of survelliance cameras.
 
Apart of excellent coverage of destination within China, CZ also has a good coverage of Central Asia destinations. OneWorld lacks airline that serves Central Asia destinations and so the alliance might see this as a value of CZ.

CZ J class service on long haul has improved greatly over the last 3 years. Better champagne, white wine is cooled, better food is served and more crew members speak English. Oh, and they serve drinks from the bottle they bring to show the customer. They roster one crew member from the country the flight originates from or lands in, e.g. Dutch, French, Australian staff member that was on my flights. If the crew finds it hard to understand what the customer wants this expatriate crew member is called in to assist with communication.

Their free hotel accommodation for longer than 8 hours layovers is certainly a winner just as I welcomed being met at the gate and escorted through the airport to the lounge when I had connections there. Last year, I was even offered a hotel for a 6 hours layover because "the lounge here is not very nice". Small but pleasant perks as is the use of lounges for even silver members when they travel in economy or free seat selection in rows with bigger pitch that other flyers have to pay extra for. They called them SkyPearl economy seats and indeed there was more space and only a few of these seats were taken. It was nice to put the armrests up and stretch out across the empty seats.

CZ responds to customer complaints - I should know after making quite a few of them for matters like food, use of J toilets by economy class passengers, etc.
 
Apart of excellent coverage of destination within China, CZ also has a good coverage of Central Asia destinations. OneWorld lacks airline that serves Central Asia destinations and so the alliance might see this as a value of CZ.

CZ J class service on long haul has improved greatly over the last 3 years. Better champagne, white wine is cooled, better food is served and more crew members speak English. Oh, and they serve drinks from the bottle they bring to show the customer. They roster one crew member from the country the flight originates from or lands in, e.g. Dutch, French, Australian staff member that was on my flights. If the crew finds it hard to understand what the customer wants this expatriate crew member is called in to assist with communication.

Their free hotel accommodation for longer than 8 hours layovers is certainly a winner just as I welcomed being met at the gate and escorted through the airport to the lounge when I had connections there. Last year, I was even offered a hotel for a 6 hours layover because "the lounge here is not very nice". Small but pleasant perks as is the use of lounges for even silver members when they travel in economy or free seat selection in rows with bigger pitch that other flyers have to pay extra for. They called them SkyPearl economy seats and indeed there was more space and only a few of these seats were taken. It was nice to put the armrests up and stretch out across the empty seats.

CZ responds to customer complaints - I should know after making quite a few of them for matters like food, use of J toilets by economy class passengers, etc.
Having only travelled J on their A330 how does it compare in comfort with other aircraft in their fleet and which would you recommend?
They had some pretty decent deals to the US last year and seriously considered booking with them until a change of plans.
 
For what u pay it represents fairly good value. I used to be Sky Pearl Silver and there were some perks available that made the experience a bit better
 
Have not used them to US but their planes to Amsterdam and Paris were much better than what they spare for Sydney where they operate mainly old A330. AMS and CDG get 777 and 787 which are much nicer. Even A330s on those routes are newer and configured differently as they have 1st class as well. I think they keep their best for US routes though. Their US trips get good reviews in both J and Y.
I've flown in F only 3 times and did not find it so much better than their J. It might be a waste of money to pay for F on their European routes.

For their short haul flights it is the luck of the draw as to what plane they'll use. I've felt that paying for J on these was a waste of money as their recliner seats and food service were nowhere near the high standard of Aeroflot on international short haul. Even Air Astana int. short haul was better. So for such flights on CZ I use the so-called PE which cost only about $50-80 more than Y and had always given me a row to myself so that I could stretch out.

To see the actual aircraft configuration, just do a dummy booking on their website. Apart from giving you daily prices for the whole week, both in economy and business, when you open the details you can see the aircraft type. When you put your cursor on the aircraft it shows you its configuration.

Good thing is that when buying a tx from their site you can mix and match. For example, choosing J on outbound and Y on inbound leg and then upgrading your Y to J. I've done that a few times to save some cash. Upgrades cannot be done on internet, best to send them an email or phone their Sydney office that has a dedicated FFP staff.

Their FFP is very generous accruing points per kms rather than per miles, thus giving you more points per trip. Upgrade availability has never been an issue.
 
Hi @Helena Novak

Do you have any pics of the various seating /cabin lay-outs you could share? Anyone, for that matter :)
Yes please. I’m very interested in any TR or pics of their A380 as that is what they appear to use for their flights to LAX.
Have seen a couple of reviews but would be interested to hear from anyone on here.
We love Guangzhou so a stop over along the way suits us aswell
 
As a lifetime gold Qantas ff (over 1 million points) and elite plus China southern (over 1.5 million points) I really hope they do join one worlde using points across the two brands much easier. I have flown China southern every month to China for nearly 8 years and not surprised they are one of the strongest airlines in the world now.
 
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