China Southern Airlines

Horrible service. No one ever answer the phone call, at their office and at the airport. I just have some concerns regarding baggage and i cannot reach out to them at all!

I’ll keep this short. Nice, new modern Planes full of rude, loud, nose pickin and flickin, spitting, coughing, standing in the aisles, inconsiderate Chinese people. The food was inedible. I couldn’t even identify some of it. (and I’m not too picky) the seats were thin and hard. I knew about this from other reviews so I bought a wheelchair cushion and it helped immensely. The FA’s spoke a «little English but were unconcerned with the antics of the passengers. The highlight was a guy across the aisle from my aisle seat standing up in the aisle next to my head playing air guitar with his eyes closed while listening to headphones. Did I mention the cutting in line at the gates? I put a stop to that!!! Unbelievable. Never again. I guess that wasn’t so short.

Going on vacation to the other side of the globe almost didn’t happen because of the staggering prices of the high season. It seemed like China Southern was the only airline that offered the lowest prices – by lowest, I mean cheaper by hundreds. The only catch was having long layovers in Guangzhou, which didn’t seem too awful to me… and sometimes, these impatient Chinese passengers can be a bit of an inconvenience. So I booked it, not really thinking too much about how long of a flight I had ahead.
I absolutely regret flying with this airline.
While it’s not the most terrible airline I’ve flown with, for 36 hours to get to your destination and not get annoyed? Tough luck. The flight from JFK to Guangzhou was okay – didn’t really have problems. It was a little weird that a bus came to pick up people to the arrivals one at a time. I had a 9-​hour layover in Guangzhou which turned into a nightmare and set me back by quite a lot for my trip in Auckland. It’s nice that they honor hotel rooms for you to rest in if you have more than an 8-​hour layover, but apparently, the whole thing is managed by one person, which guides a group of people from the airport at a time to get a room. It was too much nonsense and wasn’t worth the time it took to wait and travel back and forth.
The problem started when we got back to the Guangzhou airport – I saw a lot of messed up things at the airport that I won’t discuss here, but I was already jet lagged and annoyed that the gate was at the ground floor of the airport, which meant I would have to be transported via bus and squashed between a bunch of people while holding on to my suitcase. After waiting on line for what seemed like forever, apparently there was a «malfunction» with the airplane and our flight was delayed by 2 hours. It was terrible – I was hungry, and all (except one that was running low on food) of the cafes were closed because this was all at the wee hours of the morning. All the airline offered was a pack of oil-​dripping crackers and a bottle of water as an apology. They moved the gate to the above floor and with 2 hours left until boarding, all these passengers were pushing and scramming to the boarding gate above as soon as the announcement was made, as if the plane was leaving in 5 minutes. Seriously, chill out.
Seeing that everything in Auckland closes early and the day after I arrive was a public holiday (meaning most businesses close), I had planned on going to a few places after my 4 pm arrival, and this delay screwed me over because the next 2 days were public holidays. My flight from Sydney to Guangzhou was much better but the seat selection for this airline is terrible. What I find really strange is that this airline does not allow you to use your cellphones throughout the flight, regardless of it being on «Airplane» mode or not. I have never encountered such a problem before. My level of expectation for this airline overall was set low, but some of the flight attendants could be a little more courteous and could use some improvement on their tones and attitudes. They also don’t speak a whole lot of English, so keep it simple.
Meals were subpar, but I wasn’t expecting much because you get what you pay for, I guess. I don’t think I’ll be flying with this airline again – too many headaches that the few hundred dollars I’ve saved wouldn’t even cover therapy.

I was really worried when I read the reviews, especially for the low price I paid. Honestly, it was a pretty decent experience based on today’s unpleasant overall flying experiences.
Round trip from LAX to Vietnam with a stop over in China. Planes where nice with new double decker on the long haul. Meals were decent for airline food. My only negative and the reason I knocked a star off is because the Moran flight attendant walked right by us with the dinner cart. When I caught her attention all the chicken meals were gone and only fish left (yuck) so I missed a meal. They even served meals on the 2 hour flight between China and vietnam. U.S. airlines would never do that.
I would use them again. Especially if they keeps prices low.

I ques I am lucky because I fly the A 380 so its a new airplane and no delays. And its the only reason that I fly China Southern because of the modern airplane. well the connecting flight to Bangkok I have to deal with an older airplane…
food is ok, sometimes the flight attendants because of poor English get rude. or maybe overworked. worst are actually the passenger on board the behave like from a farm, spit and very loud :(
I am trying to book another flight with them and have a visa question which is almost impossible to get help with. On the web page the don’t have any US numbers on purpose probably to safe $$ I had to call China after the lady on the phone could not really help me she gave me a US number… Well trying tomorrow if it will work…

I booked a flight to return to LAX a week ago and upon arriving to Guangzhou, an angry lady working at the check out desk was yelling «delayed delayed!» Everyone checking in from the transfer flight were all puzzles because not one worker for China Southern knew why the flight would be delayed 5 hours…
Checking in, I asked the lady why are we being delayed and she said she didn’t know and offered everyone on the flight complimentary hotel room. I chose that option and still not a word of English was provided. About 12 of us had to walk around the entire airport following an angry Chinese man just to get on the shuttle bus (keep in mind nothing was clarified still at this point).
I reach the hotel and the employees behind the desk still had no idea what time our flight would be. Since it was rumored to depart at 2 am, I went down the lobby at 12:45 and waited for the shuttle bus which came at 1:30. I realized that no one even bothered to wake us up and if I hadn’t gone down at the time I did, I would’ve been late to my flight.
When I finally arrived at the gate, in red lights flashed «LAST CALL TO BOARD FLIGHT _​_​_​!» Turns out if I was even another minute late, I would’ve missed my flight. The lack of communication this airline has as well as its flight crew is ridiculous.
My mother is in the Philippines and APEC 2015 happened to take place on the 14^th of November which resulted in a no flight zone from the 14^th-​20^th. She called the airlines days before and they told her it was only domestic flights that would be cancelled. Since I left 4 days earlier, the stewardess said international flights were cancelled as well. Wasn’t able to contact anyone with the phone numbers provided. Not even a single email was sent to my mom regarding her flight cancellation…
Please everyone, take this into consideration. If you have other airline options, please please choose another.

I have never had such horrible service. Between over 90 emails and a horrible website I can’t even locate my actual ticket. No one answers at the LA office and every time I contact them overseas they tell me they can’t make changes and reroute me. I will NEVER use this airline again.

Having a nightmare experience right now, denied entry due to middle name not being on ID. Tried buying another ticket from them yet they would only let us buy Business class for $ 3300 a ticket. Made us go to another airline to purchase a new ticket of which we had no choice. Worst part, they canceled our RETURN, so now I’m stuck without a ticket home. They only care about sending me away at this point instead of helping me

I don’t know how busy they are, but I called them few times on the work time but no one answer.

We just got stuck because of china southern airline at JFK… we checked in and when we had a connecting flight that was supposed to go to kathmandu cancel, we were not notified to make any changes, just to show up. When we showed up at the airport, they have us wrong information… now I’m missing an event of my life. Terrible… no phone, no rep to talk to. JFK washed it’s hands as well… not their problem!!!

I attempted to book direct and had my info kicked back several times before finally going over to Priceline to book the deal they had going. The aforementioned should have been a red flag, but nevertheless, I am a glutton for a good flight deal. I booked this flight in August, and I’ve attempted to select seats for a long haul that will likely sell out. It is now nearly November, and I have not been able to get ANYONE from China Southern Airlines to respond to my email inquiries (I’ve sent FOUR to EVERY email they have available), I’ve been placed on hold through their customer service call center (both the USA and Chinese #s) for 30 mins+, I’ve sent a message to their Facebook account only to be forwarded to their jobs portal (WTF??), and WeChat ALL TO NO AVAIL. I have not even boarded the damn flight yet and already I am regretting supporting this airline.
CHINA SOUTHERN: PLEASE GET WITH MODERN TIMES AND ALLOW CUSTOMERS TO BOOK THEIR SEATS VIA YOUR WEBSITE. The option is there, and is pretty much useless (crashing as soon as you get to selection). If you’re going to have a USELESS feature on your site, then at least allow third party vendors like Priceline to facilitate seat selection, OR, RESPOND to customer service inquiries. Good grief.

Some of the reviews here seem harsh. What are people expecting? Emirates?
I’ve flown to Asia on Cathay, Asiana, and Air China. China Southern compares well to those.
The good:
1) Still very-​new B777−300ER for my JFK — Guangzhou route.
2) Food: quite tasty. I recall only getting 2 meals on Cathay and Air China; China Southern served 3 (2 main meals and a lighter one).
3) Seats: felt more spacious than Cathay.
4) Frequent beverage service.
5) Flight attendants all speak decent English.
The bad:
1) Poor selection of movies. Screen is also smaller (probably 8.7−8.9 inches) compared to China Eastern’s 11 inches.
2) No printed menu.
3) Not sure whether this is a PRC aviation law or what, but I was told to turn off my iphone even when we were cruising and with my phone on airplane mode.
All in all, a solid airline and I would definitely fly it again.

Was due to travel from San Francisco to Kathmandu via China on South China airlines in two weeks. Booked two months ago. Now cancelled by airline without explanation. Alternatives now hard to come by. Has never happened to me before.

Flew from LAX to Vietnam for very cheap. A lot of very picky reviews in here… but for the price of my ticket I can’t complain at all.
Smooth flight, easy layover in Guanzhou, and had no problems checking in.

Forget about it!
We are planning a trip from Indonesia to the states.
The three tickets come to over $ 2500.
I called a rep at China Southern and was told in a very unfriendly, curt way that she cannot tell me if any tickets are refundable until I give her the ticket numbers. Well… I am not going to spend $ 2500 to find them to be non-​refundable, so we will NOT use this airline.
We also would have had long, long layovers in Gangzhou… we have heard it is a hell hole.
Be very cautious when booking flights with Chinese airlines… they are Chinese customer friendlier than they are to foreign travelers. A form of prejudice.
There are many other very negative posts about this airline so I suggest not using them.

Excuse the title: Unilocal put it there and I can’t take it off. It should be «I thought they check the planes»
JFK to Guangzhou:
1. Sit on the tarmac for ½ hour: OK
2. Captain says pressure in one of the tires is low, have to go back to a gate to change the tire. Really?
3. After an hour at the gate, captain announces that TWO tires were low, it’ll take another hour or two «please stay in your seats» Oh, and «we have to turn the AC off»
4. An hour or so sweltering hours later, captain says «we’re too heavy to change the tires, we all have to disembark.
5. Long line to disembark because we all need new boarding passes to get back on.
6. Now waiting to get back on plane 4 hours after schedule, no end in sight.
7. Guys supposed to be changing the tires have mostly been standing around.
Aren’t they supposed to check the air in the tires before loading it up? If they screwed this one up, who knows what else is wrong?
I’m reluctant to get back on the plane. Hope they cancel

Most of the 4 to 5 star reviews are from family members of China Southern or employees of Unilocal.
No way this airline could get good reviews. Bunch of lying heathens!

I recently traveled to Vietnam on China Southern from New York (JFK) with a layover in Guangzhou, China. I was a little hesitant at first as I’d never heard of this airline, but I did a little research and discovered that China Southern is actually the largest airline in China. I was also a little worried considering the negative feedback here on Unilocal.However I was pleasantly surprised with the service provided on this trip.
First, the planes were pristine and brand spanking new. Touchscreen TVs and everything. I flew on a Boeing 777 from NY to China (really long flight — around 15 ½ hours), and then a smaller regular size plane to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). On the trip back to the states we flew in a Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) — these things are massive. I think only United Airlines in the states has it, and even then it’s rare that you’ll ride in it.
The staff is Chinese, obviously. Their English is great for what you need to communicate. Things like water, wine, chicken or beef or anything like that is easy. TIP: ask for a exit row seat: you get what feels like infinite leg room. Just ask at the check in desk in the airport or call the Los Angeles office (however, the wait on the phone is about 20 mins).
The meals were really delicious. And they come around often for drink refills. FREE RED WINE! It’s really kind of bad how much better foreign airlines are compared to their U.S. counterparts. In the U.S. they’d be taking tomatoes out of the salads in order to save money. On China southern they even served everyone a FULL meal on a 1 hr 40 min flight from Hanoi to Guangzhou.
This isn’t Korea Air or Singapore Air, but it is definitely an airline that I’ll use to travel to Asia in the future.

The reviews are correct. If you can get a cheap ticket, this airline might be worth it as an economical choice, but you get what you pay for with them seriously. I felt instant regret once on-​board but didn’t have a overly horrible flight The food is below average, you have to beg for something to drink, English is poor, and its not very comfortable on their planes. That said, they keep a fairly clean flight and the on board movie selection is ok. They also seem to favor their Chinese passengers more, I get this, but it gets old fast.
One other thing, if you fly through Canton, you cannot connect to their «free» WIFI in the airport or to at least any website you normally use, lots of sites in China are blocked by the government.
Also worth noting is that is that for layovers over 8 hours in Guangzhou, you get a free hotel. I have flown the route through Guangzhou a few times and the hotels are decent to grab a shower and some sleep. My first three free hotel stays were in rooms by myself, however, the last stay they made me share a room with a complete stranger. This might be a problem for a lot of people.

One of the most effective ways to get situations resolved is to show up at their L.A. office at 6300 Wilshire Blvd. on the 15^th floor. You will need to check in with security in order to use the elevator. An in-​person visit can be more effective than numerous phone calls and emails. Good luck!