Review of China Southern flight from Guangzhou to Bangkok in Business

return to asia

This is the second leg of my flight from HFE-CAN-BKK.

guangzhou baiyun international airport (CAN)

The transit process from domestic to international was fairly smooth.  It was a roughly 15 minute walk from my gate to the customs and then only another 5 minutes to go through.  As far as Chinese document checks go, it was faster than I'm used to–there were about 15 people ahead of me in line.

Soon I entered into T2 at Guangzhou Baiyun.

Just follow the path and you'll eventually get to the China Southern lounge up a set of escalators.

china southern sky pearl vip lounge

Like most Chinese lounges, the Sky Pearl lounge is also open to Priority Pass.  I had access on the account of my business class ticket and was quickly welcomed in.

The lounge immediately opens into a large dining area.

There's a variety of seating, but outlets were rare.

There is an enclosed outdoor area for smoking.

I don't know when, but there is a tea ceremony here at certain times (as well as a panda display).

The beverage selection was a bit lacking.

At least there was loose leaf tea (though this is the minimum standard in China).

There's a small noodle station where you can go request what you want (the opening in the buffet area you see in the picture).

You get a buzzer that will vibrate when your bowl is ready.

While I waited, I made myself a cup of tea and grabbed some dim sum from the buffet.  It was fairly bland and rubbery.

I had a simple beef noodle soup.  It was passable.

I'm not sure if the bar was opened, but I wasn't looking to drink anyways.  It looked like a fairly nice bar, but I didn't recognize any of the wine.

For once I remembered to check the WiFi . . . speed was abysmal.

CZ3081

I heard the boarding called from the lounge at 11:40, which was 15 minutes earlier.  I left and went to A60 and quickly realized this was going to be a remote gate.

There was a separate smaller bus for business class passengers.

It was still a tight pack, the VIP label notwithstanding.

We passed by a lot of China Southern planes on our drive.

An Aeroflot sighting! 

Every time I see a Singapore plane I'm sad I'm not flying SQ.

A China Southern COMAC ARJ21-700!

Eventually we got to our plane; unfortunately the jet bridge and support pillars blocked a good picture.  In any case, my ride to Bangkok was on B-308T

China Southern has 7 rows of Recaro CL6710 business class.  You'll find the same seats on other airlines such as TAP.

I was seated in 9K, one of the window seats that is further away from the aisle.  I do apologize for the blurry picture here.

By comparison, here's a window seat that is closer to the aisle–you can see the privacy difference is massive.

Here's a view from my seat in flight–you can see the aisle-adjacent seats quite clearly.

Unlike travel bloggers, I actually like there being overhead bins in the middle because not only is it easier to reach the overhead panel for those seated in the middle seats, but you also never have to worry about running out of overhead bin space.

Back to my seat: it's a fairly standard seat with a small blanket and pillow already waiting.  An power outlet with a USB port is easily accessible.  There's also a small storage, perfect for passports, glasses, water bottles, and the like.  A small pocket holds sandals.  The footwell was a decent size.

A flight attendant welcomed me onboard shortly and unwrapped my slippers–this must be standard procedure.  I was offered three options for lunch: braised fish, stir-fry chicken, or braised beef.  She also asked if she should wake me for service if I were asleep–again, must be part of the procedure and a routine that I appreciate.

I was also given a hot towel before my welcome drink.

I just had a glass of water predeparture.

Doors closed at 12:21pm.  What was surprising was that before the announcement, the flight attendants lined up to bow to the cabin.  Is this something I missed previously in my Chinese flights?  For a second I thought was flying a Japanese carrier.  We pushed back a short 6 minutes later.

It took quite a bit of time before we actually took off at 1:05pm–38 minutes after push back!

China Southern offers fairly mediocre headphones, but I wasn't using the IFE in any case.

I checked out the lavatory before service began:

There were some amenities, but it was unclear to me why there was a bottle of Ferragamo shower gel–maybe for use as hand soap?

Service began 25 minutes after takeoff with a hot towel:

Then I was presented with a ramekin of nuts and a cup of tea.

I had the stir fried chicken–it was all presented on one tray.  I'd say the meal was definitely better than breakfast, but not exactly spectacular.

I opted to have some garlic bread:

After service I was given a bottle of water.  Trays were cleared about an hour after takeoff (i.e. 35 minute meal service), which was pretty efficient.

The seat was reasonably comfortable in lie-flat position, but not exactly the greatest for a longer flight.

The tail camera was very crisp though, I kept this on for pretty much the duration of the flight.

Before landing we got another hot towel.

Around 1:50 into the flight, the captain announced we were about 45 minutes away from Bangkok and we would soon begin our descent.

Soon the Gulf of Thailand came into view:

More views:

The outskirts of Bangkok:

We landed at 2:37pm local time.  There were immediately some interesting planespotting as you could see a Qatar A380.

Here's a Korean Air 777.

Even China Airlines!  What's cool about Bangkok is the wide diversity of airlines that fly here.  We parked at our gate at 2:43 and were on our own shortly after that.