Review of Business Class China Southern Airbus A330-200
Intro
I must admit, when I first booked the ludicrously cheap Paris to Vietnam airfare I was rather dreading this final flight home. There was no way to ticket this itinerary unless I included a long booty sector on China Southern and I figured this was just the price I would have to pay in order to get an astonishing bargain on our flights.
I think we all have this impression that mainland Chinese carriers are uncommonly poor. There is certainly no lack of reviews attesting to this fact.
However, after visiting the superb flagship Sky Pearl lounge in Guangzhou and experiencing fantastic food and service on a short haul flight between Guangzhou and Saigon, I was cautiously optimistic. Actually let me rephrase that, I was actively looking frontwards to the flight home. Everything I had seen from China Southern upwardly until now was a cut to a higher place my experiences on European carriers and I was really hoping that the long haul experience would live up to my newly elevated expectations.
Pre-Departure
I found it impossible to reserve seats on either this or the outbound Air France flight. When y'all're used to OneWorld and Star Alliance, encountering Skyteam IT systems can come as something of a shock.
As such we were lucky to be seated together when we checked in. A real surprise came when I saw the seat map and realised that the cabin had a staggered Solstys style seating organisation as used by Garuda Indonesia. If you check the China Southern website, they prominently display two possible configurations on the A330 and both take sometime style 2-2-two configurations in Business Class.
The cabin layout according to the official Red china Southern website.
It actually turns out that a number of A330 aircraft have been refitted with the superior cabin that nosotros had and if you dig deeper, navigating away from the "A330 Experience" section of the China Southern website, yous'll be able to notice this seat map. This represents a meaning upgrade to the Business Class feel that Mainland china Southern don't advertise at all!
The refurbished People's republic of china Southern A330 Business organization Form cabin with the staggered Solstys seats
The staggered configuration leads to quite a variance betwixt individual seats, meaning that it is all the more important that y'all choose wisely ahead of time (IT systems permitting).
One-half of the window seats are very private, with a table between the seat and the alley. The other half are completely exposed and take a table between the seat and the window.
Aisle style window seat
True window seat
The center pairs are similarly divergent, with alternating rows ordinarily referred to as either 'honeymoon' or 'divorce seats'.
The divorce seats: totally lacking in privacy but far preferable to a honeymoon pair, if you're seated adjacent to a stranger. If y'all aren't able to secure a eye pair and want to be seated adjacent to your travel companion you could ever select one of these combined with an aisle style window seat.
We were seated in one of the the 'honeymoon' pairs, which felt very private given that there were tables on the outside between us and the aisle.
The staggered layout meant that we weren't directly facing the people saturday in the window seats, ensuring a greater degree of privacy for all passengers.
One criticism of these seats is that the footwell is quite tight, personally though I had more than plenty space for my Great britain size 9 feet. I also constitute the finishes to be slightly better than Garuda's version of this seat. The IFE controls were more modern and responsive and the armrest was adjustable, serving as a flap to comprehend a big storage compartment likewise equally a smaller tray for a phone or keys.
A pair of slippers, blanket, headphones and amenity kit were all waiting at our seats for united states of america when nosotros boarded.
The amenity kit was extremely basic but honestly few airlines print in this regard in Business Class. Singapore are hands i of the top 3 carriers in Business concern Class and don't fifty-fifty supply amenity kits at all!
Conversely, I was pleasantly surprised past the quality of the headphones, non up to the lofty level of the Bose headphones on American but well in a higher place average yet. Annoyingly China Southern, much like AA, treat Concern Class passengers like thieves and come around to collect headsets 30 minutes before landing.
The Flight
The moment we set foot in the cabin we were enthusiastically greeted past the French cabin manager. She was the but not-Chinese member of crew and took a cracking interest in united states throughout the flight, frequently checking to see how we were getting on, how the food was and how the service compared to our outbound flying on Air France.
There was a pre-departure drink service only this was limited to orange juice or water pre-poured and served from a big tray. I always remember that this kind of presentation has more of an Economic system Grade experience and far prefer the service on Qatar, where large flutes of champagne are individually poured at your seat.
Menus and hot towels were likewise distributed prior to take off, with orders for both dinner and breakfast taken before the aircraft doors closed.
Cathay Southern hot towel
Checking out what's for dinner.
Given that this was a night flying the crew were very proactive in commencing the drinks service as soon as possible.
I was extremely impressed with the wines on offer: Bordeaux and Rhone Valley reds as well as a Barossa sometime vine Shiraz. In terms of white there was a Macon Villages equally well every bit a Hawke'south bay Sauvignon Blanc. It is no exaggeration to say that many carriers don't serve improve than this in First.
The drinks service was performed from a trolley with all the wines on display. Charles Heidseick champagne was served chilled from a large ice bucket (as opposed to the advertised Taittinger).
Although I was rather tempted by the made-to-order cocktails I thought I'd brand things easier for everybody at this belatedly hour and went for the aforementioned Charles Heidseick instead. This was served with a large bowl of warmed basics.
Dinner was served eatery fashion with a table cloth placed directly onto my tray tabular array and full sized cutlery used throughout the service. Each form was served individually by hand and the food was clearly heated in separate containers earlier being plated in the galley. Fifty-fifty some of the most prestigious carriers don't bother with this, instead serving mains from a trolley in scalding hot, loftier sided containers with crusted on sauces (Communist china Pacific being a prime number example).
Much like on the outbound Air France flight, the meal began with a stock-still starter (is it merely me or exercise airlines with no choice of starter always serve some variation on this exact same dish?)
The meal began with a starter of prawns and salmon with 'Thai sauce'. The salad was a niggling distressing looking but the flavours worked well.
I've frequently talked virtually how much I honey soups on planes and this flight was no exception. I went with the Chinese manner clear soup with craven and dates, whereas Kamara opted for a bowl of sweetcorn soup with croutons. This was accompanied past garlic bread which tasted swell but was unfortunately a niggling on the stale side.
In addition to the beef tenderloin and chicken in ginger sauce, a third off menu master form was offered. Both Kamara and I opted for this:
Grilled duck with steamed rice and Chinese vegetables.
The flavor was swell but the duck was quite chewy. I honestly can't think of a fourth dimension I've had a good duck dish on a plane and that includes the time that I had Balinese Crispy duck specially ordered in for me on Garuda First Form. I just don't call up it's a meat that stands up well to being reheated, especially in a steam oven.
I rounded out the repast with a plate of fresh fruit, whilst Kamara went for a tub of concrete…
Mainland china Southern doesn't offer turndown service or sleepwear, and then one time the repast was over I got changed into my favourite pair of PYE PJs from Cathay First and fabricated my bed. There's no mattress topper provided so the sleeping surface is quite uncomfortable. The pillows were large but a little lumpy, the blankets were of a decent quality though – thick and heavy.
Other airlines exit h2o bottles at your seat upon boarding but China Southern look until afterwards the repast service to do so. This meant that there was quite a expect earlier we were finally able to track a bottle downward, since the crew were still busy serving meals.
A selection of snacks, including hot dishes, was available should you be hungry during the night…
I slept for around vii hours or so, which is not bad at all for a flight of this length – although I did wake upwards with numb arms a couple of times! The first thing I did upon waking was to immediately order a double espresso (and and then take this photo).
I awoke to hear the clinking of cutlery as a few people effectually me were already in the centre of eating their breakfasts.
The repast began with plain yoghurt; pastries and fruit were also offered (which I declined).
Next came a choice of master course. In that location were two Western and two Chinese options. Kamara went for the Wonton noodle soup and I had Congee with dimsum.
Kamara really enjoyed the noodle soup, although this featured sliced beef rather than wontons.
I absolutely loved my master grade!
The flavour of the congee was astonishing and the presentation with the multifariousness of toppings was actually impressive also. The dim sum was as well fantastic, a peachy variety of dumpling types and all of them delicious.
Overall I'd say that breakfast was a real hit, materially better than dinner.
All too shortly our flight drew to a close. I was about to head back to London for a total day's work in the part, well rested and fed after a surprisingly good flight.
Conclusion
The seat, service and drinks list were all significantly ameliorate than I was expecting.
I actually idea China Southern was a more enjoyable experience overall than Air French republic Business on the outbound flight. I honestly never thought that I would notice myself typing that sentence but there you have it.
I found the seat to be individual and comfy, whilst featuring ample storage and decent IFE. The service was very focused, professional person and as well friendly. The drinks listing was almost on the level of First Class.
The food could utilize a lilliputian improvement, although I must recognise that both the overall presentation and commitment of the meal service were fantabulous.
If People's republic of china Southern improved their bedding they'd be on to a existent winner here. The lounges and ground services in Guangzhou are excellent, if y'all're a premium passenger you will be very well taken intendance of and will have plenty to keep y'all entertained on even a 6 hour layover.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend China Southern to everyone, specially if they correspond a significant cost saving over a direct flight to Asia on a competitor. They don't make a 1 stop journey quite as compelling a proffer as Qatar do in terms of on board service but if you're flying to Asia you'll have a proper long haul flight followed by a short one rather than ii sub 8 hour flights equally tends to exist the norm on QR… definitely food for thought.
Source: https://theluxurytraveller.com/2020/04/review-china-southern-business-class-a330-guangzhou-can-to-paris-cdg/
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