China Southern economy class was very survivable. That’s neither a compliment nor a slight. It was a reasonably priced, reasonably comfortable 2.5 hour flight.
I landed in Bangkok after a redeye on Thai Airways. I had no boarding pass and could not check-in online, but had no trouble checking in and collecting a boarding pass from the transit counter. After adding my Delta number, I requested an exit row seat and was obliged. After enjoying breakfast and shower in the Oman Air Lounge, I approached the gate for boarding. The gate area was largely deserted: boarding had begun early. Please note this flight was in 2016.
China Southern 362
Bangkok (BKK) – Guangzhou (CAN)
Friday, June 17
Depart: 08:40 AM
Arrive: 12:25 PM
Duration: 02hr, 25min
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 41C (Economy Class)
Since we are talking about a 2.5 hour economy class flight, rather than dissect every element of in-flight service as I do with a premium cabin report, I’ll make four observations about the flight.
1. The plane was pleasantly filled, the seat was pleasantly comfortable.
Thankfully, I had an exit row, with excellent legroom. The flight appeared about 70% full, with many middle seats open. The middle seat next to me also stayed open. Seats are reasonably padded and do not contain a personal IFE screen.
My seatmate had a snoring problem. I don’t mean to poke fun at him, but he sounded like a jackhammer and snored from the moment we took off to the moment we landed…
2. The meal was exactly what we used to complain about on domestic flights.
30 minutes after takeoff, a hot meal was offered. Fish or chicken were the choices, and I chose chicken. The chicken was extremely fatty, the bread stale, and the mayonnaise kept me away from the vegetables. But the fruit wasn’t bad.
This meal reminded me of why people people complain about airline meals. The food is a lot more than you can even buy on 2.5 hours flights within the USA, but the quality was very poor.
3. The lavatory had a real bar of soap.
Hearkening back to the old days, a single bar of soap was present in the rear lavatory. No liquid soap was available (the built-in dispenser had nothing inside of it):
4. The plane wasn’t in great condition.
Toward the end of the flight, we hit a bit of turbulence and oxygen masks dropped from several rows. It made me wonder if they would actually work in case of emergency.
CONCLUSION
We landed on time in Guangzhou to a very hot, very humid day. Unfortunately, we parked at a remote stand and had to be bussed to the terminal.
For $180, I scored an exit row seat with an open middle on a direct flight. The flight departed on-time, landed on-time, and included a complimentary meal. Honestly, it was fine. Don’t hesitate to use China Southern if you must. Just don’t expect anything special.
I think your post about the snoring seatmate is a little insensitive esp. given that you have a picture of him that could certainly lead to embarrassment for him. If you “don’t mean to poke fun,” why use language like “sounded like a jackhammer”?
@o2nz,
Perhaps you should stick to reading MMS, it’s snowflake friendly!
so you cannot complain even when the snoring is bothering your? is it because he cannot be responsible for what he did when he was asleep?
Did you have to leave the secure area to find the transit desk? I’ve always wanted to fly via BKK to go to Cambodia, but security is a pain in BKK(the agents are sticklers always trying to collect duties, and the security lines are painfully long) so I always end up connecting somewhere else
@Aaron: When I arrived form Tokyo, I did have to re-clear security, but it only took a few minutes. The transit desk is in the secure area.
Your plane (B-1925) is 4 years old, as of June 2018
You’re perfectly within your rights to note that your seatmate snored. I just think it’s insensitive to also post a large picture of him for the entire internet to see who the snorer is.
Mathew , you are such a disrespectful fellow. I do not know what the heck of an racist American/German you are. I am Chinese and I been to America. Only on a 5 hour business class did I get a real meal in domestic. In china, any flight above 1 hour has a meal. And you can complain just about snoring. Who doesn’t snore? Your american friends? My, how nice of you to post that picture up. You know that the man on their is my fellow collegue Henry Chen, right? Why, thank you! Now we can sue you to the Chinese court and you will get quite a good cure for your disrespectfulness by our friendly and loving chinese government!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
seeing this hard product makes me LOL when people complain about the planes on AA/UA/DL. Whats the point of free catering if the food is inedible? Bathrooms without real soap? no IFE or wifi?
Well done Matthew, way to completely disregard someone else’s privacy by posting a photo without their consent.
Bet you would be kicking up a storm and throwing your toys out had someone else took a photo of you in your finest hours and posted it without your consent. A simple bit of photoshop would’ve done it.
Picture of Sleeping Beauty has been removed.
Please note, it is RUDE to snore loudly. Worse than a crying baby.
Lots of places in Asia have bar soap so I’m used to that. The food makes me weary though. I have been considering flying China Southern on a long haul economy this October. I’ve heard they are better than China Eastern. Thanks for the review.