Hola - I had a look at China Southern, as a planning exercise. Syd/Mad/Syd and whilst it was cheaper than Emirates the total time from Sydney to Madrid was well over 30 hours. There was a 5-6 hour stopover in Guangzhou and then another 2+ hours in Paris. The return trip had something like a 9 hours wait in Guangzhou. Now I have not had the fun of visiting Guangzhou but those sort of waits are not for me. They may have improved this situation in the past 9-12 months, but I have not looked recently.
With Emirates its a one stop (Dubai) and a little over 2 hours stopover, total time from Sydney was a bit over 24-25 hours. Having flown with EK for the last 8 years I now have access to the business lounges, so maybe I am a little biased!!
Hello saint mike ii,
I have just returned to london this past saturday on a trip to manila from london using china southern via amsterdam, beijing, xiamen and on the return trip via guangzhou and paris.
Here are my observations:
Going over to amsterdam and beijing, the flights were operated by klm. Stopover of 6 hours 35 minutes in amsterdam gave me a chance to visit the city again. As these 2 flights were operated by klm, i will bypass my comments. Flight time amsterdam to beijing 9 hours and 15 minutes. Upon arriving in beijing, the governmrnt has granted a 72-hour free visa to passengers from australia, new zealand, usa, canada and 41 other countries holding a connecting flight. If you checked your luggage all the way thru to oceania. this will give you plenty of time to visit the forbidden city. By the way this 72-hour free visa also applies to transit passenger in shanghai, guangzhou, chengdu and chongging. Layover in beijjing for my flight to manila was 7 hours 20 minutes.
Flight to manila via xiamen very comfortable.
On my flights back to london, the manila to guangzhou was on a em 190 plane with large legroom. Layover of 4 hours 20 minutes, big airport in guangshou. Did not have a chance to visit guangshou due to short layover. Flight on a330-200 with 29 inch legroom. Nobody cares as everyone went to sleep after meals. Meals were served early to enable us to go to sleep early.
Flight time 13 hours. Cdg leg to london with layover of more than 11 hours. Again i don't mind as it gave me an opportunity to revisit paris.
Now i don't know what the normal layover times are if you are flying to oceania from europe via beijing or guandzhou. The regular london to australia flight is via guangzhou. I believe you can also fly via beijing. So if you have a long layover, at least you will have the opportunity to visit the local cities. The 72-hour free visa only allows you to visit the transit cities only.
I would like to point out you get what you pay for. Services are actually quite decent for a fairly new airlines expanding into europe. A word of caution, hardly anyone in guangzhou airport speaks any english or other foreign languages. Their english are very rudimentary. Having speak several languages did not do me any good. Another caution, if you have to exchange any money in china, please use the atm. They will really sock it to you if you use the money changers at the airport with a high commission.
China southern, will i use them again? Maybe, maybe not. However if you consider how much money you are going to save versus the layover time, what is it worth to you? I believe the savings will be around 400-500 australian dollars. Correct me if i am wrong.
I believe, as mike mentioned, he rather pay for the expensive ticket rather than the long layover. Now you all have to take into consideration that with the long layover, you will have the opportunity to visit cities in china for free. It will make life more enjoyable rather than being cooped up at the airport.
I hope this helps all the peregrinos from oceania, north america and asia. Buen camino and god bless.
