I chose to use China Southern Airlines (“CZ”) for our domestic China flights in August 2018.  They’re in the Skyteam Alliance, in which we have Platinum status and they seem to have a pretty good reputation, so I was excited to give them a try.  It only took us 40 minutes by car from the downtown Four Seasons Guangzhou, just after 7am on a Wednesday morning, for our 10:00 flight to Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport (SHA).  You’re only required to check in an hour in advance for domestic flights in China, but, from our experience of checking-in for this flight, I would urge you to add contingency time!

First class check-in is inconspicuously located at the far left side of the terminal, as you enter it.  There weren’t any queues and we quickly got our boarding passes and handed over our luggage, and then we walked towards the VIP (‘FastTrack’) emigration channel. Just as we were about to go through, a CZ lady called us back and told us we first had to get our luggage security cleared!  We were told to go to an area near the middle of the terminal concourse where we saw a bag x-ray machine, several bags near it (including ours) and a gang of airport security staff, none of whom spoke English.  In seemingly random order they put bags through the x-ray and then shouted a lot in Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin – I can’t tell), put the bag on a table and demanded we remove the suspicious items they had seen. But this was a tough demand when delivered Chinese!  Once we got a look at the x-ray machine images we saw where in the cases they identified a problem, and we were able to dig it out.  It turns out you can’t travel with any lithium batteries in your hold luggage, or phone bank chargers. (or indeed lighters and matches, though we didn’t have those). All you need to do is put them in your carry-on.

And so, eventually, we were allowed to proceed through emigration and further security to the airside concourse, where we made our way to the “China Southern VIP Lounge”.  It isn’t that big, considering Guangzhou (“CAN”) is CZ’s home base, and most of the space is dominated by a dining area, so we had to wait a few moments to be shown to two seats near each other.  Nothing in the food selection tempted me, so I just had a not very good cappuccino before we left again for our boarding gate, a short walk away. The lounge did have an outside area, but there were no airfield views.

When I noticed that our gate was downstairs I realised we were going to be bussed to the aircraft, in a “VIP” marked mini-bus for Business and First passengers, which had comfortable leather seating.  We drove across the ramp to our aircraft, which was scheduled to be a B787 Dreamliner, but I was sorely disappointed when we stopped next to an Airbus A330-200.  CZ has hourly flights between CAN and SHA and I had specifically booked this flight to try out First in CZ’s (newer) Dreamliner, in case we fancied flying it direct from London in the future, to where CZ fly it daily. And the plane was on an airbridge – why had we been bussed??!!

We boarded flight CZ3531, operated on 1st August by A330-200 registered B-6531 just after 09:30. The First cabin has just four open suites, arranged 1-2-1 in one row. Mr A and I had been allocated the centre seats, but when I saw seat 1A was free I moved into it, to be by the window.  The open suite had plenty of personal space and stowage areas and there was plenty of legroom and an ottoman in front to rest my legs on.  But during the two-hour flight I lowered my seat into bed mode and found it all to be a bit old and clunky and the armrests made the sleeping space a bit narrow.  By comparison with the other airlines’ First class I’ve tried this year it was very narrow and I don’t think I would have had a good sleep in it on a long journey.

The FAs did not have a good command of English at all, but they were polite. Pre-take-off drinks were offered (my Champagne wasn’t chilled), slippers and menus were given out, but we were expected to make our food and drink choice there and then.  Doors closed ten minutes early at 09:50 and we pushed back at 10:04.  Taxiing around part of this large airport took us to runway 20R, from where we took off at 10:20.

The food wasn’t to my taste at all (too much bones, fat and gristle) and the only alcohol available was the (warm) Champagne, red or white wine and beer.  The white wine was terrible, the red was better but still poor.  Apart from tastings of each item, all I really ate was a small tub of chocolate ice cream!

The flight was only remarkable for the security guard who appeared and spent most of the flight in the forward galley. He appeared very solemn and I didn’t dare take his photo!

We landed in SHA at 12:09 (less than 2 hours flying) but we didn’t park on stand until 12:22 as we had to wait for the stand to become available.  One thing I noticed was we had absolutely no communication from the flight deck at any part of the journey and it was left to the FAs to tell us details of the flight and our arrival time.

Verdict: This First class flight did not meet my expectations at all. I can appreciate that airlines often change their premium service between domestic and international flights, but I wish they’d make that abundantly clear on their websites.  I simply didn’t feel like a first class passenger should feel. The VIP lounge was not up to international business class standards, and the service and food on board were clearly only aimed at a Chinese passenger.  And such a derisory alcohol offering was perplexing, in a country where alcohol is legal. 5/10

Footnote: I chose the flights I wanted on CZ’s website but I booked 4 flights in First and Business through American Express, for £3700, a saving of £1000.  The downside of booking through an intermediary is that you don’t have a direct contact with the airline. You can’t choose your seat and the airline doesn’t contact you about any changes to the itinerary.  The latter caused me significant problems later on my journey, so I vowed in future to only book direct with the airline, which is what I’ve always done in the past.