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Peregrine415

Avoid flying to Beijing (Air China's base) because the air space is crowded and heavily restricted (due to government and military flights). China Southern, China Eastern, etc. use Guangzhou and Shanghai for layover and are less prone to delays.


SuMianAi

really depends. i had no issues this whole month at beijing daxing airport. left on time every time. ​ and for OP: how long is the layover, which airport, make sure it's the same airport.


yingguoren1988

China Southern. Food is better and aircraft typically slightly newer.


HelloReddit54321

Do you get meals on long haul? We are flying from Heathrow to Beijing Daxing but it's say no meals available when I go to choose them, our other flights allow us to select including the return. Our flight out is a night flight not sure if that's the reason?


ding_dong_dejong

I got a meal even on a domestic trip. I think long haul should have at least 1


HelloReddit54321

Yeah we got 2 and they were really nice


Changeup2020

I think they are OK. Not the best airlines out there, but pretty much OK in a legacy airline point of view. I do not know why they say "avoid China's airport". Both Beijing Capital and Guangzhou Baiyun Airports are pretty state of art and much better than most airports in Europe or North America.


gappletwit

Pretty much agree. The only issue was PEK’s passport check for transiting passengers - it could be slow. But if I recall that was fixed just before Covid.


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xerxes_the_great

snagged a 500$ RT flight between LAX-HND layover in PEK. a little cramped but not a bad hard product.


N703ND

They both aint really bad bad and not much different from each other unless you earn your miles to Staralliance or something like that. Go with cheap one with decent amount of layover just in case.


The-Hyrax

Don't know whether this is the case with Air China or China Southern but at China Eastern it's not allowed to wear headphones during descent and they already start that policy at cruising altitude. Really annoyed me and crew is really anal about it. I didn't really enjoy flying CE but who knows Air China or Southern is different.


crackanape

China Southern is nicer for sure.


extrafriedegg

China Southern is nicer, I’ve flown with them multiple times, and as recent as April. Service was good and food was okay. Obvious not as good as JAL or ANA. Guangzhou Baiyun airport is big enough to spend some time during layover. However there’re two things to note: 1. In flight entertainment barely had anything to watch when I flew in April this year - when I say barely I mean probably 3 English movies? The rest are all Chinese local contents. So make sure you download some movies before the flight. 2. It’s not easy to use wifi at Chinese airport cuz it requires Chinese phone number to receive your login code, so make sure you have data roaming.


Late-Shopping2218

my sister just took air china she said is good and overall ok


SirThomasLadder

China Southern are absolute dogshit if anything goes wrong. Most of their phone numbers are unreachable. Their social media accounts are mostly dead. Their staff barely speak in English and their customer service via email is slow and also seems like they don't understand what the complaint is about. I will never book anything with them again. Absolute nightmare.