I know many of you like A380 in the China Southern Airlines due to its spacious seat space which makes you comfortable. As the only one domestic airline that operates A380, China Southern Airlines, the IATA of which refers to CZ, is possibly the most convenient choice for you who want to experience A380. At present, A380 takes five flight courses as following:
- Beijing (PEK) —— Amsterdam (AMS)
- Beijing (PEK) —— Guangzhou (CAN)
- Beijing (PEK) —— Shenzhen (SZX)
- Beijing (PEK) —— Chengdu (CTU)
- Guangzhou (CAN) —— Los Angeles (LAX)
During my summer holiday, I have experienced the First class of A380 between PEK to CTU. Flight tickets in the business class sold in China refer to the tickets in the first class which is called Mingzhu First class in China Southern Airlines. Now let’s look at the business class of A380.
This flight ticket cost about 2,200 RMB, which I bought on the CZ’s official website with the CSP card. At the end of this post ,we will generally introduce how to redeem free flight tickets of CZ’s A380 through Delta miles to you. At the Beijing airport, you should wait at the T2 airport terminal if you take CZ’s flights, whose airport lounge is opposite to the departure gate.
Honestly speaking, the airport lounge is really just so-so.
CZ’s snack food area includes no hot meals, which is similar to that of AA.
The day before my flight departure, I received one piece of fraudulent SMS that my flight was canceled due to mechanical faults. I nearly believed it! I have to say that China’s Aviation Information System has some bugs and you should not easily believe such kind of SMS. However, when I arrived at the departure gate the next day, A380 really got faults……
At that time, no word could express my inner complicated feeling exactly…..
Of course I didn’t cancel the flight. I just went to the Level 2 ! Actually I decided to take a flight in the Level 2 of UA’s 747 before it retired. However, UA changed the flight ticket of 747 flying between ORD and PEK to 777-200ER with eight seats in a row in the business class, after I issued my ticket! I felt so angry that I bought the flight ticket in the business class of CZ’s A380, on which I could experience its Level 2. CZ’s business class adopts the 1-2-1 layout and you can also search various seat maps of all the other airlines on the SeatGuru Official Website.
The Seat Map on the Level 2 in the front of CZ’s A380
I have to say that A380 indeed has large space! Compared to UA’s business class that I took before, A380 is more spacious and larger.
My Seat near a Window
Apart from spacious seats, everyone still has extra storage room, which is possibly more useful in a long-distance international trip than in a short-distance trip.
I want to tell you secretly that I found one used shoehorn in the extra storage room. Although CZ possesses good hardware, I think this airline should pay more attention to its service.
Then I stood up and took a picture of seats behind me, which are close to the passage. I’m not certain whether there are extra storage room below the windows. I should have found that! I forgot it!
Minutes after boarding the plane, I ordered a cup of apple juice as usual when drinks were offered.
You can see from this picture above that there is a desk on the right where you can put your things. But you should take care of things on the desk because they may drop onto the floor as the plane takes off and lands. By the way, this desk is a good excuse if you want to buy a new phone. Just for kidding!
The meal quality in the plane was the same as expected, which was certainly better than that in the economy class and that of UA. The meal in this plane tasted OK, but it’s too little and its chicken soup tasted insipid. I really want to ask CA whether you cooked that soup with American chickens……
After having this meal, I walked to the Level 1, in the front of which was the first class with eight suites which could be fully closed and good hardware. But according to one American blogger, the champagne used in the CZ’s first class refers to the kind which can be bought with 5 U.S. dollars. Oh my god……
A Bar in the front of This Plane
As the trip was short, I didn’t fall asleep. All the seats on this plane indeed could be put in a horizontal angle with spacious room, which were larger than those of UA’s business and first classes. I think you should have a good sleep on the seat of A380.
Generally speaking, the hardware quality of A380 in CZ is really good, but its software still needs to be improved to a large degree. I think A380 is a little dirty due to its color match or cleaning service. But this plane is a new plane which has taken flights for less than 5 years! Objectively speaking, you will feel very comfortable if you can take a seat with spacious room during your long-distance flight trip. I hope that China Southern Airlines can be better in all the aspects.
Appendix: How to Redeem CZ Flights through Delta Miles
As the flight ticket of this trip is not very cheap, you may think about whether we can redeem flight tickets in the business class of CZ through Delta miles which we have obtained in America. Ok, there are one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
- Good News: CZ’s domestic flights can be redeemed through Delta miles. Sometimes you may enjoy suitable redemption rate and don’t worry about fuel charges;
- Bad News: Delta has shielded award tickets of CZ’s international flights on many dates, which causes uncertainty for you to figure out the business and economy classes of CZ flights flying between China and America.
As to the blackout date, we will roughly introduce the redemption of CZ’s domestic flights through Delta miles to you. Actually the process is very easy. You should directly search the redemption information through Miles option on the website of Delta and please look at the following picture:
Because there are so many domestic flights, flight tickets with availability are always suitable.
If you want to redeem domestic flights of CZ and MU through DL miles, 6k miles can be required for a one-way ticket redemption during a short-distance trip, and 15k for a one-way ticket redemption in the economy class, 17.5k for a one-way ticket redemption in the business class during a middle- and long-distance trip in China. Personally speaking, 2.5k is not very much and to redeem a ticket in the business class is much better for me. For example, it is very easy for you to search flight tickets in the business class of A380 flying between PEK and CAN.
You should spend about 3,200 RMB to buy one ticket of the same flight. Certainly, the price of the ticket is different as the date changes. I searched the flight of CZ3104 on November, 18th, which took A380 flight.
Calculated according to 3,200 RMB, Delta 1 mile equals about 2.88 cents, which is a suitable redemption rate. You can refer to our A Beginner’s Guide to Delta Airlines (DL) SkyMiles if you want more detailed introduction to Delta miles.