This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

China Southern upgrade

I had originally redeemed China Southern miles for an economy ticket on CZ6916, but that flight was canceled two days before departure. So I was rebooked onto the later CZ6910. The timing happened to line up with when my kid usually sleeps, and the aircraft also changed from a 737 to a 777, which meant lie-flat seats in business class, so I started thinking about paying cash for an upgrade.

In general, there are several stages when you can try to upgrade:

  1. Before departure, either on the airline’s website or by calling customer service. Some airlines only allow upgrades within a certain number of hours before departure, so if you’re interested, it’s worth checking the rules ahead of time.
  2. Ask the ground staff at the check-in counter
  3. Ask the ground staff at the gate
  4. Ask the flight attendants after boarding

An upgrade only guarantees that you’ll be seated in the upgraded cabin. Other things such as service, meals, baggage allowance, mileage earning, and so on may still remain unchanged. You have to go by the airline’s specific rules.

On the China Southern app/WeChat mini program, adults can be upgraded directly, but my kid couldn’t be handled online. Since I was taking a pretty casual approach to the whole thing, I didn’t feel like calling either, so I decided to just check at the counter.

Quick Beijing restaurant aside: Tang Lang (Workers’ Stadium location) was delicious.

Daxing Airport

This was my first time flying out of Daxing since it opened, so the whole experience felt pretty novel. The drive to the airport was smooth the whole way, while the traffic on the other side of the road was completely jammed.

My first impression of Daxing was just how empty it felt. Compared with crowded Beijing Capital Airport, Daxing almost seemed like the kind of place where your voice could echo.

We headed straight to the China Southern upgrade counter. Because flight 6916 had been canceled, this flight was especially full, and business class happened to have only 3 seats left at that point, with one of them apparently being held by another passenger. The agent spent a long time working through everything before finally getting it done. Since the adult ticket was an award ticket, the ground staff couldn’t process it directly, so in the end I still had to upgrade that one through the WeChat mini program. My kid’s ticket was a child fare, and the ground staff helped process that one. I wanted to pay with a credit card, but the agent said the card payment might fail and the seat could be gone by then, so I had to use WeChat Pay instead. No points earned there…

After upgrading, the baggage allowance stayed the same, mileage earning stayed the same, and the meal stayed the same. My kid’s upgraded child ticket did come with lounge access, but my partner’s and my award tickets did not.

We did at least get to use the business-class security lane. There was also a little hiccup at security: my power bank exceeded the limit. That wasn’t the first time it had been flagged, either. At the train station in some smaller city, security also pulled it aside and said it was over the limit. I said, “Isn’t the standard 10,000 mAh? Mine is 10,000 mAh.” The security staff said she couldn’t remember the exact rule either, and then just let it through…

At Daxing, a staff member told me that if the rated energy exceeds 100wh, airline approval is required, and they only let it through after I signed something.

In the spirit of being pretty relaxed about lounge visits, we went to the China Southern lounge next to security. I asked whether PPS could get in and was told no. Then I asked whether Amex Platinum would work, and the answer was yes, which honestly surprised me.

The lounge had made-to-order noodle soup and similar items, but we had eaten way too much at Tang Lang and couldn’t manage anything else. We just sat for a bit and had something to drink, and then it was already time to board.

On the way, we grabbed a luggage cart. This one was even being watched by a staff member, and my kid looked very stylish pulling it around—very fancy.

CZ 6910 business class experience

Boarding through the business-class lane was smooth. The three of us weren’t seated together, but my partner swapped with a kind older man so they could sit with our kid, while I enjoyed my own seat farther back.

I had flown China Southern business a few times before on the Beijing–Urumqi route, but this was my first time since the pandemic, and the service was still just as good. From beginning to end, the crew was attentive and thoughtful, helping with slippers, serving tea, and taking care of all the little things. The flight attendants were incredibly considerate, and they all spoke in a very polished, pleasant way. When I came back from the restroom, the purser specifically greeted me, praised us for being understanding, and then showered our kid with compliments too—it really made my day. Honestly, among all the business-class products I’ve flown, this service ranks in my top 2. The only other one I’d put on a similar level was Hainan Airlines business class from Beijing to Seattle before the pandemic.

As for the hard product, the cabin was laid out 2-2-2. Two people sit side by side with no divider, which is at least a little awkward. The aircraft was 10 years old, so not especially old, but it hadn’t been maintained all that well and felt somewhat worn. It also didn’t look as clean as ANA. The seat did go fully flat, but the gaps between the different sections were fairly noticeable, so it wasn’t as comfortable for sleeping as ANA with a mattress pad, or the Delta suite I flew later. I had a similar issue on the Korean Air flight I took on the way back to China.

Also, I can understand not having an amenity kit on a short-haul route, but not even providing an eye mask or earplugs did hurt the experience a bit.

As for the meal, since we still received the economy-class meal, I chose the noodles, and they were honestly pretty bad. The snacks were fine, though. The college student next to me wasn’t an upgrade passenger, but one look at her meal suggested hers was pretty rough too. Before the pandemic, the business-class meal on this route was actually decent—at the very least, China Southern’s big bowl noodles were edible. It feels like the budget cuts now have been pretty severe.

The most ridiculous part was that I got woken up by some guy in business class blasting a video out loud on speaker… I have no idea whether the crew reminded him to stop, or just didn’t want to confront him. Fortunately, the plane was already close to landing by then, so everyone in the cabin just chose to tolerate it and move on.

By the time we arrived, it was already very late, and then we were assigned a remote stand. For us, carrying a pile of hand luggage while also traveling with a kid, that was basically nightmare mode… The shuttle bus also took forever to get to the terminal exit…

Then the checked bags didn’t come out very quickly either, and by the time we finally collected them, it felt like another half hour had passed…

Still, whether it was the remote stand or the slow baggage delivery, it all felt like classic URC operations. My partner and I commented on how the airport was still exactly the same even after all these pandemic years. Thankfully, though, the trip overall went pretty smoothly. Thank goodness.

There are especially few photos in these two posts, because ever since returning to China, I’ve become even less inclined to take my phone out. The only few photos I have were all borrowed from my partner’s phone anyway…

I’ve mostly been staying at home since coming back to China and haven’t gone traveling, so this wraps up the China return series. Starting next time, I’ll begin posting the “Summer in Hokkaido” series, so stay tuned.

2023 return-to-China series

About the author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. The account publishes original, well-written articles, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow it. Delta