Before the Lunar New Year, I used miles and points to book flights and hotels for my parents’ trip to Australia. A guided tour would have been the easiest option, but I wanted them to enjoy the local culture and daily life more freely, while also having a better flight and hotel experience, so in the end I planned an independent trip for them and put together a detailed itinerary. It took a fair amount of work, but they had a great time, so it all worked out well. This is the first post in the Australia trip series, starting with a report on their outbound China Southern business class flight from Guangzhou to Sydney. The full itinerary was CZ6733 SYX-CAN in economy, plus CZ601 CAN-SYD and QF926 SYD-CNS in business class. For two people, the total cost was 40,000 AA*2 miles. Thankfully, the accounts were not shut down before the trip. (My parents are not great at taking photos, and they did not pay much attention to details or composition, so the photo quality is only so-so. Please excuse that.)
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China Southern Lounge in Guangzhou
As China Southern’s home base, the Guangzhou lounge earned unanimous praise from my parents for both its overall environment and its food and beverage service. In their view, it easily beat the PPS lounge in Sanya and the lounge in Sydney. My mom especially—being a big chocolate fan—broke into a delighted smile when she saw Ferrero Rocher available for the taking.
Guangzhou to Sydney (CAN-SYD) CZ601 Business Class Review
Seat
The aircraft operating this flight was an A330. There was no first class cabin, and business class had 24 seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. It is not especially friendly for solo travelers, so if you are traveling as a pair, it is best to choose the middle seats for easier access. We selected seats 4D and 4G.
The overall space was decent, especially the legroom, but storage space was limited, making things feel a bit cramped. Fortunately, they did not need to store much. As for privacy, that was basically nonexistent...
Amenities
The amenity kit was by Chopard. I do not know much about the brand, but the contents were fairly complete. The dual-purpose comb in particular was a genuinely thoughtful touch.
Food
Although business class was not full on the outbound flight, there were still quite a few passengers. Since my parents were seated farther back and the catering was a fixed-load service, by the time the meal service reached them, the popular steak and seafood options were already gone. In the end, my mom could only choose the last remaining clay pot rice, while my dad had jade tofu with rice. For breakfast, my dad chose the signature beef noodles. Unfortunately, my mom gets motion sickness and barely ate, so most of it ended up in my dad’s stomach. Also, my parents fully lived up to their long-standing tradition of saying, “Overall it was pretty good,” while offering no useful details when asked, so I did not get much actionable information from them. I can only post the photos and let everyone judge the meal quality for themselves.
Sydney Qantas Lounge
Since Sydney was only a transit stop and they were continuing on to Cairns shortly after, my parents checked out the Qantas lounge in Sydney T3 after completing the formalities. My mom had eaten almost nothing on the flight, so it was a good chance to grab some breakfast in the lounge. There was a pretty wide selection of food and drinks, but at that moment, nothing was more tempting to them than a cup of instant noodles =.=
The seat on the following QF926 flight was just a regular recliner-style seat, and because my parents do not speak the language, they did not request any meal service.
Final Thoughts
Overall, China Southern’s business class was solid but unremarkable. The space, comfort, privacy, and food were all fairly average, with no real surprises—but that was more or less what I expected. At the time, the same number of miles could have booked a higher-quality business or first class product on Cathay Pacific or Qantas. Still, given that my parents do not speak the language, I chose China Southern so they would feel more at ease. In practice, the China Southern staff gave them a lot of help, including looking after my mom when she felt airsick and assisting with the arrival forms. In that sense, China Southern was actually a very good choice.