China Southern review by Donna 2014-08-13

We travelled CSA 2012 Perth to Guangzhou and then onto LA. It was an horrendous experience with small uncomfortable seating, surly staff, very little in the way of beverages being offered (especially water) and inedible food. We said never again. Until..
2014 Premium Economy seats to Vancouver at a reasonable price – more expensive than economy but less expensive than other airlines. One more try.
Between buying the tickets and flying the plane between Guangzhou and Vancouver was changed to a dream liner and we lost our premium economy seats. We were not able to get any sort of compensation and by that time not really able to rebook flights with another airline which was the only offer made by CSA. They did say that they would TRY to offer exit seating if available but that was the best they could offer. We were not looking forward to the flight but we were locked in.
The premium economy seats Perth to Guangzhou and return were fantastic. The new Dreamliner seats in economy are awful. Terribly uncomfortable particularly if you do not carry a lot of weight in your rear. I do not see it as an improvement at all.
The service had improved no end between 2012 and 2014 as had the food and there was water offered at regular intervals through the journey. Still not enough wine on offer but that is not a real problem however there appeared to be only a couple of bottles of white and red (in total) on offer at each cycle which is really not enough even given the ridiculously small plastic cups they serve it in.
We were given exit seats going to Vancouver and after much palaver we managed to get three seats for the two of us going to Guangzhou out of Vancouver. It was much more of an exercise to do so though and particularly irritating when we realised that the class above us was empty so the opportunity to offer an upgrade was more than possible. We are completely sold on the premium economy but will not risk the same thing happening through CSA so once again we say “never again”. CSA have had the chance to win us over and failed completely.