“Terrible experience. Not recommended.
In summary: China Southern canceled part of my itinerary. They did not reroute me. They ignored my emails and until now offered neither appeasement nor compensation for the inconvenience.
In Detail:
Booked China Southern London to Chiang Mai with a stopover in Guangzhou, where I would meet my fiance.
Booked originally with Booking.com (GoToGate) on 9th May and on 12th May after booking accommodation and activities became aware that return leg from Chiang Mai to Guangzhou had been cancelled less than 1 week before my trip. I was not informed of this. Only became aware because my fiance was booked on a separate ticket.
Contacted GoToGate who said the airline were unable to offer rerouting due to no available route with this airline. They said I would need to cancel and rebook my tickets with another airline. They offered a refund with no compensation and said that I would need to raise a complaint with China Southern. Subsequently rebooked flights with Emirates and Air Asia staying in Bangkok and Phuket rather than Chiang Mai. A great experience.
Upon my return to the UK I complained directly to China Southern using the EU compensation scheme. After considerable effort, received a communication from the airline's Amsterdam office on 26th July stating that the flight was not eligible for the EU scheme as it was not with a UK (or EU) airline and it was departing from a third country. I acknowledged that that was factually correct.
I visit China regularly so on the 27th July I wrote to China Southern detailing the inconvenience caused and requesting that whilst this flight was not covered under the EU scheme the airline should offer a voucher and/or upgrade for my next visit to China to compensate me for the inconvenience and additional costs incurred. The airline never responded to and continually ignored this communication stating that they had already answered the complaint on the 26th of July and that I should refer to the email history. No matter what I wrote in my emails I received the same response. China Southern staff were clearly neither reading nor understanding my emails.
I am still awaiting China Southern to engage collaboratively with me to achieve a satisfactory outcome to this situation.”
“I had bad experience with this airline. I had a connection in London Heathrow from Manchester, i missed my connection due to the Airline carelessness and mis-management. Once I continued with the connection next day, the flight services were poor. Not recommended.”
