I had booked a flight involving transfer from Xi'an to Osaka a few months ago through American Airlines, and - yesterday - was told that I had to change this leg of the flight to use China Southern (Xi'an to Guangzhou, then Guangzhou to Osaka). The American Airlines agent was unable to book seats for my family of four, but he gave me a 6 digit number for this leg of the flight.

I called China Southern at 323-653-8088 on the English line, and the agent at China Southern told me that I would need to (1) e-mail [email protected] a photo copy of the passports of my family of four, and (2) call back 15 minutes after e-mailing the photos such that she could proceed to assign seats for myself and my family.

Is this the normal routine for China Southern, or would you be able advise another method of booking seats on China Southern Airlines? Thank you in advance for your help.