Here is the Mediacentre press release
17 December 2019: British Airways has signed a joint business agreement with China Southern Airlines, for travel from 2 January 2020. Seats are available for sale on ba.com from today.
The agreement will benefit customers of both airlines by opening more destinations between the UK and China, with a greater choice of flights and enhanced frequent flyer benefits. It will allow the airlines to cooperate on scheduling and pricing, providing customers with more flexible flight options and an attractive range of fares.
British Airways customers will be able to travel more easily on a combined route network which will develop over time thanks to both airlines’ move to the new Beijing Daxing International Airport. The joint business will initially see the two airlines code-sharing on all direct flights operated on mainland routes between London and the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Sanya, Wuhan and Zhengzhou. This will expand to both airlines' extensive domestic networks.
Alex Cruz, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO, said: “We are delighted to announce this joint business which will bring the UK and China closer together by providing British Airways and China Southern Airlines customers with a wide range of benefits. The agreement reinforces our commitment to boost tourism and business travel between the two countries and we look forward to strengthening the relationship further.”
Customer benefits will include greater opportunities to collect frequent flyer points, the ability to book through both airlines’ web or app-based platforms, enhanced lounge access and access to high-quality Chinese and British products and services on board and on the ground.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
British Airways and China Southern Airlines launched a codeshare agreement across ten routes in 2017. In January 2019, the airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand the agreement on each other’s networks and implement reciprocal frequent flyer benefits.
In October 2019, British Airways was the first international airline to its all operations to Beijing Daxing International Airport, in recognition of its importance in driving travel between China and the UK and its offer of a world-class customer experience.
Under the joint business, customers will initially benefit from 31 direct flights a week between London and the six Chinese locations.
The way this works for TPs, Avios and other BAEC benefit is that it will become possible to book a flight from London to say Guangzhou, flown by China Southern, but under a BA flight number. It should be available via BA.com but more importantly on corporate travel platforms. This means you fly China Southern but on this sort of ticket you would earn Avios, Tier Points and eligible flights to your BAEC account. There may be some arrangement on lounge use too, but that's not always a given on codeshares (and mostly it isn't in the deal). Being a Joint Business means also that if there are flight interuptions, BA can swap you easily on to China Southern aircraft.
Eventually when the other flights get coded, it will be possible to fly on perhaps 2 BA flights then 2 China Southern flights to reach a less well known destination, and get it all ticketed on BA.