I was a bit surprised just how many positioning flights I ended up having to use to accomplish this trip. It definitely would have been possible to cut out a couple, but my desire to make the trip interesting by doing as many fifth freedom routes as possible and a few other odd bits and bobs...well...here we are. At least this one was relatively inexpensive, and avoided a significant detour to Kenya just to fly one airline, so maybe not so bad after all.
It was a bit tough to find the check-in desk for China Southern, as it was hidden in the corner and not very well marked. The seatmap showed full online and we'd been auto-assigned seats apart, but despite the check-in staff not speaking great English they were super helpful and managed to somehow get us two seats together. Winning! The only confusion came when they realized we had one-way tickets to China. They weren't super convinced by the departure/third country connection on Kenya, but eventually they decided it was ok.
Immigration was a piece of cake, as was security, despite being behind a very loud group of US Embassy people behaving very badly and acting like they owned the place. Talking down to others in line, loudly flaunting their "privilege" etc. Ugh, I guess there are some bad eggs in every basket.
Next up was time to try and find the lounge. Nice and easy to find...despite being underground. Sort of a strange set-up being in a dark basement, but there was. plenty of seating and the lounge was a good temperature. Not sure I'm up for 1,000 year eggs at this time in the morning...
I opted instead for a bit of dim sum and some marinated beef. The beef was so good and flavorful I might have had to go back for a second round. Tasted like a soy ginger marinade.
On the way to the gate I spotted this vending machine. I'm not quite sure what this giraffe drink is supposed to be, but I'm guessing it's trying to convince you that you'll feel big/tall and strong or something? Either way I found it creepy AF.
Our gate was practically made for planespotting, and we got a great view of our A330 waiting to whisk us onwards to Mainland China.
China Southern flight 3098
Taipei, Taiwan (TPE) to Guangzhou, PRC (CAN)
Depart 14:35, Arrive: 17:00, flight time: 2 hours 25 minutes
Airbus A330-300, Registration B-5965, Manufactured 2015, Seat 5A
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 213,324
Lifetime Miles Flown: 3,253,221
I honestly didn't have high expectations for this flight. Other than a few flights on Air China I haven't had any exposure to Mainland airlines, but all the reviews online that I've seen general put them as average to a bit below average...on average. In this case, getting a widebody on a relatively short flight was a big bonus, so I figured anything on top of that would be a pleasant surprise. From reviews I'd read the thing that jumped out at me right away was how friendly and genuinely helpful the crew were, and they seemed very interested in providing exceptional customer service. The purser spoke excellent English, and while the rest of the team was much more limited (or just shy) communication was absolutely no problem. Even the seats were ok, given they were 2-2-2...not ideal for a longer flight, but excellent for this short hop.
Plus...slippers on such a short flight were definitely a welcome treat. I'm always boggled why airlines don't have more than one size of slippers, but I digress...so, now, let's eat! The choices were "meat or seafood" so I went with the "meat" option.
The fruit was nice and fresh and the desert was reasonably tasty. I passed on the salad since I'm always skeptical of uncooked greens from an industrial kitchen and now let's discuss the main course. I'm pretty sure it was ground beef in a sauce...obviously over noodles. It was tasty, but not so tasty I felt compelled to eat more than a little since I wasn't all that hungry after the lounge. The cooked greens, however I did enjoy. I'm not quite sure what the sausage was, but I'm generally not a huge fan of sausage in general so I skipped that along with what I'm pretty sure was another thousand year egg.
Most importantly, the crew remained visible and helpful for the entire flight...really contrary to everything I'd expected from reviews I'd seen online. I don't know if we just got lucky or if things are changing, but hats off to this crew and to China Southern for really delivering on a short flight. Now...let's head to Guangzhou, see how the transit experience on separate tickets went, and get on to ticking off the final few airlines of the challenge!