Made a booking mid day yesterday with China Southern.

Despite a little bit of foreboding about their website the process was very clear cut and easy. I booked the flight, reserved seats, and arranged the layover hotel with no issues whatsoever. Payment went through successfully. I have the travel itinerary which includes the Go number and (presumably) flight ticket number. All good and I was very happy with the price. The booking is shown in my account.

Unfortunately I never received a confirmation email. Thought I would leave it overnight but unfortunately still no email. Should I be concerned about this? I have just tried the online chat but they do not respond.

Are there alternative ways to resolve this or do I have to call them? Which presumably could be costly.

Incidentally, my CC payment is still showing as pending. Is that normal?

It's a little but frustrating. It had all gone so well.

Grateful for any advice.

For mainland Chinese airlines, only the eTicket number matters- the 6 digit PNR isn't even used. Worst case you call their call centre (+86) in China, they're very responsive.

Can you manage/see it online ? Manage Trips link (EU)

Agree with mlin32 above, what does it say online in manage your booking.

Whilst the rest of the world still leans heavily on emails as confirmation of transactions, China doesn't have the same focus due to much line of business being focussed on WeChat/Alipay and their mini-apps.

Also, if your email provider is one that isn't accessible from within China (Google, maybe Yahoo, others) then maybe the email has been inadvertently been blocked - whilst email traffic itself usually isn't blocked it can be unreliable.

Thank you for responding. I appreciate your advice.

Is the 13 digit number begining 7 the e-ticket number?

Yes, the flight is shown in my bookings on the China Southern website.

Would the confirmation email only be sent after the credit card payment has been fully processed? At the moment it is still marked up as pending.

This is getting a little frustrating. I think perhaps we should give them a call. Can I call them anytime? I'm in the UK.

You can call them anytime, they have a 24 hour call centre.

BUT I would give it another 24 hours.

If you're in the UK, and you know someone with a Lebara SIM card it has a monthly allocation of free mins for China.

Phone numbers would be
+86 20 95539
Or
+86 4008695539

Thank you both.

Yes I will take your advice and give it another 24 hours.

Unfortunately my frustration levels are starting to rise. Looking at my calling plan I underestimated the cost to call China (�0.50p per minute). Unfortunately I don't know anybody who has any cheap calls plans like Lebara. I will look into it and see what I can do.

I know it may vary but does the China Southern helpline usually get answered and dealt with quite quickly?

+1 on the comment about email not being widely used in mainland China. I did a reservation on MU via their app a couple weeks ago and never got a confirmation email either. But personally not bothered, as the eticket is valid and it all shows up in my reservations.

If I need to call a Chinese airline call centre I usually call in the evening UK time, as the call centre is quiet for their mainland customer base. But when I have called at times when the mainland is awake the wait times have been very reasonable or none at all. ​​

The proficiency of the English language of the agents can be variable but it's usually good or good enough. Make sure you pronounce things slowly and clearly and use basic words, if you feel something is getting lost in translation just say "no changes please" and hang up, go have a cuppa tea and call later.

I contacted China Southern customer services by email. Received a very prompt response. They were very helpful. I have been sent a "passenger travelling information" note which confirms we are on the system.

So I haven't received the "official" booking confirmation but assume the above is good enough. My credit card payment has now been authorised.

Overall we are delighted with what we have paid for the flights.

Thank you once again for all your comments.

I did make a booking on CZ website recently for a ticket and I did get an email with a flight confirmation with ticket number, the GO reservation number (not the typical PNR number); the GO reservation number is a thing with TravelSky. The email didn't look official like any other e tickets with any other airlines in the world, but that would be the only email one would get. It is somehow logged into the system. I was trying to print out the itinerary officially (yes sometimes you never know if at passport control, you are asked "show me your air ticket" and I have nothing to prove). Then I called the Hong Kong number for CZ and was told that for tickets bought online, they are issued from HQ in Guangzhou so had to call back the Hong Kong number after 5pm so that it gets routed directly to Guangzhou..... (Anyway they ended up changing the flight times so we refunded the tickets.)

Tagging onto this as I'm wondering if there's any sensible frequent flyer program to which CZ flights can be credited to.

Wheretocredit seems to be out-of-date or inaccurate. It lists AA, BA, KE, SV and VN as options but

• AA seems to only work for codeshares operated by CZ
• BA is hit and miss based on recent posts here when it comes to crediting CZ flights
• KE's conditions for accrual seem to imply that you can only earn miles on CZ codeshares operated by KE. Not sure if I'm reading their rules correctly though. Or can one earn miles on CZ marketed and operated flights with no nexus to SK?
• SV stopped their partnership earlier this year.

That leaves VN as the sole option. I saw that QF has a limited partnership with CZ too. Am I missing anyone else?

AA, BA, and KE are your best bets currently.

But can one credit all CZ flights to them or just CZ codeshares operated by KE? Otherwise, I may be inclined to credit them to VN which doesn't have that restriction

You need to consult the rules of each respective programme (AA, BA) and what they accept. I'm not a OW expert to be honest, coming from Skyteam.

You can credit your flight to AA, whether it's codeshare or not.