Master thread to document China Southern's entry (merged threads)
 

Aeroflot says CZ will become member of SkyTeam tomorrow, on November, 1:
The earning tables have already been loaded.

Flying Blue hasn't updated their earning tables yet

DL Skymiles - ditto

www.skyteam.com - still nada

Anyone else?

There has been a post by somebody here (2 weeks ago?) indicating that OK+ had sent them a newsletter or something that indicated CZ flights would fully accrue miles since tomorrow. I am a member of OK+, but haven't gotten around to switching to the e-newsletter, and the website doesn't say anything.
I think it's a good bet to say that China Southern will be a member of Skyteam effective 01/11/2007. ^

By the way, the earnings SU have posted for CZ are little short of pathetic!!! 30% COS for business?? :eek:

For the record. If you go to skyteam.com and search itn's that would involve CZ, you will find CZ flights come up in the suggested itin's listed as Skyteam flights. I noticed that yesterday or the day before. Not sure when it changed. It wasn't like that a couple of weeks ago.

FWIW. It IS already 1/11 in CAN.

I haven't been able to get http://www.cs-air.com or http://www.csair.com to come up at all for weeks.

I don't know if it's new or not but CZ flights earn EQMs for NW WP and CO OP respectively though they're not under the ST grouping.

SU is wrong.

Official: Starting from Nov 1st, CZ will have FFP partnership with following skyteam airlines: KE/DL/OK/SU/AZ/AM (AM will start from Nov 15th) alone with existing partner NW/KL/AF/CO

Skyteam.com uploaded CZ flights a month ago~;)

CZ passed final review last week. The entrance date is still set to Nov15. There will be a large ceremony in Beijing, China. All CEOs from alliance partner will participate this ceremony.

Try http://www.flychinasouthern.com instead. However, in checking routes, I have yet to come across anything other than full coach or business fares, regardless of how far out the date is that I am checking. For that, you might have to go to an Asian-based travel web site.

I have also been unable to use the other China Southern sites you listed.

Just downloaded the new timetable from skyteam.com and the China Southern logo is now included

The master ST logo isn't updated on the site yet, but I suppose that'll happen eventually (like on the 15th maybe). And CSA has a new logo that looks a lot like GlaxoSmithKleine's.

Strange how easy and quick the CZ join went relative to all the others recently. Go figure.

The SkyTeam timetable is still not 100%, like it only shows LAX-CAN on Sundays, but it'll get there.

I tried to find China Southern timetable on their website and cannot get the site to change to English. It's an option, but when you select it, it churns and then returns results in Chinese.

Haha! Think they may have taken into account the amount of Becherovka I consume on board in designing this logo. There are all sorts of therapeutic herbs in that drink. :D


The China Southern websites are worse than useless.

Great. Will they be a full member or just associate?

I have never seen them mentioned as a candidate for associate partner status. I would say full member.

The world's 9th largest airline;)

I know they're masive, just wondering whether they wanted to be fully integrated into the alliance.

Great. Will they be a full member or just associate?[/QUOTE]

Just downloaded the updated skyteam time table and I can see CZ is a full ST member :-)

This is cool! I have just booked a CZ flight literally two minutes before coming to find this news on Flyertalk!

I'll be flying on Holidays Nov. 18th from Guilin to Kunming with Mrs JSFR and friend (3 days after the joining date :cool:)

What do people think are my chances of getting Elite Plus benefits? Will they have heard of Skyteam in Guilin???

Per flight attendant training program, they should able to recognize elite plus on board and call you MR. JSFR. But FA are complaining about having difficulties to read foreign last names in English.:rolleyes:

I think if they would be a full ST member one could collect on FF Aeroflot qualifying miles, this seems not to be the case , they get only "bonus" miles..so...and on CZ website there is nothing said about.

I believe that the CZ flights are SU EQM-eligible. The Aeroflot Bonus webpage says:
To me, this implies that you will receive EQMs based on fare paid and CoS.

There are also bonuses credited based on your SU status, but those are only RDMs, not EQMs.

China Southern today sents out a notice to all its employee stating that the joining date is on Nov 15th in Beijing. The news should be out very soon.

Congratulations, China Southern! Welcome all Flytalker on board China Southern!
:)

Just my 2 cents; but based on ground staff at HKG for CZ, they are not SkyTeam ready. I have three more flights this week so hopefully I will change my mind. I usually fly them a few times a year and today was my worst experience by far.

My first CZ flight this morning
 

We just flew CZ for the first time ever on a domestic flight PEK-SHE this morning. Imagine our surprise when reading the inflight magazine that as of 15 Nov they are part of skyteam (we had been trying to figure out where to put our mileage credit).

Notes on experience:

It seems as if ex-China flights only come up as full fare on the normal booking channels. If you want a discounted fare you must go through a Chinese travel agent or online booking site such as eLong.com. Bookings are not quick and easy and usually involve a phone call or some emailing though they do speak English.

We arrived at PEK terminal one about 3 hours before flight. It seems as if CZ occupies this entire terminal. There was no line at checkin. I am very tall and asked about an exit row at checkin and they said it was against regulation. Perhaps because I don't speak Chinese? I was given bulkhead instead on the A321 which was good enough for the one hour flight. I did not have my DL FF# attached to my res so no way to know if they are picking up status yet. I will try on the return flight on Thursday.

Everything else went smoothly. Most of the FAs seemed to speak basic English. Economy class service was beverage and peanuts on this 8:30 am flight.

Now I want to know if I will receive full mileage credit with DL for this discounted fare class on flights that occurred before 15NOV.

When can we book award seats?

This is a new option for those of us who always whine about ways to get to Australia on Skyteam, though still out of the way from N. America.

Are transit visas required for Guangzhou?

Are you talking about international flights? When it comes to domestic flights, only full Y is available outside of China. See this thread for way more info

I've never been to CAN but I believe it is safe to guess it's set up the same way other big Chinese airports are - that is, there's no transit zone and you have to enter China even when changing between flights. Check with Timatic whether you need a visa for this or not. Most (?) nationalities get 24 hours without a visa in this situation. So do you if you're American:

My experience booking an ex-China int'l flight (PEK-ICN) was the same. Only full fare available on ITA search, Orbitz, etc. Chinese travel agent gave me 60% off appx.

Not likely. I wouldn't count on it happening for you. I've never seen a partnership that offers retroactive credit.

CAN does have a transfer area in the international terminal area so if you are within the guidelines, you'll be fine without a visa.

Delta is in. Just got this (bolding is mine):

Off to check whether they've updated their ridiculous earning tables yet.

EDITED TO ADD: No, they haven't

They didn't edit the regular air partner table but they did edit the somewhat hidden MQM earning table to reflect earnings:

https://www.delta.com/skymiles/about...#chinasouthern

Online booking engine for China domestic flights
 

Try this one - http://english.yoee.com/

[QUOTE=spgaston;8684063]I am very tall and asked about an exit row at checkin and they said it was against regulation. Perhaps because I don't speak Chinese?QUOTE]

I was told the same thing 2 weeks ago checking in with CZ at HKG. According to the check-in agent, it is a rule that exit row PAX have to speak Mandarin.

China Southern logo included within SkyteamTimetable
 

Another observation, the China Southern logo has just been included within the latest SkyteamTimetable application..... seems like the ST timetable team is a little quicker off the mark than the ST web designers :)

Another observation, the China Southern logo has just been included within the latest SkyteamTimetable application..... seems like the ST timetable team is a little quicker off the mark than the ST web designers..........

Really, I don't see it. Where should I look? Thanks

On the splash screen when the timetable first loads. Right next to the AZ logo on the second row.

Did you guys know that CZ is giving out free tickets (including int'l) for whoever's born on Nov 15 and is flying CZ on the same day?

http://www.csair.com/en/ec/adsense/adweb/0711130916.asp

interesting..

Air France has just posted the earnings rates for CZ flights in Flying Blue on their website. On first glance it looks VERY disappointing for two reasons:

1) No earnings on direct flights between France and China/Hong Kong.
2) Only classes A, C, D, F, W, Y are eligible for mileage accrual.

What on earth is this?! A 2nd class partner(ship) or what?!

China Southern Airlines becomes the 11th skyteam member (lemonde.fr 9:37 am)
 

===== this post should be moved into the main thread related to china southern airlines. Thanks =====================

A short announcement in French newspaper Lemonde.fr about the 11th newcomer in Skyteam Alliance; China Shoutern Airlines

Read in france :
http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/web/actuim...3233056,0.html (access only for registered people at lemonde.fr).

Here is the content:
" China Southern Airlines, la plus grande compagnie de Chine continentale, rejoint l'alliance commerciale SkyTeam, dont elle devient le onzième membre. "


Cheers,
Jeremie

Well at 11:42 am, the logo has just got added in the home page of skyteam.com.


Also, the logo from CSA changed also as already comented

Cheers,
/Jer

It's official...
 

SKYTEAM WELCOMES CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES AS FIRST CHINESE CARRIER
SkyTeam Becomes First Alliance to Add Carrier from Mainland China

http://www.skyteam.com/EN/aboutSkyte...r/pr151107.jsp

I believe this info is the same as before CS's entry into Skyteam, so probably they haven't updated it yet