Ethos83

Anyone flown with them?

I need to book a flight for a holiday in Vietnam and China Southeastern are not only the cheapest but the quickest. Still have to do a layover in Ghangzhou.

I have to confess to never hearing of the airline before and online reviews are overly negative (BA is scoring an average of 7+/10 whilst China Southeastern is around 4+/10, oy vey). The bright side is that most of the reviews admit to leaving on time and arriving on time (and in one piece) which is the most important factor. But food is shit and more worrisome to me is the lack of English facilities. When I arrive in Ghangzhou for the transit to Hanoi, will it be easy for me to figure out which gate to go to, or if there are changes to the flight schedule?

Is it worth it to spend a bit more and go for Malaysian Airways even though it requires an extra three hours in transit?

Blue Cat

have you tried tripadvisor.com ?

Purdey

Are you heading to Saigon or Hanoi?
I travelled with Emirates to SGN but that was a while back and I think they maybe don't fly there now.
I'd go Malaysian personally out of those 2 options.

Ethos83

Looks like Cathay Pacific is a possibility. But $850USD for a round trip ticket! China Southern is $750 USD round trip.

I'd book Cathay but the online reviews are blistering regarding the new inflexible seats. Still it's only seven hours going and coming and I can survive that long....?

Malaysia Airways are coming up more expensive on their website. Around $1000 USD. I can find cheaper tickets on ebooker or opodo.com for Malaysia Airways but why is the identical flight on their website more expensive?

typical

Hello from Vietnam! No, you can't get here direct. I did DXB-BKK (EK) - HAN (VN).

Don't you need a transit visa to transit in China except for in Shanghai?

I think I'd choose Cathay over Malaysian.

Purdey

Well, in my experience, airfares are unexplainable and I did do some time at a corporate travel agency years ago.
I bought BA flights cheaper on expedia.com last summer than I could buy on BA.com or expedia.co.uk for that matter and had no problems.
If you have an iPhone look at onthefly which should give you the options for your chosen trip although their fares don't necessarily correspond to the airlines websites.

Jim Smith

I have flown CSA 4-5 times to Beijing and back and had no problems. Also their timings are very convenient! No Emirates type inflight entertainment but good value for money!

typical

Ah no, misread it. You just need one if you will be staying longer than 24 hours / want to leave the airport. Sorted.