China Southern is making a change to how they categorize their forward cabin on domestic flights. This is more interesting in theory than anything else, because there aren't any major implications in this case. Via Business Traveller: "China Southern Airlines will reposition its first class cabin as business class in October. The carrier is thought…
Continue reading: China Southern Rebrands Domestic First Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Annoyingly, Air China sells Business Class as First Class domestically even on three cabin 777-300ER with F. I bought F expecting F on that particular three cabin aircraft. Very frustrating. There was only one, old, important-looking Chinese man in F.
I was able to fly Air China domestic "first" on a business class award (last year). It seems like if you search segment individually it will show the seats and cost as business. But when searched as part of larger itinerary it only shows economy.
I called in and told them and the representative fixed the issue.
In my experience booking with USDM (when they were still in *A) on Air China, J award is unavailable for most Chineses domestic flights, since those are 2-cabin flights classified as F+Y. J is only available on a handful of 3-cabin flights having a proper J section, and those are typically long-haul flights making a stop in China before continuing to the final destination in China. Mine was SYD-PVG-PEK, so the PVG-PEK segment does have a proper J class and bookable as such.
So the rebranding of "F" to J is actually quite nice 🙂