Flying: China Southern A320 Economy Class Singapore to Guangzhou

I arrived at Terminal 1 at 12:20PM, where there is almost no queue at the check-in counter since I presumed most of the passengers would have already checked-in. The boarding pass was printed in less than a minute and within five minutes I was airside.

China Southern 354
Singapore (SIN) – Guangzhou (CAN)
Wednesday, Dec 24 2014
Depart: 1:30PM
Arrive: 5:25PM
Flight time: 3hr55min
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Seat: R40A 

China Southern's new A320s have a three class configuration, with 2 rows of 8 business class seats in a 2-2 configuration, followed by premium economy and economy. It's worth noting that while the premium economy seats are separated from the economy ones by curtains, there is no hard partition separating them into different cabins like the ones separating business and economy cabins, so I wouldn't use the term "premium economy cabin" here.

I was sending some last minute emails at the boarding gate, so was among the last few to board, and the cabin door was closed a few minutes after I got to my seat.

The seat is comfortable, the pitch is comparable with Malaysia Airlines B737-800 but slightly tighter than Garuda's B737-800, though given it being a narrow body it's actually not too bad.

The taxiing, however, took more than 15 minutes and we only took off at 1:40PM, despite pushing off from the gate at about 1:20PM.

There's one thing I prefer the A320 as compared to the B737 is that the takeoff and subsequent climb is generally gentle, in the sense that you barely feel the thrust pushing your back to the seat. On red-eyes, I do appreciate to be able to doze off after buckling up and not waking up until the plane has landed. Nevertheless, my friend has expressed his alternative preference for a stronger thrust.

Service began shortly after takeoff with the crew distributing the blankets and earphones. One thing to note is that it is blankets and earphones are given on demand (instead of a standard issue item) and they may (especially blankets) run out towards the end of the aircraft (or middle, if the crew start distributing from both ends).

Personally I am fine with this practice since I am pretty used to carrying warm clothing and was never a big fan of their thin blankets and movie screening. The airline does not have on demand audio-visual entertainment (AVOD) on short-haul flights but instead screens movie(s) from overhead LCD screens. I was aware that AVOD are available on long-haul flights though have yet to try them.

Food
About 40 minutes into the flight drinks were served. One bonus is that China Southern has a reasonable selection of beverages, including red and white wines, in economy class. While I gave alcohol a miss, I really appreciate the little niceties that are getting rarer and rarer as airlines struggle to cut costs.

The food is perfectly edible, though not worth any special mention. One thing I have noted on Chinese carriers is that the appetizers are rather salty, so it's best to skip it if you have a light palate.

Service
Drinks were served before the meal, and two and a half rounds of refills were offered subsequently, once during the meal, another after the plates were collected. The half round was a limited selected of water and hot tea being offered on a tray about two and a half hours into the flight. Thereafter it would be on request, though my request for water before landing was promptly taken care of.

An hour before landing immigration and custom declaration forms were handed out to passengers. Subsequently, blankets and earphones were collected. Despite the slightly late take-off, we landed ahead of schedule at 5:17PM, though it was another long taxi to one of the remote parking stands. From there we took a shuttle bus which went by a long detour to the terminal building.

Conclusion
While indeed China Southern's service has improved in comparison to a decade ago, it still pales in comparison to most the full service airlines in the Asia Pacific region.