British Airways and China Southern actually signed a bilateral partnership agreement quite some time ago, and back then, many people saw it as a sign that China Southern might eventually join Oneworld.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and other delays, not much came of it. The only notable update came in 2023, when the two airlines finally launched reciprocal mileage accrual – but based on tons of user reports, even that often fails to post correctly.
Now, here comes the real good news: award redemptions are finally live! I haven’t seen any official announcement yet, so this might well be the first post about it on the Internet. Huge thanks to our reader © for the tip-off yesterday.
Let’s start with redeeming Avios for China Southern flights. Thankfully, the BA website is usually functional so you can just search directly.
As for the redemption chart, it looks like they’re using the same one as Cathay Pacific:
| Flight Distance (miles) | Economy | Business |
|---|---|---|
| 1–650 | 9,750 | 20,800 |
| 651–1150 | 12,000 | 30,000 |
| 1151–2000 | 14,300 | 32,500 |
| 2001–3000 | 15,600 | 46,500 |
| 3001–4000 | 20,750 | 62,000 |
| 4001–5500 | 25,750 | 77,250 |
| 5501–6500 | 31,000 | 92,750 |
| 6501–7000 | 36,250 | 108,250 |
| 7000+ | 51,500 | 154,500 |
But honestly, you can probably ignore the business class column for now, as nobody’s seen a single China Southern business class award ticket show up yet. Taxes and surcharges seem to be on par with what China Southern charges in their own program.
The overall value isn’t great, with BA having undergone major devaluation in its Asia redemption over the last years and all sweet spots have pretty much disappeared.
China’s domestic flights are usually cheap-ish so BA is adding very little here unlike what Virgin offers. If you need to travel between say China and Japan, which have very popular routes, the cost still seems semi-decent.
If business class seats ever open up, 77,250 Avios or 92,750 Avios for a one-way between Europe and China isn’t bad either.
Now, flipping the perspective, redeeming China Southern miles for British Airways flights may actually be the more exciting option. You can find their partner redemption chart here (in Chinese), which is zone-based.
In terms of business class, here’s what it costs for a one-way:
- Europe – Middle East: 55,000 points
- Europe – North America: 80,000 points
- Europe – Asia: 100,000 points
- Europe – Australia: 150,000 points
Note that I’m using “points” here, because their program (as with any other Chinese FFP) is measured in kilometre, not mile.
It is, without a doubt, a lot cheaper than BA’s own program. Note that you need a CZ account to search and then enough points in your account to see the taxes and fees.
In terms of taxes and fees: check the cash ticket and sum up every component which isn’t Fare. Here’s an example for Dubai – London, so you’ll need to pay 1500 AED (~£299) in addition to the CZ points.
BA’s carrier-imposed charge tends to be high, but the combine cost may still be sensible redeeming through China Southern, except for US routes where the charge is outrageous.
Ping An runs frequent bonus offers for conversion to China Southern points, and sometimes it’s as cheap as 0.65p per point. I always say Ping An is a tough go for non-Chinese, but it seems many readers here have managed to make it work.
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