A very honest review of Saudia Airlines

Last summer, our flight finders discovered an absolutely insane error fare to Tanzania via Milan for £165 rtn including a checked bag. Twelve minutes of scrambling for passports and credit cards, and voilà! Six members of the team were booked.

Once the high wore off, the inevitable question arose… “Has anyone actually flown with Saudia before?”

Nope! And the reviews we found online were a little off-putting. From unfriendly staff to broken facilities, our expectations were low. 

But, after taking the 2-in-1 trip with them, and bouncing around Tanzania and Zanzibar for ten days, we feel like we definitely had the full Saudia package, and we can now share our thoughts on this whole experience.

Flight & aircraft details:

1. SV210 — Milan Malpensa (MXP) to Jeddah (JED) on an Airbus A321-251NX
2. SV463 — Jeddah (JED) to Dar es Salaam (DAR) on an Airbus A320-214
3. SV460 — Dar es Salaam (DAR) to Jeddah (JED) on an Airbus A320-214
4. SV101 — Jeddah (JED) to London Gatwick (LGW) on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

👎🏻 — Although all the planes were branded with a fresh coat of paint, featuring Saudia’s new logo and colours, we definitely felt a drop in quality from planes connecting Saudi Arabia and Tanzania. While the first and last planes that we boarded had wider and comfier seats, wider screens and some additional features like a footrest, the middle two planes felt a bit older. Considering these two legs were overnight, this ultimately impacted our comfort levels and sleep.

👍🏻 — We knew our last flight was gonna be a special one when Deal & Content Lead Tristan mentioned, ‘Oh nice! It’s a dreamliner!’. The plane was waaaaaay bigger than the previous ones, with rows of eight seats instead of six. The seats were comfier too,   complete with higher quality headrests, extra leg space and even a footrest. The windows? Tinted, baby!

General Facilities 

While we got the usual sleeping set of a blanket and a pillow, on each leg, we were treated to a hot towel at take-off — fancyyyy!

Saudia's TVs on the back of each seat were modern and on par with most other long-haul airlines we've flown with. The screens were large, relatively ‘new-looking’ and were able to be angled according to your preference.

The touch-screens all worked seamlessly, which was a good thing since none of them had the option of a remote control. Earphones were given out complimentary — which is standard lately, but as plastic earphones go, they were pretty comfy.

There was a USB-A and even a USB-C charging port next to each screen, and a UK/EU charging plug socket under each seat. 

Another piece of tech that we loved was the fact that they had complimentary Wi-Fi for economy! Although none of us managed to get social media working, we could all send texts through iMessage and WhatsApp, which — considering we paid £165 rtn — felt like a luxury!

But the real highlight was on our last flight, connecting Jeddah to London: the complimentary amenity kit we were offered! This included a sleeping mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a pair of anti-slip socks. Since this isn't a guarantee for all long-haul flights (even if they're full service), it was a nice touch from the airline — perks of flying on a Saudia Dreamliner, I guess?

Food

Considering long-haul flight standards, the food met our expectations and the service felt consistent across all 4 of our flights. We got the usual offering (vegetarian) pasta or chicken, and special-requirements meals (vegan, gluten-free options, etc) could be requested before check-in.

However, we were continuously treated to unexpected munchies and soft drinks throughout the flight. Apart from trolleys filled with juice and water glasses passing every 30 minutes, Flight Finder Lauren was even offered a glass of water while queuing for the bathroom! It’s the little touches, eh?

Plus, the crew even allowed a couple of us to have breakfast after we snoozed past the breakfast service — yum.

Entertainment

Considering the moral criticisms Saudia Arabia receives from the International Community, our expectations of Saudia’s entertainment were quite low. However, as soon as our fingers started tapping on the TV screens, we were met with an impressive, diverse, and up-to-date movie selection from a range of countries.

Though, in amongst the usual blockbusters — including Barbie and Oppenheimer! — there were some sneaky self-promoting Saudi Arabia documentaries that piqued our interest…

Cultural Aspects

While not immediately obvious, there were definitely some cultural aspects to the flight that you probably wouldn’t find on a British Airways plane.

Before take-off, an unexpected audio recording accompanied by a video filled the cabin. The voice recited an Islamic prayer in Arabic, invoking blessings for a safe journey. Which, if anything, definitely just set a positive tone for the flight ahead. 

If you’re someone who prefers staring at the in-flight map rather than a movie, you might be surprised to see one additional feature… a Mecca tracker! 

This was pretty cool, and there was also a special announcement when we flew directly over it.

Top tip: If you aren’t in need of Islamic prayer time updates, you’ll need to turn these off in your TV settings, or else they’ll keep popping up on your screen several times throughout the journey. 

Despite Saudia Arabia’s recent changes to the rules surrounding alcohol sales, there was no alcohol offered—or allowed—on board. We were perfectly fine without them because of the amount of complimentary soft drinks they offered, but it is still something to be aware of.

Staff and Service

The cabin crew that we met all spoke English (along with many other languages), and were extremely friendly and helpful. They went out of their way to help store our bags, along with moving Flight Finder Andreia closer to the front to help her catch her connecting flight.

The whole process of boarding was very smooth, which meant that we were able to take off and land early on every flight!

One downside to Saudia is they have a strict 7 kg (15.5lbs) weight rule for all carry-on bags. You can get around this by checking in online and bypassing the check-in desk at the airport. But, if you have to check in at the airport, or drop a bag, you'll need to make sure your cabin bag is under the limit. Or, risk handing over your cabin bag to be checked in the hold — no one likes that!

One extra thing to note if you check in online, is that you may be called to the boarding gate to replace your digital boarding pass with a physical copy. This happened to most of the JFC team, but we all got lucky and still managed to avoid weighing our carry-ons at the gate — phew!

In the Airport

Based on a slew of online reviews, the layover was going to be the intimidating part of the trip, with Jeddah Airport known to have an eerie atmosphere during the night.

After a very smooth security check (just be aware there are no scissors allowed into the airport, as Fran sadly learnt…), we were pleasantly surprised by how lively Jeddah Airport turned out to be at 1 am. All the shops and restaurants were open, chefs were cooking in the lounges, and it felt as if it was midday!

On our way back to Europe, before boarding our flight from Dar es Salaam to Jeddah, we had to go through bag checks, basically in front of the plane door! Carry-ons and small bags were opened on a table and inspected thoroughly. If you've travelled to places like Mexico, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or Turkey, you'll likely have been through a similar check before.

Overall Rating — 4/5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

TLDR

🧑🏻‍✈️ Service: Kind and smiley, both on board and on the ground.

🔌 Facilities: In line with main European/US Flag Carriers.

🍝 Food: Tasty meals, plenty of snacks and drinks throughout the flights.

⏰ Timing: Took off and landed on time.

💸 Quality VS Price: Worth the money.

A very honest review of China Southern

Chinese airlines have been serving up the cheapest flights on the market for as long as we can remember. But after disappearing completely during the pandemic, we wondered if we’d ever see them again. Cut to 2024, and, oh boy, are they back! 

Especially if you’re based in Europe, these airlines have consistently undercut their European or Middle Eastern counterparts on price for loooooads of long-haul routes to places like South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This has left lots of members asking, “What is it actually like to fly via China, and what can I expect if I book a ticket on one of these airlines?”.

After planning to head back home to Sydney for a wedding, Flight Finder Larissa took the plunge and booked a return trip from London with China Southern. Here’s her review on what it was like to actually fly with one of these airlines, and what you can expect if you do the same.

Flight & aircraft details:

1. CZ304 – London Heathrow (LHR) to Guangzhou (CAN) on a Boeing 787-9 

2. CZ325 – Guangzhou (CAN) to Sydney (SYD) on an Airbus A350

3. CZ302 – Sydney (SYD) to Guangzhou (CAN) on an Airbus A350

4. CZ303 – Guangzhou (CAN) to London Heathrow (LHR) on a Boeing 787-9

👎 –  The plane’s seats, cabin and the cabin crew’s uniforms looked like they were out of the ‘90s, but that’s a purely aesthetic point and didn’t negatively affect our experience flying on these planes.

Many flights transiting through China have a looooong layover on at least one of the legs. Ours came on the way home, between Guangzhou and London, where we had to wait a whopping 8 hours in the airport. You can find out more about the delights of Guangzhou Terminal 2 below, but it’s safe to say that an extended layover when you just want to get home isn’t ideal. 

To get around this, I’d recommend you pay for an airport hotel (which is usually pretty cheap in China). Or, make the most of your stopover and extend it a few days (if you don’t mind navigating the tricky rules of the Chinese transit visa). Sitting in the airport for your whole layover (the way we did it) is definitely the worst way. 

👍– The seats and legroom were to the same standard I would expect on any long-haul service, so no nasty surprises there. Despite the cheaper price, it is a full-service airline, so we didn’t have to deal with a ‘budget airline’ experience.

And because Chinese airlines don’t have the same restrictions over Russian airspace at the time of writing, the flights between China and Europe are faster than European airlines by about 60–90 minutes.

General Facilities 

👍– You can expect the usual blanket, pillow and headphones trio on your seat when you board. As is common with other airlines flying routes to/from Asia, you’ll also be served a piping hot hand towel before and after your meal service. 

The seats had adjustable headrests, 2 universal power sockets for every 3 seats, a headphone jack and USB A ports, plus dimmable windows on the 787 and window shades on the A350. The seat-back entertainment screen was nice and big, too. Pretty typical stuff that you would expect on a full-service carrier.

👎– No complimentary Wi-Fi, unfortunately — there was a QR code on your seat back where you could go to the website and buy Wi-Fi for your journey. The price was just over £20 for Wi-Fi, and almost £9 for in-flight messaging for what, I assume, is the length of the flight (12 hours to China, or 9.5 hours to Sydney), and you’ll have to pay for each leg individually.

Keep in mind that the Wi-Fi on these planes likely suffers the same geo-blocked restrictions that the Chinese government has put in place on the ground — that means most of your typical messaging apps will likely not work. 

Considering some airlines (like Singapore Airlines) now offer Wi-Fi packages for free, this is a mark against China Southern. No amenity kits here, either :-(

Food

This is the one category where I feel like I was let down by China Southern. Even 7+ months after my flight, the food is burned into my memory, and not for a good reason. 

Let me set the scene: the type of food offered on China Southern (depending on where you’re travelling from/to) will be mainly Chinese food. Yep, groundbreaking, we know. And the quality is fine – it’s similar to what you’d expect from your local takeaway. But the problem I had with these meals was the lack of variety. 

In general, I’m a fan of the Chinese food I eat in the UK – I enjoy the odd takeaway, and I love dumplings and noodle soups. But 2 meals x 4 flights = 8 times, I was offered the same choice: chicken with noodles or beef with rice. And that was it, for over 20 painstaking hours of flight time. Totally fine after the first, second time and even the third time. But on the return journey, I couldn’t stomach having the same meal again, so I snacked on my emergency rations of chips and chocolate instead. 

So in summary: the food quality was fine, and the dishes were tasty, but very repetitive. If you know you’re not going to want noodles for breakfast, pack something else to eat. 

They also gave us the choice of the usual selection of soft drinks, juice (the peach juice was my favourite), tea and wine. Their drinks service happened before your meal and then another round during your meal, so more regularly than on some other airlines. You can reserve special meals like vegetarian, kosher etc., but to do this it seems you have to call their customer service line — I don’t remember being able to reserve this via their website. 

FWIW: I’ve seen other reviews of China Southern showing different meals than the ones I was offered, so this variety may have improved since I flew with the airline in March 2024.  

Entertainment

When I boarded my first flight at Heathrow on Thursday evening, I was most excited to see what the in-flight entertainment on China Southern had in store for me. Unfortunately, once I sat down and powered it on, I realised my screen was broken, and the home screen was frozen in place. Ouch. It was clearly pure bad luck, since everyone around me had a working screen, and it just meant my phone got a workout with saved episodes of Selling Sunset. 

Thankfully, my other 3 flights had a working entertainment system. It was standard for what you’d expect on a long-haul flight — lots of Western blockbusters and popular TV shows, plus a whole category of Chinese-language entertainment too. I have read in the past that the airline heavily censors their entertainment, but I didn’t notice this on my flights. 

Cultural Aspects

If you’ve ever flown on a Chinese airline before, you’ll be familiar with the security officers who are present on every flight. Flights with China Southern are no different — you’ll usually see this person sitting in the front row of the economy cabin, dressed in a uniform and wearing a body camera. While you may spot them walking up and down the aisle during your flight, to tell you the truth, I don’t remember seeing our officer at all during our flight. They’re there to discourage antisocial behaviour on the flight and do have the power to arrest passengers who are behaving badly, but they won’t bother you unless you’re acting up. 

The announcements are spoken in Chinese over the PA system before they’re repeated in English. Otherwise, there’s nothing else on China Southern flights that’s particularly different or notable when compared to airlines I’ve flown long-haul before, like British Airways, Cathay Pacific or Qatar Airways.   

Staff and Service

Overall, the staff were friendly and very efficient with meal and drinks services. They all spoke English, too. Nothing else to really mention on either a positive or negative note. 

I have read other passengers online reporting that customer service is a sore point with Chinese airlines/terminals as a whole, particularly if you need help or something goes wrong. We never needed to ask a question of the staff or the airline, so I can’t speak to that. 

Each of our flights took off on time, and we even landed over an hour early on our flight from Sydney to Guangzhou. I can imagine that if we had a tighter connection, we would have really appreciated that. But in reality, it just meant more time in the airport…lucky us!  

In the Airport

Ah, Guangzhou Terminal 2. Where I spent waaaay too much of my life this year. Let me first start off with the positives: 

• The airport is modern, clean and has lots of space to relax, with rows and rows of chairs. Some of them were even proper reclined ones, where we parked up for at least 3–4 hours of our layover.
• There is a Starbucks for anyone who wants a taste of home, plus a really good-looking noodle place and a fun little exhibition space where you can learn a bit about the produce of the area. 

Okay, now onto the juicy stuff:

• The transit line to get into the terminal once you deplane is buuuuusy. I assume most people flying into Guangzhou are connecting to another flight, but it took us a good 30–40 min to transit. And once you get through, there’s another line for a security check before you’re set free, but at least that was quick. 
• Having to spend 8 hours in any airport isn’t fun (except Changi, maybe. But that’s an outlier). This one is particularly boring — it’s a massive, soulless building with very little to see, very few shops and only a couple of restaurants. So there’s really nothing to do but sit. They apparently hold the title of the ‘world’s largest single-building terminal’, but with very little to fill all that space. 
• The lounge was far too expensive for what it (apparently) is. I say apparently because we never stepped foot in there, after being told a lounge pass was in the region of $30-$40 USD/pp per HOUR. Our 8-hour layover would have put the price of lounge access over $500 for 2 people, and from all the reviews I’ve seen online about this and other lounges in Guangzhou, it definitely wouldn’t have been worth it. Considering you can usually get a lounge pass for at least a few hours/a day pass for the same amount in other places, there was no incentive for us to pay that money. 
• We couldn’t access the ‘free’ Wi-Fi in the terminal :-( The network does show up on your phone, but doesn’t work once you connect. Apparently, this is a very common problem for travellers passing through Guangzhou. 
• The SkyTrax 5-star rated terminal signs were mocking us everywhere we went, and after all we’d seen, we were sceptical of how they had earned that rating. If you’re not familiar with our thoughts on SkyTrax, read our guide here. 

Overall Rating — 3/5  ⭐⭐⭐

My final thoughts: China Southern is great value for money if you get your fares on the cheap. I think I’d like to save at least £200 as a general rule for it to be worth it for me to fly them long-haul again. That’s not to say they weren’t decent — in most respects they were absolutely fine. But the food issue and the annoying layover were significant enough for me to choose another airline if I could guarantee a better experience for a comparable price.

TLDR

🧑🏻‍✈️ Service: Attentive and efficient, but nothing overly positive or negative to note.

🔌 Facilities: A little dated, but has everything you’d expect from full-service airlines.

🍝 Food: Plenty of drinks and food provided, but very little variety.

⏰ Timing: Can’t fault them — we took off on time on each of our flights.

💸 Quality VS Price: Definitely worth it if you want a full-service experience on a low budget.

Bonus round: China Eastern

We've had a couple of other JFC-ers fly Chinese airlines recently, with our Head Marketing Guru Drew being one of them. Here's an abridged version of his thoughts on flying with China Eastern to Asia from the UK: 

• The plane was a 777, fairly modern and clean but nothing particularly memorable. The cabin crew, though, were excellent — friendly and attentive the whole flight.
• The food was genuinely impressive, with two proper meals of really good portion size.
• The entertainment was where things fell short — the selection was sparse, leaning heavily towards Chinese movies, with only one or two Western options that really caught my interest. I'm glad I brought my own content and headphones! 
• Culturally, the experience was the same as any other long-haul flight I've been on.
• The layover in Shanghai was tricky — my 3-hour layover was cut short as our flight was delayed, so transit was rushed. The terminal was huge with limited English signage, so finding my gate wasn't easy. Plus, there's no Wi-Fi unless you have a local SIM card. My layover on the way back to the UK was longer, but it wasn't much smoother — it was the middle of the night, so no lounges or shops were open, so it was a long time with no Wi-Fi and nothing to do. I relied on content I had downloaded to pass the time and found a quiet place to take a nap. 
• All in all, the experience was decent — just remember to pack snacks, consider organising an eSIM for the layover, and don't count on Wi-Fi or entertainment to get you through your journey. 

So, there you have it! It seems transiting through Shanghai isn't much better than Guangzhou (especially the Wi-Fi problem!), but the actual experience of the flight on China Eastern is comparable to what I experienced on China Southern. The only major difference was the food was the weakest point on my flights, whereas the entertainment was lacking for Drew. Otherwise, both airlines gave us a similar experience to what we'd expect from any other airline flying these routes.