Flying to South Korea doesn’t have to be expensive if you are willing to go a slightly longer route and do a stopover.
One of the most common questions in our South Korea Travel Tips and Planning Facebook group is about cheap Korea flight deals and what is a ‘good’ price to pay to fly to South Korea.
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On our latest trip to South Korea in May 2025, we wanted to do Korea on a budget – it was our third visit in 8 months so this time, it had to be inexpensive!
After much ‘Seoul’ searching of South Korea flights, we paid £388 each (including checked baggage) for a RETURN flight from London to South Korea (Seoul) with China Southern Airlines via China itself.
Better still, they sometimes offer you a free hotel stay if your stopover is between 6 hours and 30 hours long.
From what to expect on board China Southern flights to Seoul and transit tips, here is our China Southern Airlines review flying to Seoul (South Korea) from London.
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South Korea checklist
We love using agoda.com, expedia.com and booking.com for researching and booking all our hotels, and Hostelworld for booking hostels.
For booking tours, transfers and SIM cards we recommend Get Your Guide, Viator, Trazy or Klook.
For booking rental cars visit Discover Cars. For private drivers and taxis, check out our Transfer guide >
Check out our South Korea travel booking resources >
All set for South Korea? Do one final check with our Seoul first timers guide and our South Korea packing list
Seoul flights – When is best to buy?
Traveling to Seoul (South Korea) for the first time? You are in for a pleasant surprise as Seoul for first timers is an easy entry point to explore South Korea and an excellent place to base yourself.
Before you book a flight, we recommend you check out our first timers guide to Seoul and South Korea to get useful tips like when to book hotels, weather, amazing Korean food plus ask any questions you have have in our Facebook group with over 75,000 members.
Flights to Seoul are usually not the cheapest and the in the past, we’ve often paid £700 to £1,000 for direct return flights (which is $950 to $1,350 USD or $1,450 to $2,000 AUD).
However please note flight prices to Korea / Seoul are relative, depending on where you are flying from. So you might find it cheaper from your own home country (lucky you)!
We usually tend to book South Korea flights when there is a sale on (sign up to airline newsletter lists for sale announcements) or several months in advance – flights usually increase in price the closer you get to departure.
Flight prices tend to be seasonal and will be more expensive during holidays like Christmas . Midweek flights are also sometimes cheaper than departing at the weekend (less so with long-haul flights).
We used the flight aggregator Skyscanner to find our cheap South Korea / Seoul flights but booked directly with China Southern Airlines.
We’d always recommend booking with your chosen airline directly as it makes any rebooking or cancellation notices much easier.
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China Southern flight prices to Seoul
We booked our £388 China Southern return flight to Seoul from London Heathrow in March 2025, two months before our 5 May 2025 departure date.
The £388 China Southern fare was almost half that of direct flights, but we did have to do a 18 hour stopover in Guangzhou International Airport on the way there and a 3 and a half hour layover at Beijing Daxing International Airport on the way back to London Heathrow Airport.
On the 18 hour layover we booked an airport hotel to get some rest (Guangzhou Airport Novotel) which cost £45 per night and was located a 2 minute shuttle bus ride away.
China Southern airline prices can vary depending on the time of year and the £388 return to Seoul from London was one of the lowest return fares to South Korea we have ever seen.
It should also be noted China Southern and other Chinese airlines fly over Russian airspace.
Please note for any transit flights lasting over 6 hours but less than 30 hours with China Southern, you might be entitled to a free hotel – check their website for details as the dates and inclusions change regularly.
We found this free hotel service hard to book online (the verification system on China Southern’s website isn’t easy) so we opted to book a cheap Novotel hotel in advance for our overnight stay rather than use the free hotel service (we knew we would be tired when we arrived and wouldn’t want a long wait in line for the free hotel).
If you do want to take advantage of the free overnight stay, then the desk you need to head to is located after security. This is a photo of the desk below.
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Sindang
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China Transit Visa – 2025
We visited Seoul from London via China in May 2025 – at the time of our visit, we were able to take advantage of the free 10 day / 240 hour China transit visa which allows tourists to stay for short periods of time as long as they have a connecting flight out of China.
Our layover in Guangzhou was just over 18 hours so we applied for a transit visa at the airport (for free) which took only 5 minutes and meant we were allowed to leave the airport to check into our airport hotel located just outside the arrivals terminal.
Please note at the time of writing (August 2025), the free China transit visa is only for a limited time and for travellers from certain countries so please do your own checks relating to your own country of origin and passport.
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Luggage
Amazingly, our low priced China Southern flight included 23kg of checked in luggage each and 7kg of carry on luggage. Our luggage arrived safely in Seoul and the transit went smoothly.
To mention that as we had a short stopover and one night layover, we didn’t need to collect our luggage at Guangzhou Airport and we just picked it up at our final destination in Seoul – so remember to pack an overnight bag and pyjamas etc if you are leaving the airport to stay in a hotel.
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The aircraft
The long haul journeys between London and China were on much larger and newer planes, whilst the short haul flights between China and Seoul were on smaller and more basic aircrafts.
The short haul flights did not have entertainment screens, but meals were provided.
What else is included on your China Southern flight?
Meals and drinks
We thought the China Southern inflight food they served was super tasty, especially the pepper pork and rice dish. Breakfast was good too – a choice of eggs and sausage or beef noodles.
Given the low cost fare, we weren’t expecting much but the food was of a good standard and better than most other airline meals we’ve had.
That said, we found the quality of food on our flights from London to South Korea a bit better then on the return journey back to London.
Beer, wine and spirits were also available. For my taste, the inflight beer and wine wasn’t the best so we didn’t really ‘indulge’ too much and just stuck to soft drinks and coffee.
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Inflight Entertainment
China Southern in-flight entertainment was not too bad with a choice of a few recent movie releases. We flew in May 2025 so enjoyed movies like Deadpool 3, Weekend in Taipei and Hereditary. The TV / series offerings weren’t so great.
The in-flight entertainment option is only available on the long haul legs of the flights (not on the shorter flights between China and South Korea).
Each seat had its own TV screen and headphones were offered – I (Neil) used my AirFly to connect the in flight entertainment to my own personal noise cancelling wireless headphones via bluetooth.
We highly recommend doing this to drown out the noise of the flight, plus it saves getting your cables in your dinner!
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Legroom
Amazingly, on our flight from London to China, we flew in a modern Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner so the China Southern legroom on this flight was actually the best I’ve ever had on any flight ever.
I (Neil) am 6 foot tall so having good legroom makes for a much more comfortable flight. All the other China Southern flights as part of our Korea trip were older planes and so they were more standard legroom – typical as in not bad but not great.
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Amenities
We didn’t really get offered anything other than the standard sleeping mask, blanket, headphones and in-flight water / meals.
We have some social media videos about free toiletry bags on China Southern airlines but we aren’t sure if this is route dependent as we didn’t receive them.
What we didn’t like about China Southern
We had a really positive China Southern experience overall but there were a few minor issues which you might want to be aware of.
China Southern website
We found the China Southern website one of the worst airline websites ever – this is mainly because it is designed for Chinese citizens so the verification tools didn’t work for us to be able to log-in; so we booked our flights as guests and had to check in at the airports.
This also meant we weren’t able to prebook the free hotel China Southern sometimes provides for guests in transit.
However, all our flight e-tickets were received immediately after booking so it wasn’t a major issue other than not being able to do an online check-in.
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Inflight Wi-Fi
We weren’t able to connect or log onto the China Southern inflight Wi-Fi. Please note it is an extra cost anyway (which we would have happily paid could be have got it to connect).
Return flights
For whatever reason (possibly because we flew out on a modern Boeing Dreamliner), we found the quality of flights and food better flying from London to China / Seoul than the flights back – but we had no major issues overall.
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Review summary – would we fly China Southern again to Seoul?
Overall, aside from minor quibbles, we had a positive experience and given the China Southern Airlines cost was half the price of direct flights, we would do this again.
However, we found our long-haul flight experience from London to China was a little better than the flight back as the plane was more modern and inflight meals better quality.
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