Making plans for a visit back to Birmingham UK April time, me and family of 2.  Coming up very expensive to fly into brum 900 +. I see China southern have good prices for Bkk to Lhr 600 + Has anyone traveled with them ? If so are they any good. Had a nightmare once when I flew India air for the first time, so dont want that drama again. Many Thanks guys

Since you have to fly in the opposite direction to your destination, stopover at an airport further away than Bangkok for several hours, and then "retrace your steps" as it were for several hours on the leg to Birmingham, it may be worth biting the bullet and flying to Heathrow or Gatwick and taking a National Express coach to Birmingham.

They are not the "vomit comets" they used to be, in fact they are usually more comfortable and significantly cheaper than the trains!

I flew with them on a return trip from BKK to CDG (Paris) via CAN (Guangzhou) in 2013. Nothing outstandingly remarkable good or bad about them in my experience, the only slight negative I encountered being with a surly Chinese immigration officer I found myself having to deal with when transiting on the outward leg at CAN, who, for some mysterious reason, insisted on plonking some hexagonal red stamp in my passport. Did not encounter any Chinese immigration officers (surly or otherwise) on the return leg, though, thankfully.

 

But, as @herfiehandbag seems to allude to, flying with them between Thailand and Europe definitely felt to me like going the pretty way, which is the main reason why I haven't used them again since.