FlyerfolioMiles and membership
English

Status: checked against official sources; automated independent review

GUIDE

How to Earn China Southern Sky Pearl Club Miles

Sky Pearl Club is China Southern Airlines' frequent flyer programme, in which members earn kilometres on eligible China Southern and partner flights, and through hotel and credit-card partners, then redeem them for award tickets, upgrades and other rewards. [3] This guide covers earning only, under the rules China Southern publishes for its own programme; those rules do not describe how other carriers' programmes credit flights. [3]

Facts checked: 18 October 2026

Key takeaways

  • Sky Pearl Club counts kilometres, and basic flight miles are the standard distance between the two cities multiplied by the booking-class percentage in China Southern's table. [3]
  • On China Southern's own flights the percentage depends on booking class, under a table that applies to travel on or after 20 July 2020 and runs from 300% in first class down to 25% in the lowest earning economy classes. [3]
  • One programme per flight segment: if you do not ask at booking to credit a partner flight to the partner's own programme, the miles go to your China Southern account by default. [3]
  • Retroactive claims are limited to flights taken within six months of travel. [3]

Earning on China Southern flights

Earning starts with the distance flown. Standard mileage is the city-pair distance published by IATA, and where the actual distance is under 500 km the standard mileage is counted as 500 km. [3] Basic flight miles are then the standard mileage multiplied by the booking-class percentage, and the account is kept in kilometres. [3]

For China Southern-operated flights with a travel date on or after 20 July 2020, the handbook's table gives first class (F) 300%; business class J 250%, C 200%, D 150% and I 125%; premium economy W 125% and S 75%; and economy Y 125%, P/B/M/H 100%, K/U/A/L/Q 75%, E/V/Z 25% and T/N 25%. [3] The same table has a separate column for the mileage and segments that count towards elite qualification, and the two do not always match: T and N, for example, earn 25% basic miles but no upgrade segments at all. [3]

Booking classes that the table does not list earn nothing. [3] The table also carries a residual row of "other booking classes" shown at 0%, naming F, I, O, S, Z, X, G and R, even though F, I and Z appear with earning rates elsewhere in the same table, so check your exact class before booking. [3] This matters on discounted fares: a booking class is not the same thing as a cabin, and the class code on the ticket is what the table is read against. [3]

Partner flights, hotels and cards

Flights that can earn include every flight shown with a CZ flight number, whether scheduled, extra-section or codeshare. [3] Flights carrying a partner's flight code and operated by that partner also earn, with three specific arrangements: Sichuan Airlines domestic flights under a 3U code, including China Southern codeshares with it; China Airlines flights under a CI code on all routes and Mandarin Airlines flights under an AE code only on routes between the Chinese mainland and the Taiwan Region of China; and Chongqing Airlines flights under an OQ code, which credit as China Southern flights at China Southern rates. [3] Charter flights earn nothing. [3] For codeshares, the flight number and booking class printed on the ticket are what the crediting is based on. [3]

The handbook names sixteen airline partners from which Sky Pearl Club miles can be earned: Xiamen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Delta, Air France, KLM, China Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, Korean Air, Aeroflot, Saudia, Middle East Airlines, Air Europa and Czech Airlines. [3] Each partner has its own earning rates and its own eligible route ranges, published on the Sky Pearl Club website that the handbook points to rather than inside the handbook. [3]

On the ground, members earn through hotel partners such as Shangri-La and Marriott and through China Southern's own airport hotels, and through co-branded credit cards issued with Chinese banks, where the conversion rate differs by bank and by card tier — the handbook gives per-card figures such as 12 yuan or 18 yuan of eligible spending per kilometre — and card rules follow the bank's latest notice. [3] Bank points can also be converted into Sky Pearl Club miles, again under each bank's published rules. [3] Hotel credit is limited to one member per room even when two members check in together. [3]

Crediting flights and claiming missing miles

Give your Sky Pearl Club number when you book and again at check-in, make sure the passenger name and identity document match those registered on the account, and keep the ticket and boarding pass until the credit appears. [3] You may credit a segment to one programme only, and each eligible flight can post to one account only. [3] Automatic recognition by name and document number is switched on for all members on China Southern flights, but the programme describes it as a supplement that does not guarantee crediting, and turning it off does not remove miles already posted. [3]

Retroactive claims are accepted only for flights taken within six months of the claim, and anything later is refused. [3] China Southern flights can be claimed by calling the 95539 sales and service line, the number the airline lists on its main site, with the travel details, or by sending copies of the ticket and itinerary. [3] [8] Partner-flight claims can be made by post with the original boarding pass and a copy of the ticket, in person at a Sky Pearl Club service centre, or by phone, where the agent takes the name, membership number, flight number, sector, ticket number and booking class and passes them to the partner airline for confirmation. [3] Claims must carry the membership number, and incomplete or unclear submissions are not processed. [3] Questions about an account record must be raised within six months of the entry, and all times in the rules are Beijing time. [3]

Exceptions and limits

  • Fares that never earn. Group tickets, award tickets, travel-agency and other special discounted tickets, free tickets, private-jet and charter flights do not earn miles; the handbook lists booking classes F, I, O, S, Z, X, G and R among its exclusions. [3]
  • Upgrades and disruption. Award-upgrade tickets, promotional free upgrades and involuntary upgrades earn on the class originally purchased, and after an involuntary change miles follow the original class and routing. [3] If you end up travelling on a flight outside the eligible range, no miles are credited for it. [3]
  • Elite bonus. Silver, Gold and Platinum members receive 15%, 30% and 50% extra elite miles, which count as award miles only and are not added to upgrade mileage; booking classes that earn nothing also earn no elite miles. [3]
  • Deadlines and version. Base flight miles and elite miles are valid for 36 months from the flight date, with no expiry during an elite tier and a 12-month protection period after a downgrade; where the handbook and the member site differ, the member site prevails. [3]

Sources

Sources accessed on 18 October 2026. Only Sky Pearl Club earning is covered here; the partner airlines named above, and other carriers' frequent flyer programmes, are not described in their own right.

  1. Sky Pearl Club member handbook, February 2024 edition (PDF), checked 18 October 2026
  2. China Southern Airlines official website, checked 18 October 2026