China Southern's Boeing 787 will make its international debut on routes from Guangzhou to Auckland and London in late October – and for Australian travellers that means the Dreamliner will slot into the airline's Canton Route from Sydney to London, along with China Southern's new Airbus A380 superjumbo.

Read: China Southern's Kangaroo Route combo – Airbus A380 + Boeing 787

So what's in store for passengers on China Southern's Boeing 787?

China Southern's Boeing 787 First Class

For starters, China Southern has the only Boeing 787 with a first class cabin – all other Dreamliners to date put business class at the pointy end of the plane, given the relatively low capacity of the first generation 787-8 variant.

This makes for a three-class configuration with 228 seats from tip to tail.

And there's no denying that first class passengers in China Southern's Boeing 787-8 will feel exclusive – the tiny cabin has but four berths in a 1-2-1 arrangement.

Each is 26 inches (67 cm) wide and at 78 inches when converted into a fully-flat bed, it's just shy of the two metre mark.

Passengers also get a private hand luggage bin, AC and USB power outlets, noise-cancelling headphones and a 17 inch screen built into the far end of the seat's shell.

China Southern's Boeing 787 business class

The 24 business class seats are spread across two cabins of a dozen seats each, in a standard 2-2-2 layout.

There are few surprises here: it's a fully-flat seat, albeit at a slightly shorter 74 inches (188 cm), with 20 inch (51 cm) seat width and an 84 inch (213 cm) pitch.

A 'magazine shelf' and shoe stowage area plus 15 inch video screen and USB port are all part of the deal.

However, China Southern hasn't included an AC power outlet on its list of business class features – we've yet to determine if this is merely an oversight or if indeed laptop power is limited to first class seats.

China Southern's Boeing 787 economy class

Stuck at the back of the Dreamliner bus? Make yourself as comfy as you can in the 3-3-3 seating.

At 17.2 inches (44 cm) across, with a seat pitch of 31-33 inches (79-84 cm) and a 6 inch (15 cm) recline, we suggest you pack a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, fire up the 9 inch seatback video screen or dive into a slab of BYO entertainment on your tablet, and count down the hours until you land.

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