Hainan Airlines
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Service on board is exceptional, now one of my fave airlines
I made a return trip with Hainan Airlines In January 2023 during Chinese New Year. Flew from Beijing to Brussels, and Brussels to Beijing all economy. Outgoing economy flight was excellent, no turbulence, offered three meals, plenty of water and drink. The travel agent got me my vegetarian meal, which I am grateful for. Return flight, the travel agent was not able to get my meal delivered, so it caused some confusion when time came to getting lunch/ dinner onboard. They sorted it out gracefully and efficiently, which I am thankful for. The flight out from Brussels departed on time at 12.20, but the first meal offered was a bag of snacks (haha). I saw my fellow passenger next to me was not happy at all about this, but for me I couldn't care less. I just returned the bag back to the air hostess. The flight is advertised as about 10 hours, but both the outgoing journey and return journey was faster, at about 9 hours, with no turbulence, the service was excellent. For all those thinking about this airline, please remember it is a Chinese airline and so its aircrew may not be able to speak perfect English. If you struggle with Chinese or don't speak any, it shouldn't be a problem, as all the aircrew would speak to me in English (even though I am fluent Chinese speaker). Just be aware that if you ask them something that is slightly different to what they've been trained to say, then it might throw them off a bit (likewise if you have an accent, just speak slower). The space in the economy class was pretty good, I was comfortable for the journey, despite never reclining my seat. The toilets were also clean every time I visited. This is the first time in my life I have ever seen that. On every other flight, there is p** on the seats/ floor etc, and it's just a horrible experience. The toilets on board were cleaned very often, and just were nice to visit when nature called. Unless you preorder food, you will most likely be offered a Chinese style chicken and rice/ veg and rice combo in economy if flying to/ from China. Of course this depends on your flight route, so if you want something else, you better tell them before, otherwise you may not be able to eat that (it may be spicy/ different in taste to what you are used to). Most of the passengers on board were all Chinese nationals, so don't expect to be able to strike a conversation easily. The TV is really good, it has games, and other things on it. I played a lot of games on it during the flight, it was quite fun (especially the battleship game). I don't recall other flights having this. Obviously if you fly business class on Hainan, your experience will be something like that on Singapore Airlines. The business class experience is really something else, and I am dying to try it out (especially their gourmet food, they actually have a gourmet chef on board, which I think is awesome). Overall, the service is exceptional, on board the flight is where everything shines. The staff look really gorgeous too, that certainly helps! They have some really lovely clothes that are very traditional yet modern. Check in process is pretty standard, and luggage allowance is about 23 kg.