Today, I’m doing something a little different. I haven’t dived into airline reviews before, but when I tried to find out information about Hainan Airlines, a budget long-haul airline out of China, I couldn’t find much. Instead, going off recommendations, we booked it for a recent trip to Japan. Here’s what it’s actually like.
Prices and Routes
When it comes to getting cheap routes across Asia from the UK, the default is to slog down to London at the crack of dawn, spending £100 in the process. However, when I discovered that Hainan Airlines flies from Manchester, it was immediately a plus point for me.
From Manchester, Hainan Airlines only flies directly into Beijing, China (PEK), which is the hub for the airline. From there, you can get connections across China and wider Asia.
Of course, as a budget-friendly traveler, price is a huge consideration for me. When looking for flights to Japan, many routes were coming in at £600 return, which was not ideal. This was also going in and out of the same airport, when realistically, I wanted a multi-city route so I wouldn’t have to double-back later on.
For March 2025, I got flights from Manchester to Osaka, via Beijing, and then a return from Tokyo Narita back to Manchester via Beijing for £440 each. Even the London routes weren’t competitive with that. So, in terms of cheap prices, this was a big tick.
The downside, however, is the layovers. On the way out, it was around 2 hours, which is pretty perfect. On the way back, it was 9 hours. While you can pop into Beijing, the timing of our flights meant it was around 6pm to 3am local time. Also, the international transit terminal of PEK is tiny with one food vendor and a Starbucks open during the evening. There are a couple of lounges, but only one of them is open until 3am.
So, you have to weigh up around £150 to £200 in savings versus a couple of extra bored hours on a layover. Just bring a book and download some shows on your phone!
Booking Process
Overall, the Hainan Airlines website is fine. It’s pretty low-tech and clunky, but it gives you all the information you need. It’s annoying that there isn’t a month search view so that you can easily find the cheapest days, but many airlines don’t offer this either. Instead, figure it out on Skyscanner and then transfer the dates over to the Hainan Airlines site.
I will say the email confirmations look a little dodgy with no design elements, looking just like a manifest, almost. However, they’re legit and you can use your booking reference to sign in on the Hainan website to check everything, including seat selection, dietary requests, baggage amounts, and more.
Loyalty Schemes
Hainan Airlines is part of the Fortune Wings Club for frequent flyer points. This includes:
- Hainan Airlines,
- Grand China Air,
- Tianjin Airlines,
- Hong Kong Airlines,
- Lucky Air,
- Capital Airlines,
- Fuzhou Airlines,
- Yangtze River Airlines,
- Guangxi Beibu Gulf Airlines,
- Urumqi Airlines,
- Air Changan and
- West Air.
Realistically, Hainan is the biggest airline in the club, and it’s worth joining as it’s completely free. If you travel around China and wider Asia a lot, especially domestically on small airlines, this might be beneficial for you.
Checking In
Online check-in was a little bit of an issue for me. I went to check in online as usual, and it would only let me check in for the first leg and presented error messages for the second. As we had checked baggage anyway, it wasn’t too much of an issue because we needed to go to the desk anyway.
The online check-in process was also an issue for other people we were flying with, so don’t worry if it’s not working for you. It’s not like Ryanair, where you get charged for checking in at the airport!
Check-in and baggage drop at Manchester were both pretty straightforward. At Tokyo Narita, the desk seemed to be sort of outside the main terminal, and there were two flights leaving relatively soon and not that many people at the desks, so I’d recommend arriving earlier to avoid any panic.
Baggage Allowances and Seats
In an age where the smallest bag is £50, it was lovely to see that you get a 23kg bag as standard with Hainan Airlines. You also get a decent-sized carry-on, so there’s plenty of room for all your souvenirs. However, if you are over the weight limit and someone else in your party is well under, the desk staff are usually accommodating.
One thing to note is that you may have to pay for seats if you want to sit together. When I booked, there were free seats available to select immediately on three out of the four flights. However, I opted to pay a small fee (around a tenner) for both of us to sit together on the extra flight. You can wait it out and see where you end up if you don’t want to pay.
Flight Experience
Okay, let’s get into what it’s actually like onboard. We had a couple of different configurations across the four flights, but mostly it was a two-four-two configuration.
Comfort
The seats weren’t the plushest I’ve ever sat in, but they also weren’t super uncomfortable. The headrest was adjustable up and down and bent around for leaning. Personally, I didn’t feel squished, but I am 5ft1, so I rarely feel penned in on flights.
You get blankets, pillows, refreshment kits, and headphones onboard, but the headphones are not great at all. Bring your own and make sure you have a dual-pin headphone adaptor for the screen.
Food and drink
As I’m a pescetarian, I get special meals. On two legs, I had lacto-ovo, and the others were oriental-vegetarian. All my meals were pretty standard, decent tasting, but nothing to write home about. My partner had regular meals, and it seems like the consensus was that the food’s inoffensive but not life-changing. What else do you need from airline food?
Drinks-wise, there are free alcoholic and soft drinks on board, as well as hot drinks. The range isn’t as wide as some of the Western airlines, but there’s enough there to tick most boxes. However, I’d steer clear of the red wine as it was one of the worst wines I think I’ve ever had…
Entertainment
Onboard, there’s a mix of Chinese, Western, and International TV shows and movies. While you don’t get all the new releases like you do on some airlines, there are plenty of relatively new options and fan favorites. There was a whole Marvel section and plenty of animated stuff, alongside documentaries and sports shows.
Hainan is one of the airlines that does the annoying thing of only having one season of a show, and it being like a rogue season four or something. Other than that, we found enough to keep us entertained across four flights, and there are plenty of games, podcasts, and albums on there too.
Overall Views on Hainan Airlines
All in all, I’m pretty impressed with Hainan Airlines. Will they be winning the best airline in the world anytime soon? Probably not. Do they provide a pretty decent service for a budget price? Absolutely. Most airlines charging these low fares would be adding on baggage and just about everything else, but you can pay for the base fare and be satisfied here.
