TRIP REPORT: Hainan Airlines, Beijing - Belgrade

TRIP REPORT

Welcome to the second, return part of the journey on Hainan Airlines from Beijing to Belgrade. I won’t go into too many details in this report concerning the service and on board amenities as it was fairly similar to the inbound flight, however, I decided to write up a report considering there was a different hard product on this flight.

I was connecting from a domestic flight. Similar to the US, domestic passengers have to pick up their luggage and then check-in again for their onward journey. However, it was a nice touch that Hainan Airlines had a ground staff member waiting at the baggage carousel with my name and once I picked up my suitcase escorted me to check-in. Once I checked in for my flight, some three hours ahead of departure, I noticed that my boarding pass displayed the sequence number 240, meaning the flight was quite full since the aircraft has around 290 seats and there were over two and a half hours to go until check-in closed.

After completing check-in procedures, there was a dedicated lane for business class passengers at security, and on top of that there is a dedicated passport lane for those from “Belt and Road” countries. I then proceeded to Hainan Airlines’ lounge. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo but it was large with a lot of food options, including on demand orders. It was quite full at around 01.00 AM when I entered as there were Hainan Airlines flights to Berlin, Manchester, Brussels and Belgrade departing in close proximity of one another.

Boarding for the flight began 40 minutes prior to departure. There was a dedicated boarding lane for business class passengers, as well as a dedicated jet bridge. Judging by the crowd at the gate it was a full flight.

The A330-300 featured Hainan Airlines’ updated cabin product. Although the layout is the same, 1-2-1, the seats are more modern. The cabin was full with a mixture of Serbian and Chinese passengers. Interestingly, I noticed that most of the Serbian passenger on board were also fluent in Chinese Mandarin and spoke with the crew in Chinese. There were passenger of all age groups. Sitting behind me were two senior Chinese couples, which I presume were traveling for tourism purposes.

Similar to the inbound flight, there was a pillow, water, amenity kit, headphones and slippers at the seat. The crew then came around with a welcome drink, mixed nuts, hot towel, blanket, pyjamas, and, unlike the inbound service, extensive menus for dinner and breakfast. The menu comprised of “light options”, full dinner menu and full breakfast menu. Keeping in mind that this flight departs Beijing at 3AM, the volume of food on offer was very extensive. A drinks menu was also issued, as can be seen below. The crew took meal and beverage orders before departure. The purser also came around to introduce herself and familiarise passengers with their seat.

We departed exactly on time, for a flight time of just over 9 hours. After take off, the meal service began. The food was tasty. Following that, the crew asked passengers if they wanted the turndown service. So, a cover was put over the seat with two pillows and additional bedding. I slept for most of the flight, waking up around two hours before landing. Hainan Airlines uses a “dine any time” concept so you can eat whenever you want. I had breakfast before landing.

The restroom was clean, and I noticed that the crew checked it before a passenger went in, and cleaned it if required. Similar to my previous flight, the crew were extremely polite, professional and spoke good English.

We landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule and parked at gates C9/C10. I really must commend Hainan. They were definitely above my expectations and offered a very good service and a very good value for money.