Hainan Airlines (www.hainanairlines.com) has a 1.8 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 149 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Travel & Vacation and its reputation is poor. 70% of reviews are 1 star, a relatively high share; The business has not yet replied to negative reviews; 89 of them were added in the last 12 months. Last updated 2026-10-25.
What reviewers say
AI generated
Most reviewers were unhappy with their experience overall. Customers frequently complained about unexpected flight cancellations, unhelpful customer service representatives, and extremely long waiting times when trying to resolve urgent travel issues. Travelers additionally mentioned major difficulties with the online booking process, severe baggage handling problems, and consistently poor communication from the airline staff members.
Some people were satisfied with the attentive cabin crew, comfortable seats featuring extra legroom, and overall smooth on-time flights. A few other people also felt that the high quality of the food and the warm overall hospitality fully met their expectations during the journey.
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Hainan Airlines are like the Ryan Air of Asia - Cheap and you get what you pay for which is not a lot on your flight.
I was allowed 1 x 300ml of beer for the 10 hours 50 minute flight. The reason was the flight attendant told me "If I had any more than that I would be drunk"
For the entire flight the service was terrible, meals that where in the flight menu where not available and as I said earlier 1 drink was offered for a nearly 11 hour flight.
If you fly with Hainan Airlines - take your own food and drink.
The flight was canceled without reason, and the only compensation offered is a refund with a penalty deducted. The customer service team cannot be contacted, as they only provide a Chinese website and require a Chinese phone number. All NZ and AU contact numbers are unavailable.
Cancelled my flight for unclear reasons. Only have customer support in chinese, and to call them you have to call an international call to China with a huge wait which costs a fortune. Avoid at all cost!!!
Tight on the drinks for a long haul return leg. limited food and entertainment
Reasonably good value airline but expect some Chinese cultural bias on behaviour. I.e westerners usually like a glass of red wine on a flight to make it easier or relaxing but if you ask for a glass they will give you a 50ml measure , ask for more and they will think you will get drunk. (This was her words to me in Chinese on the long haul leg beijing -manchester) Very strange perspective or perhaps just the airline is very tight /mean on the amount it wants to spend on alcohol. Main meal food was quite reasonable, but don't expect any familiar western snacks like cheese as stated on the menu between service. Either it's poor quality and even that runs out.
Entertainment system also is mostly useless, headphones sound quality bad , and video selection too. Bring your own entertainment ahead of time. Generally I got the feeling that on this airline they don't like passengers to drink and does feel like a chore for them to provide it. I overheard their conversation about me in Chinese which I speak fluently calling me an alcoholic as I asked for a tiny tiny glass of wine, it felt pretty judgemental by the young air steward. I hear things like that in china sometimes but not on a plane. Changeover in Beijing also requires checkout / re entry through immigration, no seamless transfer. If other airlines are available without too high a cost id recommend other alternatives.
The outward leg to china was better than the return , the return flight really did feel like all I had to do was sit and watch the plane map while sipping my orange juice.
我在飞机上和服务员说过我的想法，她还是客气拒绝我说担心我们会喝醉了，花了11个小时喝一杯/两杯50ml 红酒所有人不可能喝醉。我也对她很客气，但是发现飞机上小男生还要说我是个酒鬼。 感觉这航空公司不是很了解外国人。
Absolutely avoid at all costs - we paid for expensive business class seats because my wife was pregnant and I wanted her to be comfortable. On the way to China was mostly all good except her screen didn't work and they weren't able to fix it so she had no entertainment all flight. On the way back they initially claimed we had no ticket!! After arguing for 30 minutes they admitted we did have a ticket but they had messed up and no business class seats were available. So we were downgraded to economy. No offer of a refund. I will be commencing legal action against their Australian office.
When we originally booked we chose our seats online. When we checked in we were told the seats we had booked were given to someone else. We were told we were sitting separately and only way we could sit together was to pay £240 for the emergency exit seats, (even though somebody would have had to sit here anyway). When we got to Bejing, the 5 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok was then in a Ryanair style flight and again we were sat apart. Will never use this airline again. Better to fly via the Middle East. Better aircraft, better transfer, better food, better customer experience.
Under no circumstances use this airline. They purposely delay flights back to the UK. This way they avoid having to pay delay compensation under UK and EU regulations.
Had to triy and change travel date due to disability and they want to charge an arm and leg for a weeks difference truly sickening hope china destroys itself
This airline lies about excess luggage causing customers to pay more money after they already charge you. Beware of using them. They quoted me a price from Dublin to HK with transit in Beijing. My bags were checked through. When I was about to board in Beijing, a few of us were pulled aside and were told that actually we now had to pay additional fees. Please note I had both called and visited Hainan airlines offices to confirm my luggage quote prior to departure. The most disgusting way to be treated as a customer.
Deleyed my flight from haikuo to bangkok by 9 hours after I had booked...had to re check in bags at haiku.....if I had known both these would occur I would not have booked with them......in flight service was horrible, food served 15min before drinks served (how can people eat without a drink, coke or whatever)....given a menu but beef had gone by the time I was served so had Chinese style stir fry ( 1 was 1 of a few westerners on the flight so the Chinese ate all the beef).....me red wine was ok all be it a bit small portion, my second glass of red wine was white ( didn't drink it ) the replacement had ice cubes in it, then that replacement was cold grape juice.....I gave up....no beer served on haiku to bangkok flight after travelling for 26 hours I needed a beer.....avoid hainan airways at all costs...China Southern is brilliant compared to hainan, I only tried them on recommendation from a friend, never again
After reading some reviews I am surprised at how negative they are. I flew both ways to and from China with this airline and had a good experience. Everything was straightforward and easy. My luggage was sent directly, I didn't need to pick it up on connecting flight back because the whole flight was with Hainan. Going out the first flight was with vueling so I needed to re-check in, however, this is of course expected and we had plenty of time between flights. The food was average on the flight but plenty of food and food selection, same with the drinks. The snacks are also delicious. Friendly and helpful staff. In flight movies were fine, there were enough choices to watch a couple of decent filma during the flight. Seats were comfortable enough, nothing special. It's difficult to be comfy on a long haul but it was fine. We had a good trip and recommend this airline.
If it’s Customer Service you want Fly Emirates or Quarter!
I have yet to take my flight, but if my experience so far is a precursor of what is to come, I have no expectation or confidence of it being an uneventful journey. I booked my international flight through Trip.com, travelling with one stop in BJ. In accordance with the guidance given by Trip, I attempted to log-on to the Hainan Airlines webpage to check seat availability and on-line check in. Not a big issue, having taken many flights over 20 years, just pop in your flight or ticket information then navigate to the desired page and update the information. Not it seems with Hainan Airlines. When I called their offices, and explained that I was guided their by Trip and I wanted to access my flight information, the “assistant” told me to contact Trip! I could hear loud laughing in the office when he spoke - I was obviously on speakerphone. After a wholly unnecessary repartition of my request and information, I was informed that I COULD NOT have access to my flight information! They have, however, provided my information to a third-party! Please enlighten me as to why an airline that acts outside the norms of the airline industry in this manner and why is allowed access to international flight corridors?
SUCH A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!
(Flight Bangkok - Brussels)
They just cancelled one part of the trip for “corporate reasons” and proposed me to stay 24 hours in Beijing waiting for the flight Beijing/ Brussels without a hotel, just proposed me to stay 24h WAITING AT THE AIRPORT. It’s unacceptable!
Such an irresponsible airline. And it’s the second time they cancelled my flight in less than 2 months.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND!!
Don’t respect customer and irresponsible for their mistakes
We had been chosen hnair for twice and every time it was a disaster.
General experience:
First time, it was during covid, Hainan Airlines had three flights during that time: one direct flight and two connecting flights to Brussels.
The original plan of my friend and I was that the two of them bought a direct flight to go there first, and then I would transfer there. The two tickets has a 7000CNY price difference.
And then, before the day they leave, they receive the text message that their flight are cancelled. They can either rebook for free or return full price. The staff highly recommends us to rebook so we did. After we rebook, they then told us the price difference is not refundable. 7000CNY is approximately $1000 and they just took the difference.
Later we realized that they did this trick to lots of their route BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T SOLD ALL TICKETS! The reason they give was because of oil problems but later a travel agent told us it is all nonsense. They just want more money and we lost $1000with them!
Second time it is today. First they did all same as the last time so my friend’s flight was delayed for four day. And later in 24th August we realized my friend’s brp is in UK and custom may need it. But we have our visa and all other references. So we called the customer service line and asked “I don’t have brp but I have share code, can I board on plane?” And the response was yes, as long as we have student card. So when my friend went to the counter with his student card, he expected that he can get on board. But this time the staff at the counter told him that it’s still not possible for letting him in. Cause they might face a £10000 penetration. They give us a solution that we bring the brp to their staff in Manchester so then my friend can get onboard but it’s already 19:00 and we can not grad that card then! BECAUSE OF THEIR WORDS WE MISSED THE BEST TIME FOR MAKINGS UP. We understand their difficulties so we decided to rebook again, but we also stated that this is not out fault, Hainan airline need to compensate for this. We rebooked first and then we started to talk about compensation, where this is the hell.
We have prompted two things as compensation: 1. Upgrade to business class, 2. Cover all cost generated during this delay. Initially they said they are NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS SINCE THEY MISUNDERSTOOD OUR WORD AND WE DIDN’T CORRECT THEM! They only want to offer us coupons for this and said no word about any financial compensation! I couldn’t believe, so I keep arguing. Their staff was really tough: it’s your responsibility that you didn’t check, if you said more we won’t make this mistake, we are not going to upgrade your seat… after a day of argue we still only got our hotel and taxi during this process covered which is 1500CNY.
Hainan airline, in the simplest word to describe, is a bunch of jerk. They don’t care their customers and they never give compensation for their mistakes. I would never recommend anyone to book flights in this company and never book their flights again
The worst company for now that I flew with, not compering with low cost compaines. Both flights late and delayed, misinformation when you call them to confirm details about the flight, AC didn’t work in the plane, good choice bad, and flight from Beijing airport( no food, no drinks, no any services except the convenience shop at the entrance, inside nothing) is the worst experience as airport and air company are both one star experience, the worst.
excellent food, entertainment and just about everything, especially for economy. we fly hainan every year to go back to asia to the rest of our family and every time we fly it's always a treat! they definitely deserve the 5 star skytrax rating they have. but just one complaint, the flights can be a LOT. will be looking forward to going back to asia this year, especially after it's been 4 years because of the pandemic!
Terrible experience with Hainan airlines. Their checkin luggage allowance is limited to 1 piece rather than total weight. I wanted to checkin a small suitcase (12kg) and a bag (7kg) and was rejected. They said that I can only check-in 1 item and if I want to checkin both I need to pay ¥1500 (equivalent to £160) for additional luggage. This is very mean for long-haul international flights of 11.5 hours. This reminds me of Ryanair's luggage policy.
Awful customer service. Tried to charge me 3100 yuan for a ticket I had already purchased. Said that any change or alteration to schedule would need this fee but I was not changing the schedule. I was just requesting to use one less flight that they would have no doubt sold on and made yet more money from. No justification for this fee which was already what I had paid for the ticket. Customer service didn't try to help at all. If anything they just wanted to exploit a sorry situation for more financial gain. An airline that I can not trust.
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