One of the worst experiences of my life!
I was travelling with my 2 sons, one of whom had a broken leg in a cast, and my daughter. We believed we had paid extra for seats with extra leg room, but we were put in the centre 4 seat economy aisle seats. We asked if my son with the broken leg could be put in a different seat but we’re firmly told “no”, despite there being lots of empty seats available. The Chinese lady in front of my son was trying to let her seat back (her right to do so) but this was crushing my son’s leg and he was holding the seat as it was causing him immense pain. The lady complained, and she and her travelling companions were moved to business class. This meant that the row in front of us was now free. Me and my eldest daughter moved forward into that row, but were quickly told to move back. We explained many times about my son’s leg but it didn’t make a difference. Then, the airline staff brought a Chinese man to the empty row of seats in front of us with a blanket and pillow and allowed him to sleep there, lying across all 4 seats. Many Chinese people were allowed to sleep like this were empty aisles were available. When the meals were given out, all Westerners, including us, were skipped and not given their meals, we had to call back the cabin staff and ask them to give us our meals. I and my son, had a whiskey each after our meal. A few hours into the flight (an 11 hour flight) we asked for another whiskey, to be told “no more alcohol”. We were not the slightest bit drunk or rowdy, that single whiskey was the only drink we had during the 11 hour flight from Beijing to Dublin. The experience was horrific, but in a way it was good to experience what racism is. As a white male, I have never experienced discrimination like this. And I am not just assuming those people were Chinese, my eldest daughter lived in Beijing, speaks the language fluently, and was able to tell us exactly what was being said and what was going on. I would never, ever fly with Hainan again, it was the worst travelling experience of my life! I am still stunned and struggle to believe what happened to us. These flights cost us €6225.00, for that kind of money I would have expected much better.