Flight cancelled, plans ruined, and still no seat assignment 30 days before departure
We booked our Hainan Airlines flights back in May, specifically to make sure we could travel on the dates we needed and, above all, to have plenty of time to select our seats for free. On 4 September, we woke up to a very unpleasant surprise: our flight had been cancelled and we had been automatically rebooked onto a flight, two days later, despite there being another flight available the following day. This created a huge number of problems for us, as we had already booked and paid for hotels and trains based on our original itinerary. We lost money and had to reorganise a significant part of our trip because of a change that was entirely outside our control. And unfortunately, that was only the beginning. When we checked our new booking, we discovered that Hainan had also failed to transfer our previously selected seats to the new flight. So, to summarise: our flight was cancelled, we were rebooked without being consulted, and we were left without the seats we had already selected. We then decided to contact customer service because the new itinerary simply did not work for us. The only available option was the online chat and calling it a customer service experience would be generous. The chat took four hours. Not because the issue was particularly complicated, but because the system was incredibly slow. I had to spend an entire afternoon constantly refreshing the page just to receive the agent's messages, with the constant risk of losing the connection altogether. Communicating with the agent was extremely difficult, which is frankly astonishing in 2026. After four hours, we had only managed to partially resolve the problem. We also had to change our return flight, which created further complications with my work holiday arrangements and additional costs for a trip that had already been planned and paid for months in advance. But the most ridiculous part is that Hainan was then unable to assign us seats on our return flight because the free seats had apparently run out. We are now being told, in practice, that we may have to pay for seats despite the fact that we had booked months in advance precisely to avoid this situation. And of course, despite all the inconvenience, additional costs and disruption caused by Hainan's cancellation, there was not even an attempt to offer an upgrade or any other form of compensation or goodwill gesture. Although, at this point, I am hardly surprised: an airline that cannot even manage to provide a basic seat assignment after cancelling and rebooking your flight can hardly be expected to offer anything beyond the bare minimum. As of 18 September, we are STILL waiting for an answer. Apparently, our case needs to be handled by around 20 different departments, and the result is that the customer is left waiting with no clear information. So, to summarise the experience: * Hainan cancels your flight. * They rebook you on a flight two days later, even when an earlier option exists. * They leave you to deal with the financial and logistical consequences of the change. * They fail to transfer the seats you had already selected. * Their customer service chat is painfully slow and extremely difficult to use. * After spending four hours with customer service, the issue is still only partially resolved. * They change your return flight and disrupt your work and holiday arrangements. * They then tell you that the free seats are gone and leave you potentially having to pay for a seat. * Despite all the inconvenience caused, they make no meaningful attempt to offer compensation, an upgrade or even a goodwill gesture. * Nearly two weeks later, you are still waiting for a proper resolution. We are now 30 days away from our trip and still don't even know whether we have seats assigned on our return flight. We booked months in advance, paid for our flights and planned our entire trip around the itinerary Hainan originally sold us. When the airline changed that itinerary, the burden of fixing the consequences was essentially placed on us. This has been an incredibly stressful and frustrating experience, and the complete lack of effective customer support has made an already difficult situation significantly worse. At this point, we have spent a considerable amount of money on this trip and have received very little reassurance or support from Hainan Airlines. I sincerely hope this situation is eventually resolved, but based on our experience so far, I would strongly think twice before booking with this airline again.