Hainan Airlines Reviews 

They cancelled my flight from Manchester to Bangkok completely 3 weeks before departure with no other option than a full refund (which I am currently waiting on!) Flights to Bangkok now stand at double the price! They are said to have a good standing alongside Cathay, Qatar and other reputable airlines but I don't know how!

Re-writing my review after such a positive experience. Flew from the UK to Tokyo business class on the 24th Oct. The crew (my attendant was called kelly) were absolutely brilliant, honestly couldn’t fault the service. Food was lovely. Flight was on time. Business class lounge was really nice.

Cons: need to work on their website and customer services hard to get hold of but are response to email

The airline cancelled my flight and I’ve been unable to contact the company as they don’t answer the phone. - I’ve tried over 20 times and the chat bot is unable to help.
I would avoid this company at all costs.

If I could rate them a 0 star I would, they have cancelled my inbound and outbound flights with no real reason, they rescheduled both on random dates that mess with my hotels and domestic flights, DO NOT BOOK HAINAN AIRLINES.

Update: They are processing a full refund for me which I should receive in 7 working days

Update: I have received my full refund

I already booked hotel for 4 nights, and prepare to transit only 3 hours, and my schedule moved forward by 1 day, and transit 27 hours in Hainan, wow I lost 1 day in my holiday plan

No complaints Manchester to Bangkok return took off on time and arrived early same on the return.. Staff very helpful at check in and on board.. Food not good for me but flight very good will book again.

Very bad experience. It started with a delay on my first domestic flight with them, and they informed us that they wouldn’t provide any hotel accommodation or food. Eventually, they rebooked us on another airline. On top of that, no halal food was provided for the many Muslim passengers on board. When we asked, they simply said it was not available and that we should have pre-ordered it

Flew to changsha with these lot and the experience was good you get alot of luggage for your money - 2×24 kg which is alot of luggage compared to European airlines

Air stewards spoke good English and the food was superior to other airlines

I lost my AirPods on a Hainan Airlines flight upon arrival. I immediately filled out a lost & found form that same day, but nearly three weeks later, I’ve received no response at all. When I returned for my departure, I checked Apple’s live tracking and saw the AirPods were clearly still at the airport. I arrived over 3 hours early and went to the lost & found, but the staff were extremely unhelpful, unfriendly, and didn’t speak English. They reluctantly contacted Hainan staff—who, after 2 hours, claimed they found nothing. I eventually had to leave to catch my flight. The AirPods were right there, but I never got them back. Very frustrating and disappointing experience.

I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with my recent flight experience booked via UAE–China–Bangkok, particularly the return segment from Bangkok to UAE.

Upon arrival at Bangkok airport, we were abruptly informed that our flight had been canceled and had departed earlier that morning—without any prior notice. We were forced to book a last-minute replacement flight at the cost of AED 4,130 to return home, disrupting our work schedules and causing significant stress.

At the airport, your staff provided no assistance—they offered to rebook us only 3–4 days later, and granted just one night of hotel accommodation, which is insufficient given the circumstances were entirely your responsibility. We had to bear the full financial burden and logistical hassle ourselves.

Since returning to the UAE, we have attempted to escalate this formally. However, your team’s lack of urgency and repeated delays in processing our claim are both frustrating and unacceptable. Time is a crucial commodity here in the UAE, and your inaction has caused us both financial and professional hardship.

Here is a summary of the losses we endured:

AED 4,130 for emergency airfare

Loss of work and additional stress due to abrupt rescheduling and no communication

Personal and professional inconvenience caused by inadequate support

We therefore formally request:

A full refund of AED 4,130.

Compensation for the inconvenience and costs

A formal apology and a clear timeline for processing our reimbursement and compensation.

We trust Hainan Airlines takes responsibility for such systemic failures. We expect your prompt response and timely resolution.

Not helpful customer service at all. They just want your money.

I flew with Hainan from Belgrade to Osaka via Beijing. My original flight was from Budapest, but it was cancelled by the airline. The airline cancelled the flight and it gave me couple of options to choose for flying. Regarding the flight experience everything went well, much better than low cost companies in Europe. The 4 stars are because the reimbursement process for accommodation was very slow and the customer support is unresponsive.

no english speaking

unable to provide solutions in delay situations

i was in shanghai pudong. on 17 june. had my flight at 21 and they delayed at 3 am of following day.
my connecting flight would be lost.
they told me yes with smile.no solutions provided. no help.
no one english speaking. no help
i book by myself another flight and i asked the person to write some notes in order not to figure NO SHOW. she told me she didnt know what no show was.
such incompetent staff
they cant assist passengers. they don t know what is "no show". lost refund due to their incompetence.

they don t have any alliance

their aircraft are no better than air china
food also is no better than other.

dont take this company

One of the worst airlines, unfriend,. unhygienic, unhelpful, no privacy and do not respect the passenger and we transit for 6 hours. No one are allow to check in. So you will be roaming around the airport with out buggage everywhere as no one will bother to help better book direct flight.

After 3 hours of uncertainty, the flight was cancelled due to a technical defect. They refused to offer an alternative flight with another company 'because they do not have authorization'. The only alternative they had was to arrive 3 days later because this was the first flight they had. They advised to file a claim online themselves. Then, after multiple contacts, they refused to refund the cancelled flight and refused to provide delay compensation without a reason.

Never again with Hainan.

My name is Raquel Rosillo Cepeda, and I am writing on behalf of a group of eight passengers who booked round-trip flights with Hainan Airlines from Milan to Osaka, scheduled for late June to mid-July 2025. The tickets were purchased in March 2025.

A week ago, we were informed that two of our flights were cancelled. This has caused significant disruption, as most of our accommodation and internal travel arrangements in Japan are already booked and non-refundable.

Since then, we have made multiple attempts to contact Hainan Airlines via email, online chat, and the customer service hotline, but have received no response.

We are traveling as a large family, and this lack of communication has caused us considerable stress. We urgently request a prompt resolution—either the possibility to rebook the affected flights or to receive a full refund so we can make alternative arrangements.

We sincerely hope Hainan Airlines will address this issue as soon as possible.

Never Flying with Hainan Again

My experience with Hainan Airlines has been nothing short of appalling. I booked a return flight from Edinburgh to Beijing, departing 17 May 2025 and returning 31 May 2025. Out of the blue, I was informed that my outbound flight had been cancelled—with no explanation whatsoever.

Instead of offering a reasonable alternative, I was told I could either get a full refund or take another flight six days later on 23 May—which would ruin nearly half of my trip. This is completely unacceptable.

I found and paid for a new flight from London on the original date, but when I asked Hainan for a refund just for the cancelled leg, I was told they would cancel my return flight as well. So I’m essentially being punished for their cancellation. What kind of airline treats its customers like this?

Everything—my itinerary, budget, and plans—was carefully organised around this trip. Now I’m stuck, either losing money or scrambling for overpriced last-minute alternatives. Hainan Airlines has shown a complete lack of respect for their customers, and their rigid, unsympathetic policies speak volumes.

After digging deeper, I found plenty of other negative reviews. I only wish I’d seen them before booking. This airline is not reliable, not professional, and not worth your trust.

THE WORST AIRLINE COMPANY EVER!!!

The stopover in Beijing was the most primitive and unprofessional I have ever experienced. Almost no one speaks English, and you're left waiting for your connecting flight ticket with dozens of others because only one overwhelmed staff member is handling it all. Meanwhile, your luggage is probably getting lost somewhere underneath.

Once you finally get your connecting ticket and somehow find the completely hidden transfer window, you have to go through yet another slow security check. The staff are extremely rude, and they even confiscate duty-free items. This happens even though you're just transferring from a previous flight.

Then your luggage goes missing. It's nearly impossible to reach anyone via chat, phone, or email. When the luggage is eventually found — after many days — they refuse to offer any compensation. Two months later, I still haven’t received a single euro for being without my luggage for five days. I had to buy essential items, which they refuse to reimburse.

I even had to change my entire travel plans after someone at the airport told me, “It’s coming on the next flight,” so I waited — furious — near Bangkok Airport for three days for nothing. And when the luggage finally arrived, it was completely destroyed and had to be thrown away.

No compensation. No apology. Absolutely disgraceful. Avoid this airline at all costs!

I recently flew to Bangkok via Beijing using Hainan airlines. I booked before reading any reviews ( daft I know) and was really worried about everything after reading the reviews on here. my flights, luggage, the service, the food. But I can honestly say I needn’t have. I couldn’t check in online the day before and got a very terse response from the websites online customer service. But this is apparently standard and there were no issues checking in for any of my four flights. Maybe Expedia who I booked with should make customers aware of this so they don’t worry needlessly.

The staff on my every one of my flights were pleasant and professional, but on the last flight from Beijing to Manchester they were absolutely lovely. They couldn’t have done any more for me and they were so polite and spoke great English.

The food was mainly Chinese (shocking I know for a Chinese airline to provide Chinese meals, I only mention this because others have complained about it) but there were European options on every flight and I found all the food to be of a high standard. I didn’t drink any alcohol during my flights except the very last and they were more than happy for me to have two whiskey and sprites with no attitude or issue like some others have experienced.

My luggage was checked in and collected at my final destination unlike some others on here who have said they needed to collect and re check while at Beijing but I didn’t experience this.

Beijing airport isn’t the best. it has a small duty free a Starbucks and two identical restaurants at both ends of the small international terminal that didn’t really look very appealing. The seats are made so you can’t lay down if you have a long layover and there are constant announcements in Chinese and English crackling through an ancient tannoy system that seemed purposefully disturbing. all international passengers have to pass through a one man passport control and security area that would have had me worried as hell if I hadn’t had long layovers both ways!! The queue was horrendous going out but coming back I sailed through. You can’t take any lighters or aerosols and some portable chargers aren’t allowed on any planes in china so I’d advise to only take stuff you don’t mind getting confiscated. All that being said Beijing airport isn’t Hainan airlines responsibility and they can’t really be held accountable for the sparse selection of amenities there.

The only other issue I had was that I didn’t realise the flights weren’t atol protected until I got an email about my first return flight changing time, it was only an hour later and I originally had a 7 hour layover in Beijing so it worked out for the best. I do find it concerning that at no time during the booking process did Expedia mention my flights weren’t protected. I would have been screwed if any of them had been cancelled or late leading to me missing ongoing flights. So keep this in mind if you do book with them as it might stop me from using them in the future even though everything else was great.

Our flight to Beijing was canceled. We know that technical issues may happen, and of course planes shall fly only if 100% checked, but there was no assistance at all from their personnel, and they really had no idea of what was happening.

We had to go with them to Japan on a Saturday, and after cancellation the solution they proposed would have costed us at least 3 days of our honeymoon, as they told us we would have been able to reach Tokyo on Monday. Luckily we could flew with another operator (Qatar).

Positive note: we have been fully refunded within 10 days.