16/7 we went to Guilin and its surroundings for a few days and chose Hainan Airlines, mostly for the price... We paid around 70 euro/person for the outbound leg and 90 for the return.
Normally this flight was supposed to leave around 1pm, but it was delayed and luckily we were informed of this by our booking agent in Haikou, so we stayed home and around 3pm we headed to Haikou's Meilan Airport, to catch our flight which was supposed to leave to Guilin at 17:20...
Check in was very fast as we were the only ones queuing at that time. We got through security and walked around a bit. Immediately we noticed that our flight was delayed again, and now to 18:50... So off to the dumpling bar and kill some time...
Haikou's Meilan Domestic Terminal has some nice spotting possibilities, even has an outdoor smoking terrace from where you are really close to the gates. Unfortunately all the gates at the smoking terrace side were not occupied, all the action took place on the other side.
Around 18:30 our flight was once again delayed, this time to 20:00... All the time the PA system was announcing this :
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to announce you that flight HUxxxx is delayed, and this due to aircraft is delayed" Duhhh, what a useless anouncement
Anyway, around 19:30 our flight finally landed and we could quickly start boarding. At the gate there were people who were already waiting there since noon, no food or drink tickets were offered. Hainan Airlines did offer all the passengers a free meal onboard as a compensation for the delay, nice...
So, we boarded one of Hainan Airlines B737-800 and we quickly took off in the direction of Guilin. This is only a 50 minute flight so the crew quickly started to hand out the free meals. We had a choice between noodles and rice and I chose the noodles, my wife and sister in law took the rice.
The food was, well, disgusting, without a doubt the worst airline food I ever tried, my wife and sister in law agreed, we all took one bite and then decided not to continue... Then drinks were served and I was in the mood for a beer... No beer, no coke...
All you could choose from was tea, coffee, or water which was supposed to be cold but which wasn't...
I remember 2 years ago it all was quite different, plenty of choice from a very wide range of soft drinks and alcoholic drinks, but not anymore...
We arrived in Guilin, had fun there for a few days and then headed back to Haikou...
Return flight was uneventfull, only a ten minute delay...
Where 2 years ago I preferred Hainan Airlines' service over that of China Southern(reports in this forum), now I have to say China Southern is the better airline of the two...
I surely hope they offer better service on their BRU route, otherwise the fun is not gonna last....
