Hainan is driving me nuts. I've never seen anything quite like this before... Last December I had intended to review Hainan Airlines' new 787-9 business class, though shortly before departure I was hit with an aircraft swap. I had been monitoring the…
Last night I booked my first major review trip of 2020, which I'm excited to share the details of. I'll talk about this trip in the order in which I booked/prioritized these reviews, rather than the order in which I'll be traveling. I've written extensively…
I'd say I just "upgraded" big time, and I hope it makes an even more interesting review. Later this week I was supposed to fly Hainan Airlines from Beijing to Boston. I was looking forward to this, because Hainan's reverse herringbone business class…
December is a month of airline review trips for me, as I'm catching up on some products that I'm overdue to try. In general I like planning review trips last minute, if for no other reason than airlines constantly having schedule changes, and sometimes…
Hainan Airlines is generally regarded as the best airline in mainland China (my experiences match that, and I haven't even flown their new business class). While hardly a core part of what makes their product great, one of the cool things that they've…
Alaska Mileage Plan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs, given their unique array of airline partners, combined with their generous mileage earning rates. Alaska Airlines sometimes has promotions offering bonus miles for travel on their partners,…
Hainan Airlines is generally regarded as the best mainland Chinese airline, and I've had positive experiences flying with them. The airline primarily flies 787s to the US, as they have 38 of them, including 787-8 and 787-9 variants. The airline already…
Hainan Airlines has announced some spiffy new interiors for their 787-9s. For those of you not familiar with Hainan Airlines, they're based in Beijing, and are one of the best mainland Chinese carriers. They are the only mainland Chinese airline to have…
We’ve seen an incredible amount of growth when it comes to aviation in China, and in particular we’ve seen huge expansion when it comes to longhaul international flights being operated by mainland Chinese carriers. This has included a lot of routes that…
In 2015 Alaska Airlines and Hainan Airlines announced a partnership. This has been fantastic for Mileage Plan members, since Hainan often has reasonable paid business class fares, and they also have an excellent onboard product. So you've been able to…
We've seen an incredible amount of growth when it comes to aviation in China, and in particular we've seen huge expansion when it comes to longhaul international flights being operated by mainland Chinese carriers. This has included a lot of routes that…
I love writing about great premium fare deals, but this is certainly the weirdest one I've seen in a while. Back in the 1980s, well before I had even taken my first flight, some airlines like American sold lifetime first class travel passes for what…
HNA Group is a massive Chinese conglomerate that has stakes in all kinds of travel brands. This includes about a dozen Chinese airlines, as well as major international hotel brands, like Hilton and Carlson. While the company was investing like crazy,…
Hainan Airlines has just formally announced that they'll be launching nonstop flights between Beijing and Mexico as of March 21, 2018. The flight will operate 3x weekly from Beijing to Mexico City via Tijuana, with the following schedule, per @airlineroute:…
Hainan is generally regarded as the best airline in mainland China, and they're the only Skytrax 5-star airline in mainland China. I had a pleasant experience when I flew with them early last year, and found the food and service to be great, while the…
The Chinese aviation industry is growing at a rapid pace, and we've seen so many new routes added lately. By 2024 China is expected to overtake the US as the world's largest passenger market, and by 2035 they expect to transport 1.3 billion passengers…
Outside air temperatures can have quite an impact on the takeoff performance of planes. Hot air is less dense, which means that planes may need more runway to take off, and may need to restrict the number of passengers and cargo they can carry. While…
When it comes to aviation in China, all airlines are most definitely not created equal. I've flown longhaul business or first class on Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan, and Xiamen, and had very different experiences across all the airlines.…
These routes have been rumored for quite a while, and now they're finally confirmed. Hainan Airlines will be launching twice weekly flights from Los Angeles to both Chengdu and Chongqing starting in just a few weeks. As of March 15, 2017, Hainan will…
Last January Hainan Airlines began twice weekly flights between Los Angeles and Changsha, which is an interesting new route. They had some incredible ~$1,350 roundtrip business class introductory fares when the route first launched, which represented…
As I've explained before, China’s aviation policies are a bit odd. The country has a rule where only one Chinese airline can operate any individual longhaul route. Given the pace at which Chinese airlines are growing, this is causing many of them to…
