Originally Posted by
sptraveller
If you heard that learning Mandarin is harder than German or French or Spanish, please don't believe it.
It isn't harder. It's just different.
Whilst I agree with the thrust of your post - I don't agree with the above. It Is harder to learn Mandarin than French or Spanish precisely
because it is different.
I also agree with others here that have said that HU might not be the right carrier for the route. Having used it a few times at the beginning of the service - the first year and a bit - I have found that uncertainty about days of operation (and not daily) has got me using other alternatives these days.
One of the biggest downsides is that HU use the old terminal and you end up being parked in the middle of nowhere at 5 in the morning. Although this is acceptable for point to point, if, like me, you need to connect through T3, which is the new / main terminal, it is a looong bus ride. I concluded it was less hassle to arrive at T3 by plane even if it meant transferring at Helsinki or Frankfurt. The old T2 at Beijing is a bit of a scruffy old hole tbh and I have experienced some 'technical problems' whilst going through. Speaking to other British pax in the line waiting for ther C class check in to open - I know my views are not unique. In fact many were saying that they wouldn't use the service again. All of which is a shame since Hainan is actually a pretty good airline and stands up to comparisons with most western counterparts.
I think it does well with Chinese nationals and possibly those Brits of Chinese origin. My anecdotal observations: C class does ok loadwise with a predominance of non Chinese, down the back it is almost all people of Chinese appearance (tourists / students??)
Some of you may know that Andy Burnham (mayor) is in China this week with flights on his agenda.