Hey guys, welcome back to another flight review. As my six months in mainland China dwindled down into its last two months, I'm trying to share as many different airlines and experiences as I can, especially those probably lesser known outside the country. I hope I managed to accomplish that to some extent so far, and gonna do as much as I can in the time left:). I have an extremely exciting trip planned on what is undoubtably the best first class product in mainland China, Xiamen Air's F from their home hub in Xiamen to Beijing Daxing, coming soon to a review near you!
Today, we're heading back to Shanghai aboard Junyao's narrowbody product. I'm really starting to prefer them over MU, especially now that I've realized not only can you planespot international carriers departing from PVG T2, you can do the same upon arrival. Not to mention HO's fares are usually 1/3 of the price of MU's. Lets see what their narrowbody experience is like, and its always exciting leaving from a new airport for the first time:) Let's check it out.
I stayed a night over at the Haikou Sheraton, and experienced probably the emptiest beach in my life. Other than the waters being slightly dirty, it was a wonderful experience. I also noticed some wedding cars when leaving for the airport. Happy wedding, to whom it may concern:)
With the hotel being by the beach, a journey to the airport takes around 40 minutes without traffic. The terminal seemed quite busy, and I was on my way to find checkin.
Strangely, despite having signs guding you towards check-in desks depending on your carrier, Haikou's check-in literally puts everyone, regardless of airline, towards the same area. The same can be said for business, where all first/business passengers could check in at the same few desks, regardless of airline (with the exception of Hainan airlines, which has its own dedicated area.)
A quick side note, for anyone (especially non-Chinese speaking) travellers to certain Chinese airports in smaller cities, look out for certain airport staff approaching you and advertising certain cards. Although they are technically airport staff, these are essentially just scams that promise you things like lounge access or flight planning, their primary demographic seems to be the elderly community and non-natives. There are lots of mainland aviation reviewers who have identified this issue and are actively calling them out on video, so do watch out for them.
Having a communal check-in area also meant a boarding pass without my airline on it, but rather the airport name. Looking back, the same happened at Changsha airport for me back in 2023. I was told the original lounge was under construction and to head left after the "VIP security check" for the temporary one.
On my way over, I passed by Hainan's dedicated check-in area here, their signature gold color of business class. Slightly underwhelming for their home base, I'm curious to see what Sanya's checkin area looks like.
Approaching security, I was guided to the VIP section on the very left. As you can probably tell… not really much of a crowd today hahaha. But it is always nice to see a dedicated security line for premium passengers.
After a quick conversation with the agent, who struggled to locate the expiration date of my passport, I was through and immediately saw the sign guiding us towards the temporary lounge. Lots of construction seemed to be taking place in the terminal, lots of "opening soon" signs.
The lounge was quite spacious, solid assuming that this was the only space to house all business passengers across all airlines. There was a buffet area serving dinner, and a noodle bar.
The buffet was actually really good, those of you guys who read my Daxing lounge food review on Etihad probably know that I love spicy stir fry dishes, and this place was no different. The double cooked spicy pork among my favorite dishes, and they didn't do too bad of a job here either.
I also ordered the "minced pork sauce" noodles. which apparently shares the same name as the black bean noodles I'm used to eating in Beijing. I walked past the noodle bar a couple of times before realizing this bowl was for me. It tasted alright, not as great as the buffet dishes though.
They also had a small station offered dim sum and egg tarts, which I thought was a nice touch.
I tried to eat as much as I could in the lounge as I knew there wouldn't be a full meal onboard since our departure time had passed the alloted slot for a full dinner service. I would soon realize once onboard, this was the right call.
This was the selection I went with from the buffet. Other than the aforementioned pork, we had some baby cabbage, mushrooms, and egg/tomato. Honestly, all were really good and I would have been more than happy if something like this was offered on a flight.
I then spent time some walking around the terminal and checking out some souvenir stores. Hainan is famous for coconuts, and I grabbed my buddies and I some stuff coconut plushies:).
After working on finalizing my Hainan flight review, I headed over to gate 13 where are small bird was waiting to take us back to Shanghai. Boarding was quite hectic as no real line was formed but rather everyone sort of clumped together. There was a small section allowing business passengers to board anytime, but it was barely noticeable in the crowd.
I grabbed a quick pic in the jetbridge before hurrying onto the plane as someone who turned out to be an air marshall stared me down as I was taking this, he also walked up and down the cabin three or four times throughout the flight with a camera on his chest, I wonder if he was looking for something or someone in particular.
Our seat for tonight's short hop. A small 8 seat business cabin, all full tonight. The flight attendant nicely offered to place my bag in the overhead compartment, and soon came with welcome drinks of either water or orange juice.
I just went with the water today.
I also changed into the slippers that were provided, and did my usual boarding routine by opening up and putting on the thin blanket.
A wet towel was offered, with the crew taking one out of a large basket as opposed to offering each individually on a small platter.
There is no IFE onboard, so I turned my attention over to the in flight magazine which was promoting deals on airfare between mainland and Junyao's European destinations. I recall seeing flat rates for all destinations, I guess that helps prevent price fluctuations after purchase?
We soon began to taxi out towards the runway, which didn't take too long. We pushed out of Meilan T1 at 20:29, 11 minutes ahead of schedule. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older, or that narrowbodies always scare me just a bit more than wide ones, but the turbulence was really quite scary, even knowing it's nothing dangerous and just some air.
After what seemed like 10 minutes or so of rough air, we finally reached cruising altitude and the crew got to work. We were first offered those 'tablecloths' that are basically just thin pieces of paper. The crew mentioned before takeoff we could have an "egg sandwich" and a drink option. My Beijing flight last time was considered a "premium route" and given the premium route drink menu, unfortunately this one was just an ordinary route, which had fewer choices. A gentleman asked about the alcoholic options, to which he was informed only one type of beer was available, and the wines offered on the drink menu card were "forgotten to be crossed out by the crew since they were unavailable", interesting, I just went with a sparkling water.
If the "egg sandwich" sounded boring on paper, it looked just as much.
The cake tasted similar to Air China's lounge offerings, essentially flavorless. On the bright side, the fruit was really fresh and the sandwich actually better than expected. All in all, definitely fair for a 2 hour flight off a main meal, and considering I paid only around $100 for this trip, I was a happy customer.
There is also no wifi on board, so be sure to lock in some downloaded entertainment or games before flying.
Nothing else really noteworthy happened throughout the rest of the flight. I also didn't get a chance to visit the restroom as it was constantly occupied. The highlight was really arriving at PVG, and passing by all the international carriers on my way out! Evening is also PVG's peak international departure time, and these large windows only add to the excitement!
