I had booked a flight with Hainan Airlines from Beijing to Boston, and paid $150 extra for an exit row seat. But I was sick, so I wanted to delay the flight a week. I called the call center and asked to change the dates. I was told they could not tell me how much that would cost, it would take 24 hours and they would call me back. Who has ever heard of an airline that takes 24 hours to tell me how much it will cost to change the date?
Anyway. I said, please don't call, I am sick, you will wake me. So they promised to email me.
Guess what? No email arrived. So I called back. They said it will cost $2,000 to change the date on a ticket that cost $850. So I asked for a refund.
Anyway, they then refused to refund me the $150 for the exit row seat, since by this time it was now less than 48 hours before the flight. Even though when I had first called it was considerably more than 48 hours before. If they had only given me the information right away, I could have made the decision on the spot.
So yes, a cheap airline, but customer service is not good.

The worse experience ever! Our first direct flight from Boston to Shanghai came with a lot of expectation. The flight took off and arrived on time, the only good thing. The negatives are 1) A rude and impatient flight attendant who accused us of not reading the menu prior her arrival, when my daughter didn't understand what was she asking. Clearly, she assumed everyone on the plane knows how to speak/read Chinese. When we followed her fingers and tried to look for the menu, she splashed a cup of water on the tray without even saying sorry. Such an unprofessional attitude and lack of training was first time we ever saw in midair. 2) Food was the worst airplane cuisine we had ever before!!! Who would ever put shrimp rice with cheesecake together as a dessert in one tray? We didn't finish the beef and shrimp rice due to the lack ofconent, flavor, and freshness. Half way through the flight, the half sliced sandwich is nothing but mediocre. We didn't even bother to try it and also avoided the last meal completely. 3) Be expected to experience 14 hours with virtually NO AC. This horrible condition made my family and I feel nauseous the whole trip, and the "delicious meal was part of the reason too." 4) During the whole flight, the inflight announcements were unclear and noisy. I didn't remember if the captain ever made any greeting until the landing due to a weather condition.

The flight was not cheap. But it makes you feel that this could be your worse flight experience ever. As customers are experiencing overall better civility throughout the years, such an airline company really needs a major improvement.

First time experience with HaiNan Airline.
Enjoy the new facility ( the newest 787 dreamliner ). Clean. And the service was very good.
The food in Economy seems better ( tasty ) than Business class even though the setting is completely different.
Like the idea that the airline offered some items to make travel easier and more comfortable. And for Business class, it has free Limo service, excellent !!
Anyhow, had a pretty good experience for taking both economy class and also business class.
The only thing that I don't like is that in Shanghai Pudong airport,
both landing and departure will need travelers to take shuttle bus and walk up and down to the aircraft. Extremely hard for senior / disabled people. And very inconvenient for people like me to carry my luggage.
This might not be the airline control, but it doesn't tell the world this is a standard international airline practice.