My second FR in two days! I am on fire! 🔥. This time I'm flying back to Guangzhou from Tropical Haikou on China Southern again.
Getting to the airport and check-in
Took the Didi from downtown Haikou to Haikou Meilan airport. Took about 40 mins to do the 26 kms. I find airports in China's cities are always so far away from the city centre.
After the Didi dropped me off at terminal 2, I entered through door 4 and went through the usual basic explosive check. I am still debating the usefulness of such procedures.
The airport was not busy at all at this time which was quite surprising as yesterday was a busier day for arrival. Maybe it was just at this time of the day.
Again, I used the automated check in terminal! But this time unlike at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou, they gave me a hard paper BP rather than a soft paper one. I prefer the former as you can use it for bookmark…
After getting my BP, I headed to security, waited in line for 5 mins and proceeded to the security counter where I took off my hat and gave my PPT and BP, the lady took them and they had trouble validating … my visa. Yes you read that right! My visa!? Quite surprising for a domestic flight.
The lady at the security counter said my visa wouldn't validate so she had to call another colleague who called another one who finally after 10 minutes and seeing the line piling up behind me decided that my visa was valid after all.
After this adventure, I did some research and realized that Hainan has a special visa status for tourists. You can fly into Haikou without needing a regular Chinese visa but the catch is that you cannot go to mainland without a valid Chinese visa. Hence why they are being peculiar about pople flying into mainland. That made more sense to me now!
This time, before putting my backpack in a scanning machine, I took out the power bank from my backpack to avoid any unpleasant surprise.
After a quick pat down, I was on my way.
I also wanted to give a shout-out to the bathrooms at Haikou Meilan airport. These are the cleanest airport bathrooms I've ever encountered in China and you can actually see the runways while washing your hand, there is also a box of cotton swabs available and a electronic board informing you about the stalls occupancy!
Boarding and flight amenities
Arriving at my gate 33, I saw that there was actually a jet bridge rather than taking a tarmac bus like we did in Guangzhou on the coming trip.
CZ boarding process is similar to other Chinese airlines in my experience. They call business/first class, status members and passengers with children or with limited mobility to board first and then everyone else.
That s why you see everyone gathering around the gate regardless of their seats.
As it is my custom, I waited until the sign showed “Last call” before heading towards the gate.
Upon entering the aircraft a Airbus A320, I was welcomed by a FA, given a bag of peanut and a bottle of water and I quickly found my seat, an aisle seat at 39C.
As it is with boarding last, this time i didn't get lucky as all the overhead bins above my seat were full. I just put my backpack in a few row before mine. The seat pitch was ok. My knees didn't touch the seat in front (i am a full 5’7 when stretching). However this time the seat could recline but no USB or power outlets.
I also found out that if you choose not to get a meal on board of the flight, the FA would put a sticker on your seat so that they won't serve you meal. And also you get 200 frequent flyer miles credited to your account if you chose to do so. However it didn't really matter on this flight as there was no meal service. So that sticker must have been remnant from an earlier flight.
At 11:52, the FA started doing the airplane security procedures (I haven't seen done in a long time) but we haven't pushed out of the gate yet. I am reminded that the flight was supposed to leave at 12:00.
The plane pushed from the gate at 11:56 and taxied to the runway for a take off time of 12:10.
The flight was not entirely full. Some rows in the back of the plane were empty.
And i noticed that there were two emergency doors next to each other. First time that i have noticed that fact.
Flight was smooth and uneventful, no FA service on board after taking off which I should get used to it by now.
Two bathrooms at the end of the cabin, decent size and with soap available this time!
We landed in Guangzhou at 13:06 and taxied to the gate at 13:19.
Arrival in Guangzhou
Upon arriving to the gate, 94% of the passengers got up as soon as the plane stopped. I admittedly did the same and quickly got out of the plane onto the jet bridge.
Got out at the boarding gate which was ready to board people back to Haikou.
After getting through the baggage claim area and out of the exiting area, we found a flower dispensing machine on our way to the Didi waiting area to go back to Guangzhou city centre.
