- Hainan Airlines HU751
- Dublin to Edinburgh
- Boeing 787-900 B-1543
- Thursday 15th August 2019
It was another early start with no breakfast this morning, as the Premier Inn didn’t start early enough for me. Had to be downstairs for the bus at 0615 to the Airport as my flight departs at 0800. After picking a few people up at the next hotel we arrived at 0625 and I made my way back through the car park to Terminal 2 to find the Hainan check in desks.
I was quickly checked in and headed through security in a little over 5 minutes. The next challenge was to find somewhere for breakfast as I just wanted a quick grab and go rather than full sit down meal given the short time I had before boarding commenced. I was rather surprised to find my first option, Burger King, didn’t do any breakfast items at all! I did not fancy a burger at half 6 in the morning… luckily I found another little cafe who did pastries and other warm breakfast items.
Before long we were boarding and I made my way to my seat, 50K, which was near the back of the aircraft. The 787 was set out in a 3-3-3 configuration and this flight was, as expected, fairly empty with maybe 50-60% of seats taken.
Oddly the cabin crew came around with the inflight snack – in this case a ham and cheese sandwich – and a bottle of water even before we’d pushed back. It was a short flight of around 50 minutes but other crews manage a full service (with full aircraft) on shorter flight times. They also ensured any seatbelts that weren’t in use were tied together for takeoff which I’ve never seen done before but probably makes sense from a safety point of view.
We cruised at a height of 24000ft across the Irish Sea to Edinburgh, landing bang on schedule at 0911 with a short taxi to the gate. Of course after landing in Edinburgh the aircraft was to go onwards to Beijing, although all passengers were made to get off the aircraft during the stop. Everyone walked off the aircraft via the jet bridge but then we had to go downstairs and outside onto buses that would take us round to the “domestic” (including Ireland) arrivals channel.
By the time we had faffed on with the buses to arrivals the bags were already going round on the carousel so I had my bag and within no time was outside to catch the Airlink bus into the city centre. I had a day out around parts of West Lothian before heading home later in the day on the train. And so that ends my crazy trip around Europe! It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable trip and I doubt I’ll get as much variety in one trip again. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these blogs and I’ll try to keep you up to date on future travels too!
Scott’s views... 