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Trip Verified | This flight from Shenzhen to Brisbane was the last of four flights we took with Hainan Airlines on our round trip from Australia to China. The first three flights were all in Economy class. While the flights were all fairly good, we didn’t feel the food and service to be quite up to the standard of other carriers that we’ve used. But our main issue was that after we had boarded and were seated in Economy prior to departure on the Shenzhen to Brisbane flight, which was a night flight, there was an announcement asking any passengers who wished to upgrade to Business class to contact one of the flight attendants. As we were both fairly tired and the Economy section of the airplane was almost full, we thought we might treat ourselves to an upgrade if the cost was reasonable. So I approached one of the flight attendants to find out what the cost of upgrading would be, and she asked to see our boarding passes to check what our fare class was. After a short while, she came back with one of her colleagues and said that it would cost 5,000 CNY (Chinese Yuan) each to upgrade. Just to make sure that there was no misunderstanding, I wrote down “10,000 ¥” on a piece of paper and asked them if that was the total cost for my wife and myself and they said “Yes.” So we decided to go ahead with the upgrade and we were moved to Business class which was less than half full. However, when we were about to pay by credit card we were told that the cost of upgrading would be 6,800 CNY each. When we told them we had been quoted 5,000 CNY each before we moved, they said that would have only been the case if we had been on a higher fare class. In other words, we had been given incorrect information earlier, but the flight attendants were not prepared to say that someone had made a mistake. At that stage, the flight was about to take off and we didn’t particularly feel like going all the way back to our original seats so we decided to stay in Business class, pay the full amount and to make a complaint to the airline when we got back to Australia. Business class was very comfortable and we both slept well on the way to Brisbane. Also, the flight attendant who was looking after us was very attentive to our needs. After we arrived back home we emailed Hainan Airlines asking for a refund of 3,600 CNY. They apologized for their mistake but refused to provide any compensation. I’m rating our flight experience at only 5 out of 10, primarily because of the way we were misled.