B747-437B, thanks for the quick reply!

To be honest, I don't recall what uniform she was wearing . I just sort of froze up after remembering my last unpleasant experience. Now I feel a bit bad somewhat brusquely dismissing her at the ticket counter.

And hmm... I didn't realize that Hainan airlines had such a presence in Beijing. I probably have too much of an americentric bias; I had never heard of Hainan until their name popped up on a consolidator's web site (that's how I got the discount business class tickets), nor have any of my American friends ever heard of the airline before I've mentioned it to them.

I hope Hainan does get bigger in the U.S.! It'd be awesome to fly them instead of United direct from SF, rather than having to transit through Seattle . But I digress...