Introduction: Flying China’s Other 5-Star Airline

Introduction: Flying China’s Other 5-Star Airline

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In late July, Xiamen Air announced that they’d launch flights between Seattle and Shenzhen (with connecting service to Xiamen) as of this September. This represented Xiamen Air’s first flight between the US and China, and only their second route between North America and China (they also fly from Vancouver to Xiamen).

SEA-SZX

Chinese airlines are greatly expanding their global footprint, and I’ve quite enjoyed sampling their offerings, as they’re most definitely not all created equal.

For example, I flew Hainan between Los Angeles and Changsha earlier in the year, and was impressed by their soft product (after all, they’re a Skytrax 5-star airline), while their hard product left a bit to be desired. Meanwhile I flew China Eastern between Los Angeles and Shanghai a couple of months ago, and was impressed by their hard product while I was disappointed by their soft product.

So I was keen to try Xiamen Air’s new route out of Seattle, to see where they fall on the spectrum of Chinese carriers. I figured it would be especially useful since Xiamen Air belongs to SkyTeam, so they’re a great airline for earning and redeeming SkyTeam miles (in my case, I decided to earn Korean Air SkyPass miles for my ticket).

shenzhen-airport-lounge-43

Booking my flights

As luck would have it, the airline had some fantastic introductory fares. I managed to snag a roundtrip business class ticket for ~$1,582 including all taxes and fees, and decided to travel during their first week of service. I booked the following routing in business class:

09/30 MF846 Seattle to Shenzhen departing 1:25PM arriving 6:15PM (+1 day)
10/03 MF845 Shenzhen to Seattle departing 12:45PM arriving 10:25AM

While I knew Xiamen Air’s business class hard product wouldn’t be great (they have standard forward facing fully flat seats, like Hainan, LOT, etc.), I was curious to see what their soft product was like.

xiamen-air-787-business-class-1

After booking I found out that Xiamen Air has a great program where they let you upgrade at the airport, so I even managed to upgrade the return flight on the day of departure, which was an opportunity to sample both of Xiamen Air’s premium products on one roundtrip ticket. Unfortunately the upgrade process wasn’t quite as straightforward as I was hoping, though I’m still happy I had the chance to try their first class.

xiamen-air-787-first-class-9

Booking my hotel

I was looking forward to exploring Shenzhen, as it’s a city I haven’t yet visited. It’s only about 20 miles from Hong Kong (which is one of my favorite cities in the world), so I was curious whether it felt more like Hong Kong or mainland China.

st-regis-shenzhen-37

Shenzhen has quite a few decent hotel options, though I ended up booking the St. Regis. I love the St. Regis brand in general, and this one looked solid. I booked through Starwood Luxury Privileges, which meant I received a ~$100 food & beverage credit, an upgrade, daily breakfast, etc.

The paid rate for my stay was ~$250 per night (the Luxury Privileges rate is the same as the flexible rate), which seemed like a better deal than redeeming points. This is a Category 5 property, meaning a free night redemption costs 12,000-16,000 Starpoints per night. Given that I value Starpoints at ~2.2 cents each, I decided to pay cash.

st-regis-shenzhen-9

Bottom line

I shared my initial impressions of Xiamen Air’s business class and Xiamen Air’s first class shortly after I took the flight. Suffice to say that I was very pleasantly surprised, and as far as I’m concerned Xiamen Air is on the same level as Hainan.

It’s just a shame that no Chinese airline has it all. China Eastern has a great reverse herringbone seat and Wi-Fi, while Xiamen Air and Hainan have great service and food. If only we could get the best of both worlds from one airline.

Anyway, I had an awesome trip, so stay tuned for the much more detailed trip report.

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  1. Tonco Guest

    Hi Lucky, I am big fan of your blog,What is the difference between Hard and Soft product? thank you

  2. Petter N. Guest

    Boobie Doley; keep you redneckisms away from here - you're the stereotype that gave us citizens a bad rep.

  3. Brad Guest

    A quick Google search reveals that this Colleen Kristen Brewster is a travel agent who books assisted suicide trips to the Netherlands for their "final voyage" - http://www.philhendrieshow.com/category/character-clips/colleen-kristin-brewster/

  4. Paul Gold

    @Bobbie Dooley. That's some racist s***. Check yourself.

  5. K.A. Guest

    Bonnie Dooley's comment would be charming in a "senile old person" kind of way if it wasn't also racist.

  6. Oliver Guest

    200USD flexible rate - wut? For real?
    Their lowest available rate (not flexible!) is 1600RMB ++, which usually comes out at 300USD. We live in HK and often go there for a bit of weekend R&R, but with this rate we'd surely stay more often...

  7. Wix New Member

    Did you get lounge access at St Regis SZ when booking Luxury Privileges?

  8. SQflyer New Member

    lol @Bobbie Dooley, this must be one of the weirdest and dodgiest comments I've ever read anywhere! :D

  9. Bobbie Dooley Guest

    Benjamin: I had once traveled on the China Airways, in First Class of course. It was before my husband and I had our children Seth and Dylan. We visited the Great Wall and all those wonderful oriental sites. We booked it with On the Go with Colleen Kristen Brewster and it was just such a wonderful journey. I recall us having a very private cabin and the flight attendants with their squinty eyes were just...

    Benjamin: I had once traveled on the China Airways, in First Class of course. It was before my husband and I had our children Seth and Dylan. We visited the Great Wall and all those wonderful oriental sites. We booked it with On the Go with Colleen Kristen Brewster and it was just such a wonderful journey. I recall us having a very private cabin and the flight attendants with their squinty eyes were just so subservient and wonderful with their services. It was worth every penny. I highly recommend Colleen's travel agency and you should check her out. Oh wait, you're not into women. And another thing, we also stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast in Shen Zhen - I think it was call Jin Jiang China Star Hotel. They even called us in the room to provide massage services but it was for men only so my husband Steve naturally went to try it out. I was just happy sipping my Chinese tea. Just a magical experience all around.

  10. Jonathan Guest

    If you want the all in one product you don't touch China rather fly EVA or CI.

    The joke between Experienced people living in HK is never renew the visa to China and just go to Taiwan for the Sino experience.
    Close to Japanese service, diligence, style, quality and even honest.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Tonco Guest

Hi Lucky, I am big fan of your blog,What is the difference between Hard and Soft product? thank you

0
Petter N. Guest

Boobie Doley; keep you redneckisms away from here - you're the stereotype that gave us citizens a bad rep.

0
Brad Guest

A quick Google search reveals that this Colleen Kristen Brewster is a travel agent who books assisted suicide trips to the Netherlands for their "final voyage" - http://www.philhendrieshow.com/category/character-clips/colleen-kristin-brewster/

0
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