Xiamen Airlines Arvostelua 

De l'embarquement à
Voyageant 2 à 3 fois par an entre Taiwan et la France depuis 12 ans, ce voyage fut le pire. De l'embarquement jusqu'à la récupération des bagages, tout a été catastrophique... bagage détérioré, remplacer par la compagnie par un autre, d'une valeur 2 fois inférieure à ceux endommagés, alors qu'il était neuf. Cette compagnie est a fuir comme la peste

First of all I have to admit, the price is INCREDIBLE! The option to go from Tokyo to Melbourne was half the price than any other airline. And 2(!) checked in bags were already included. So even cheaper than half the price. I was thinking of giving 3 stars just because of that to be honest, it's so rare nowadays. If nothing else, I do believe their pricing is fairly honest.

Well then, on to the contra. Chaos. Utter Chaos. It started at the airport when I tried to check in. I was late, and the only one there, worried I wouldn't make it. Yet it took them more than 20 minutes to finally let me go. I did not have to repack, or else, just none of them knew what to do. But I made it, all good.

First nuisance came though: I did not receive my special meal. I am not sure if that was because I booked through a agent who may have not forwarded the info, or if it was the airlines fault.
But I talked with them and wanted to make sure I would get my request meal on the following flight. They said yes, they called ground and I will definitely get the special meal. Good then.

NOW: Chaos erupts after landing. Chinese transfers are always a hastle, but this topped everything. After dozen controls, I stood at the baggage claim, confused. Do I have to get my bag? No, I didn't. But have to go through customs regardless. So I have to scan all fingerprints and officially enter China. I have to look where to get my second ticket now. They were not able to hand it out in Tokyo.

I run around asking. Getting sent to counters, being told I have to pass security first. (Like they let me through without a ticket). I run there. Of course they don't. They tell me a different counter, no one there. I find a person of the airline again, the send me to the other end of the airport. After ANOTHER customs check. I end up in a massive line and have to wait over an hour with every other foreign person to get my second ticket.
Finally receiving it, I tried to ask quickly if I will get the special meal? He didn't know....

Another hour later waiting in line for the actual security. I end up at the gate. They say I will not get a special meal....

I was pissed. Exhausted. In the end they did somehow manage to get me a spare special meal.

But it was still the worst travel experience of my life.
Since I am poor, I will probably do it again tho.
The price is that unbeatable.

Voyage avec cette compagnie aérienne détestable
-6 modifications de vol avant départ avec vol aller comportant une escale de 28h à Xiamen et vol retour 39h à xiamen.
Aller: Partie le samedi midi arrivée dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi en comptant le décalage horaire.
Retour: partie le jeudi en fin d'après-midi pour arriver dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche à Paris.
-batailler pour avoir le droit à un hôtel fourni par la compagnie à Xiamen. 2h d'attente à l'aéroport au comptoir à l'aller et 3h30 au retour.
-5 jours de séjour perdus dans les vols et escales avec 3 vols aller et 3 vols retour.
-Les agents de compagnie ne parlent pas anglais, ce qui est le minimum pour une compagnie aérienne.
- une valise perdue à l'aller
-2nde valise cassée au retour

Dans l'avion, pas de place, le personnel ne parle pas très bien anglais. Demande de plat végétarien lors de ma réservation de base non prise en compte.
Espace très réduit pour les jambes.
- après demande de dédommagement pour la totalité des péripéties de ce voyage
On me propose un dédommagement de 25e sur un billet avoisinant les 1000e
Et de plus, il me faut forcement un compte en banque de Chine pour percevoir cette indemnité qui ne dédommage même pas les frais de valises...

Je déconseille fortement!!

Fuyez

Where to begin? Chaotic and uncoordinated from beginning to end!

Their booking site shows one price in the calendar, then much higher when you go to book.

You try to request a special meal: after a lot of emails and even requests to send your passport by email (!) you are told it can’t be done. Meat meals only.

You try to check-in online. “This option is being implemented”. Except it’s not. The flights from Amsterdam are jam-packed and everyone’s randomly allocated a seat before checkin is opened, so there’s nowhere to move seats to even if you come early. Yes you could (perhaps) have bought a seat during booking if you feel $54 US is a fair price for 67B.

The booking process loses my frequent flyer number (deliberately?)

Confusing emails (some only in Mandarin) are sent about how to pay for a return flight if you’re denied entry for covid reasons. You have to register a RAT test on a dysfunctional government website (yes, August 2023 and still RAT tests!)

Airport Checkin is full of misinformation: Skyteam check-in staff have been told that bags and boarding passes are good only to Xiamen, then you’ll have to leave the airport and go through the whole process again. This is “because there are so many people on the flight”. Hello?!!

Amsterdam to Xiamen is chocklablock full, with nice attendants, reasonably clean plane and 31” legroom, but it’s chicken or beef only, and no bassinets mean screaming babies are randomly scattered around the plane. People who wanted windows have been given aisles and vice versa, couples seated apart, etc, and it was all solvable; 11hrs is a long flight.

“De-planing” is met with long unexplained delays. Xiamen airport is a confused mess. Eventually, after 90 minutes chasing our luggage, it’s discovered that the bags DID go through, but it’s not possible to check-in till 3hrs before the next flight (9hrs). You have to join the massive customs queue anyway.

Transfer passengers are guided (well, not really … you eventually find it by queueing in the wrong place) to a subterranean basement for 6hrs; I try my luck with the free hotel. 2.5hrs after landing I’m there. It’s good (but be prepared to share a room), but you have to find 100 yuan somewhere for the taxi (on a Sunday it was only 25 each way but you should allow 50). Money changers charge a whopping €5 commission even for small amounts. Hotel has no free wifi for foreigners and staff speak zero English.

Check in again (regardless of whether you went to a hotel or not) maximum 3hrs before the flight. Oh, except if the immigration or customs officers have found something they don’t like about you. My neighbour (from Spain) was detained by them for 3hrs over questions about her Australian visa which were already resolved in Amsterdam. She shouldn’t even have had to deal with them as she was planning on staying in transit.

Once again the terminal wifi is not working for foreign phones. There’s no help desk. Sit in boredom in an extraordinarily dull terminal.

Yes I saved €100 but it was absolutely not worth the hassle and stress. Stick to more professional airlines.

Bad bad airline; our flight was cancelled due to typhoon. Till there possible, but this could have been clear much earlier then while boarding... Then sending us to KLM for rebooking, which is not done by KLM but they should do this themselves. They have no ground crew that could answer questions and you're handed a phone number in CHINA to call...?! This is absurd. You're send home whithout information and perhaps tomorrow you can call, because the ground crew can't help you out. Period, end of story...

More info; I was informed by (Chinese written) emails to enter a health form on a Chinese website. Not easy, but with google translate (rediculous!) i succeeded. I talked to another passenger that called to Xiamen air on Schiphol (probably working there at special moments?) and heard she didn't have to have that health form because it was only a stopover, but the chinese embassy, my emails and security that spoke to her at schiphol, said differently. Who wants to gamble with Chinese security when landing in China...? Not me

The company charged me twice for the luggage and refused to repay me. Try to avoid it if you can.

Today I flew (one-way) from Xiamen City, China to Bangkok, Thailand. The ticket agent was unhappy that I booked a one-way ticket and asked to see proof of available funds (to book a return flight). I showed her a bank statement with a $35,000 balance (I knew this request might occur). Then she said I needed to show her my cash. So, I did; 24,000 RMB or $3,400.

Then she said I still needed to book a return ticket or she wouldn't let me on the plane. So I got on my phone and booked a return ticket.

I'm a westerner. Once I arrived in Bangkok no asked me about my return travel plans or how much money I had. I believe this airline discriminated against westerner.

XiaMen Airline sells fraud flight tickets and refused to refund the passenger! Shocking!!!

Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands announced that no transfer passengers would be allowed to enter the Netherlands for the connecting flight to China from 18th November.

XiaMen Airline is aware of this new policy. However, they continue advertising and selling the connecting flight tickets through the Netherlands!

I bought a flight ticket from London to China from XiaMen Airline on 9 December 2020. However, when I started to go through the travel detailed soon after I bought the ticket, I was shocked to find out that this is an impossible flight route due to the reason above.

I contacted XiaMen Airline immediately. I received a reply call informing me that my request for refunding my flight ticket is rejected. The reason given was that XiaMen Airline made a policy, they only refund the flight tickets which were bought before 31st October 2020, and the flight will take off after 31st October 2020. My flight ticket was bought yesterday, 9th December 2020. Therefore, I fell out of the category of refunding.

I pointed out that if they knew this is the policy, why they are still selling the tickets from London to China, which needs to transfer at Amsterdam.
I was told that it was because some passengers will take the flights from Amsterdam. This was not answering to my question. However, the customer service only gave me “standard answers”, which they have been trained, and asked me to talk to another department, which also has not ability to solve the problem. Therefore, I was kicked from one department to another department like a ball.

I would like to get your advice, what should I do now to get the refund of my flight ticket!

More than my cased, how could XiaMen Airline sell the flight ticket, which is impossible for any transfer passenger to board at Amsterdam to China?

I am beyond angry!!!

I would advise all, try all means to avoid buying flight tickets from XiaMen airline!

Min

Excellent airline, we had a long connection in xiamen and the airline gave us a hotel room to rest that included breakfast, you can also choose a bus guided tour around the city to spend your waiting time. You have this options in connections longer than 4 hours. During the flight the attention was great, meals, blanket, socks and a really comfortable seat even in economy class.

Expensive tickets. Food choice is limited and there's little choice of tv\movies in-flight.

There are better non-communist airline companies tio choose from.