Xiamen Airlines

Kuala Lumpur to Fuzhou (monopoly operator for the route) was rather chaotic. The flight attendants were fairly rude which may be attributed to the number of passengers who did not follow rules during take-off and landing. However this is no excuse for the appalling level of service (or lack of). FAs impatient and unhelpful by international standards. Generally this is expected from a Chinese domestic operator except the price was even higher than flights going the same distance to other Chinese cities.

Shanghai to Xiamen. The staff were friendly and the flight was fine in general. However if you are over 5' tall DO NOT take a window seat. There is no leg room whatsoever. I'm 5'8" and wished I'd learned how to say 'aisle-seat' before check-in as it was an incredibly uncomfortable journey made even worse when the person in front tipped there seat back. If I'd had an aisle seat I think it would have been fine though so be warned!

Ground crew at Xiamen Airport pleasant and efficient but FAs inflight were not good. They seem to do the minimum required and act as if they don't really care about the passengers. I was horrified to see people carrying really enormous sacks into the cabin on their backs. Unbelievable. What ever happened to the concept of hand-carry luggage?

Leaving Shenzhen to Fuzhou on 19 Sep (MF 8318) and return on 21 Sep (MF8317) both filghts delayed for at least more than 2 hours. Missed the conference meetings and dinners appointment on both occasions. It is surely a frustrated experience. Why can't they have more competition by opening out more airlines servicing between these two cities? Do we customers need to go through their incompetence operations and their internal problems? By the way the tickets are not cheap Rmb1060 one way.

Return Shanghai-Xiamen in economy. Both fairly full flights in Boeing 757. Seat pitch OK for a 1.30 hour or so flight. So is the inflight service. Friendly FA's and a simple lunch box accompanied by non- alcoholic drinks. Uneventful but OK. On the way back we pulled back but stood still for a long time after that. No explanation but when FA's found out that it could take a while they started giving service to passengers. Quite professional.

I would like to say " Thank You" to Ms Hou Gui Xia who was on duty on 17.05.05 in GuangZhou XiaMen airline counter. My aged parents were travelling on their own from Melbourne to Guang Zhou to catch the same day flight to Xiamen. As the time was very tight between the two flights I worried that they would be late for the flight to Xiamen. Ms Hou was very patient and helpful every time I called to check if my parents had come to pick up the tickets. She also put my parents on phone so that we could exchange a few words. It is very kind and thoughtful of her to do so. It gave us a lot of comfort . Her attitude towards passengers create a good image for Xiamen airline. At the same time I would like to suggest that you add aged passengers service. As far as I know a lot of aged parents are travelling on their own. It is harder when transit is involved. Wouldn't that be wonderful if you have a service to pick up the aged parents for their worrying children and help them through all the airport procedure till they board on the next flight. I believe people are more than willing to pay for the service.

I flew from Shanghai to Wuyi Shan in Fujian province. Service was basic but comfortable nonetheless. Flight attendants made a number of announcements during the hour flight. Chinese newspapers were given out. Drinks were served as well as two bags of pretzels and plums.

Excellent full service airline for the price in between no frills and major airlines like SQ. The food and service is similar to SilkAir on comparable flight from Xiamen/Sing.

Singapore to Fuzhou from Fuzhou to ShenZhen and back lastly to Singapore. I must say that the treatment on international flight was better than domestic. Quality of food was average and need to be improved to cater to international standards however based on its low cost no frills fare I will chose Xiamen the next time I go to China. Pre-booking your departure 4-5 days earlier is recommended.

I flew Xiamen from Macau to Hangzhou I have never flown on such a dreadful airline. The food was unidentifiable the service of drinks was: coke water or beer and the cabin crew's professionalism basically amounted to "sit still and shut up" . However topping it all were the hordes and hordes of passengers that all ran to the exits in preparation to disembark as soon as we began to touch down... they all went flying (excuse the pun).