Xiamen Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | It is the worst airline I have taken so far. Poor passenger service during check in. You can’t see any facial expressions from the staff face, look like so crucial and unhappy. The staff attitude is also a disaster. Can’t answer the questions properly and put so much weight constraint in the luggage weight, even there is not much exceeding of the weight. Do not recommend to take this airline if there is alternative airline.

✅ Trip Verified | A chaotic and uncoordinated experience 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 check-in 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 travel in August 2023 still requires RAT tests). Airport Check-in 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 chock a block full, with nice attendants, reasonably clean plane and 31” legroom, but it’s ghastly looking chicken or beef only, and no bassinets mean screaming babies are randomly scattered around the plane. Can't understand dialogue on films with the awful headphones; bring your own. 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. Disembarkation is met with long unexplained delays. Xiamen airport is a confused mess. Eventually, after 90 minutes chasing our luggage, it’s discovered that 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. This is not possible at XMN. Once again the terminal wifi is not working (no authorization codes 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. I’ll stick to more professional airlines in future!

✅ Trip Verified | My first time on Xiamen Airlines and it will be my last after I use my return ticket to Amsterdam. The aircraft was quite modern, and the business class seat was quite comfortable, a standard 1-2-1 layout. That is where the good ends. The staff were unable to speak or understand English, and the service is done to suit Chinese customers only, not for foreigners. The food was very bland and limited choice, the hot dishes not properly heated, and white wine and soft beverages incl water were served warm. The amenities were cheap and below acceptable levels. Most airlines economy service is a lot better than this, and they should be ashamed that this is what they provide on international routes. Before Covid I used Hainan Airlines from Brussels, and they were so much more advanced than Xiamen Airlines. As a warning to other international travelers, I say to avoid Xiamen Airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | Business class flight seating was good. Very friendly service, even though English communication was limit. Flight attendants were on point and helpful. The nightmare started when I landed in XMN awaiting my transfer flight to BKK. Covid restrictions had the airport lounge closed down! The hotel service provide was 20 minutes away in a known covid positive area. The Official at the desk had limited skills and stated there is a risk my health code would change and I wouldn't be able to board my flight tomorrow, nothing he could do. No refunds for this situation. Very poor manners, ended staying on a bench outside of the airport ,after the airport it's self lock the doors around 2 am. BTW flight is scheduled for 9am, Flight times changed twice on day of departure. On the ground service and attitude was horrible. First time flying business class with this airline was a trip I wish I forget.

✅ Trip Verified | Today I had dinner with my company, so i had booked the flight for 9pm. The flight was rescheduled to 7pm. I missed the dinner because of that. Came to the airport on time and the flight was deleted one hour. This seems to be a joke, but it's not. I see this as a bad management or bad structure of this airline. It made my day a very bad day

✅ Trip Verified | This has been, by far, the worst airline that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I showed up at Xiamen Airport (Xiamen Airlines flagship hub) 5 hours in advance of my flight for two reasons. First, I knew that my bags would be overweight (I was moving back home to the states), and I wanted to see by how much. I had some items I could discard to make the baggage lighter, but I wanted to see how much over I was. Second, since COVID still had regulations, I wanted to be sure that I had enough time to get through the process on time. Xiamen Airlines, unfortunately, did not make any of this process possible. When I arrived at the airport, I was informed that I would not be able to set foot into the international wing until two hours before the flight took off. This forced me to wait until they opened the wing. Once the wing was open, the sold-out flight loaded up the kiosks. The line was moving unbelievably slow, but I knew that the attendants were able to see me waiting and that I probably will need extra help. This entire process of getting through the line nearly took an hour and a half. Once I got to the front of the line, the first thing that they informed me of was that there were only middle seats left. I said to them that they saw me waiting in line, and I am considerably taller than most of the people on the flight. Rather than give any explanation, the only thing they said was, “we know”. Checking my watch, I knew that there was no time to belabor the point any longer. I had three bags, and I knew that they would have weight problems. In addition, I would need to pay extra for the third bag. I was ready to pay for the extra bag, but what happened next was madness. I sent them countless emails explain my grievances with the airline, and it took them literal days(and one time a week) to respond to me. The fact that this could not be resolved in a matter of minutes was frustrating enough, but then for them to not care about my original complaint and say that it was my fault is what drove me to write this complaint today. It took them 3.5 weeks to even come to a resolution.

✅ Trip Verified | 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 the ticket from London to China via an overnight transfer in Amsterdam. However, when I started to go through the details 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 were 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 my question. However, the customer service only gave me standard answers in a circle. I would advise all, try all means to avoid buying flight tickets from Xiamen Air.

✅ Trip Verified | It was overall a pleasant flight. The flight attendant is very familiar with the policies and helpful with the required custom forms under the pandemic. There is no hot food due to the pandemic, but it is totally understandable. I would recommend everyone get food from the airport or city before the get on board. Everyone is nice to the passengers in general, but the cabin manager is mean to her peer. I don't agree with that way of management. At least they should avoid making passengers feel that way.

Not Verified | Los Angeles to Ho Chi Minh via Xiamen. I am extremely disappointed in the customer service I received from this airline. I paid $748.00 to change the flight for me and my partner, because I was given the wrong date to return on. $400 of that fee was just for them to make the change. Shortly after making this payment they involuntarily changed the flight I had just paid to change. I was able to call and cancel my flights but they refused to give me the $400 back for the cost the to make the change, which they immediately changed which take away the point of paying $400 of a specific flight home that matches our schedule.

✅ Trip Verified | Never fly with Xiamen airline again! Irresponsible staff and an airline who’s only interested in snatching money from customers. On November 2019 I was booked for the flight traveling from Seoul to Vancouver but at the check-in counter they denied my boarding because I looked fatter than my passport photo. What the hell! Another airline flew me back home and gave me no troubles, I passed border security checks absolutely no problems. Only ridiculous Xiamen airline caused me so much trouble. When I asked them to return my flight ticket money, they agreed, but it’s been 2 months now I still don’t see my money returned to my bank account. They never pick up their phones, when I try contacting by email they just give me excuses like oh we are still processing your return. Really? How many months do you need to process a return Xiamen airline?