Xiamen Airlines Business class Seattle to Shenzhen
Xiamen Airlines (MF) recently started a new service between Seattle and Shenzhen.
This route does make a lot of sense given the many high tech companies in the area and the tech production region of Shenzhen.
The check-in counter for Xiamen Airlines is situated at the International airlines section at Seatac.
It is a very small counter section.
One thing I found out is that check-in takes a very very long time for Xiamen Airlines,
The passengers all seem to have some sort of an issue and there was plenty of going back and forth between the passengers and employees.
This was also the case at Shenzhen.
Xiamen Airlines does not assign seats for Business class if you are not part of their frequent flyer program.
If you really want a particular seat, be sure to check-in once the counter opens.
They assign seats at the airport for Business and maybe First class.
After a lengthy wait, I got the boarding pass which also came with a "Premier security line" priority.
This allowed me to utilize a shorter line, though not by much.
The lounge used was "The Club"at the S terminal.
This is also a Priority Pass lounge although Priority Pass members get turned away when it is busy.
Happened to me on a previous trip.
The busy time seemed to be in the morning up to around noon when many international flights are scheduled to take off then.
The food selection was rather decent for a US airport lounge, with soups as the only hot food item.
The first row of Business class is 11, followed by 12 and 13 for a total of 18 seats.
If you like windows, dont take 12 as there is only one window.
Personally, I wouldnt take row 13 as it is just in front of Economy bulkhead.
The seats are full lie flat in a 2-2-2 configuration.
Not as nice as the "suites" type seats but it still works well.
On boarding, one of the FAs immediately asked if I wanted to put on the provided slippers and the FA took out the slippers and placed them in front.
Very nice service touch but not so much for security wise, just in case we had to quickly disembark from the plane before takeoff.
Interestingly, there is no duty free for sale onboard.
First and Business class were fully booked on both outbound and inbound flights.
There was an interesting scene onboard where a couple of Chinese pax were attempting to buy a seat in Business or First.
They kept coming up to the section and asking if they could buy an upgrade.
They were told that only cash was accepted but the seats were all taken.
Xiamen Airlines also has an option for upgrading from Economy to Business on their website.
It seems to be a fixed amount.
Here is a listing of drinks.
What stood out for me were the various Chinese teas.
They were quite high quality and they used full tea leaves (as opposed to tea bags).
Highly recommend the Chinese tea if you drink tea.
Lapsang Souchong is interesting.
It is similar to a "black tea" but the taste is different.
Supposedly a smoked tea instead of the usual roasted type.
It does have a strong taste though and might not suit everyone.
The Tie Guanyin tea comes from the Fujian Province, which is famous for this tea leaf.
The menu is full of spelling and grammar errors along with plenty of flowery descriptive language.
Maybe Xiamen Airlines can employ a proof reader.
Here is the lunch menu for the flight.
We started off with a lunch and before landing, we were served dinner.
The Chinese choices are much better.
The amenity kit was in a package from Crabtree and Evelyn.
Very plain amenity kit, nothing spectacular about it, but contains a lot of items!
Xiamen Airlines has this strange policy where mobile phones cannot be used onboard, although the use of tablets and pcs are permissible.
I asked about this and Corporate said it was due to Chinese Aviation regulations.
Some of the 787s used on this flight has wifi and some dont.
However, the wifi didnt work at all.
Takeoff to the North on a beautiful clear day!
West Seattle below.
Love the view of the curved wing and Mt Rainier in the background.
Olympic mountains and the coast of Washington state.
If you like window views, I recommend taking the left side departing Seattle and right side when arriving.
We were served warm nuts and drinks after takeoff
The divider between First and Business class.
Looks a bit cheesy but kind of cute too.
Started off with a Salad and I chose the beef filet which was a mistake.
It was way overcooked.
Recommend the Chinese menu which my seatmate had and it looked much better.
The food was served on very nice dishes but the tray was somewhat...very... plasticky and looked like it belongs in the army barracks.
Maybe this is something that can be improved upon.
A nicer looking plastic tray would suffice.
The utensils for the salad came wrapped in a nice metal ring(very nice touch) but the utensils for the main meal were in a paper folder, which was really odd.
Here is the Lapsang Souchong tea with a very nice color.
After lunch service was over, the FAs offered to turn down the bed with a nice big duvet.
Overall, inflight service on Xiamen airlines was excellent.
The FAs were very customer focused and did an excellent job.
The IFE(inflight entertainment) was quite good too.
Not as many films as say Krisworld on SQ but there was a very good selection of Western and Asian movies.
Some non-English movies, though, only had Chinese subtitles.
787 windows allow tinting of the windows although it does not go fully opaque.
This means that if the sun is shining directly at the window, it will affect the passengers within, unfortunately for my seatmate.
Nice touch in the restroom.
The FAs would also offer a warm towel whenever I exited from the restroom.
The Korean galbi dish was really good.
Maybe it is due to the three Seattle to Incheon flights daily (KE, OZ, DL) that the Korean food catering is of a high standard.
I really like the chinese soups too.
The service onboard, as mentioned, was very good.
The FAs consistently came by and refilled drinks and asked if we wanted any snacks.
Xiamen Airlines product is quite decent and definitely has room for slight improvement.
A better hard product with their already excellent inflight service would make Xiamen Airlines one of the better Asian airlines.
Hope you had fun reading!
