My (Shady?) Experience Upgrading To Xiamen Air First Class At The Airport - 787

My (Shady?) Experience Upgrading To Xiamen Air First Class At The Airport

Ben Schlappig — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:11:33 +0000

Hello from Seattle! I just flew Xiamen Air first class from Shenzhen to Seattle, and managed to upgrade to first class... though it was an experience. I booked my roundtrip business class ticket from Seattle to Shenzhen for ~$1,580, and as I noted shortly after booking, Xiamen Air has a unique paid upgrade option, where…

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Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.

Steve — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 20:37:14 +0000

In China, most people pay for most services using Alipay or WeChat. Hardly anywhere accepts Western credit / debit cards (although you can link your Western credit/debit card as payment method on both of these apps). If you don't have either of the above apps then cash payment is often the only other option given.

TProphet — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 08:28:36 +0000

Don't ask for a receipt. Ask for "fa piao." That means suddenly everything will be done the official and correct way and you'll get an official tax receipt.

good — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 13:22:02 +0000

So many conspiracy theories! Good job fanning the flames of paranoia, Ben. You got the upgrade at the end, right?

Bob S — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:28:47 +0000

The reason you were forced to pay cash was that the credit card reader probably only accepted domestic UnionPay cards.

VL — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 23:04:53 +0000

@Bob Trial: Fair enough - but you're being harsh on Lucky. His article described a series of events that happened to him and he speculates what MAY have occurred in his opinion. He made no accusations or threats, just said "there may have been something shady going on from my perspective, I don't understand the process here". Hardly clueless or out of line, as he leaves it open for speculation or education and asks everyone else's opinion, as you have done by providing an alternate view of what happened. People read this blog as Lucky's opinions and speculations are interesting, not just a totally objective description of what went down. So expecting him to not raise any questions or have an opinion on a situation (which is different to making unfair accusations) is unrealistic.

Caroline — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 21:26:51 +0000

Chinese at a restaurant in the U.S.: UnionPay not accepted, "tip" above what's printed on the bill is mandatory, but no receipt is issued for the tip. Shady stuff goes on in the U.S. all ...

american grew up in china — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 20:55:27 +0000

Cash+No receipt = 90~100% of what you paid will go straight into pockets of the perked manager and whoever involved help him get your seat (the person he called?). It does not stop here. A friend of mine travel from PVG to CDG regularly. There was one time his luggage 3kg above limit, check-in agent ask for 3000 CNY fee, he haggle it to 2000, then go through his wallet in front of her and says that he don't have that much CNY cash but I have 100 euro (around 1500 CNY back then). The agent accept it. China welcomes you all with its own way :D

Aaron Tan — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 19:48:48 +0000

Shut up Alex

LH462 — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 16:06:46 +0000

Hey Lucky, greetings from Germany ! Here is just a short comment to your report flying Xiamen Air in First by cash upgrading from Business: As a flight attendant working for a big german airline, just let me explain and correct some things. "F4" in Amadeus booking codes ist NOT and NEVER meaning, that there will be 4 seats available!! "F" (also A and O) is standing for First Class..the number behind the letter is only a indicator (available from 0 to 9) for a possibly chance to sell those seats in the near future by the airline. That means: 0 stands for no more seats to sell (or overbooked.) 9 stands for all seats in this booking class are available for selling 4 or 5 stands for "some", but not all are available.... This systems works also for Business Class (within ALL booking fares "J", "R", "C" and so on...) and all booking fares in coach like "M", "L", "N", "X" etIc. In other words: You can look f.e. at an Oman flight A330 with actual only 18 seats installed in Business, but the Amadeus Code looks like J9 R9 C9 D9 I9 (but there are of course NOT 5x9 = 45 seats available...). In your case: Xiamen had only 4 seats in First installed in this aircraft, but the -in some people's view "Seat-available-list"- shows maybe F9 A9 O9 next time... Checked ?? :)