Join me in as I offer a brief glimpse into a Xiamen Airlines domestic business class flight, from Tianjin to Guangzhou.
Flying in China is no fun. Unless you’re an Olympian smoker, crave getting frisked, accept the challenge of “drinking water,” or enjoy 10 other people suddenly “joining” you at the check-in counter, don’t get used to it. But look, the country’s huge, and its high-speed rail is basically the same experience, only on terra more firma.
Nevertheless, before QR codes took over the reigns from Xi Jinping, I had a great time traveling in China. The history and writing system alone kept me captivated, while the mysterious skewers and bizarre — thoroughly bizarre — architecture sealed the deal.
But then, it was November 2019, when I was wandering around the boonies of Guangzhou’s Baiyun district, and noticed a forlorn sweet potato vendor whip out a QR code for payment. The death knell of mainland enjoyment tolled that night.
Palaver aside, I had to get to Guangzhou after 10 days in Beijing and Tianjin. By the way, Tianjin’s kinda neat; it’s another massive city that barely has any tourists. A Ferris wheel-in-a-bridge is one of its symbols.
Getting to Tianjin Binhai International Airport
Here’s where China mogs much of the rest of the world (and by that, I specifically mean the United States). Just go to urbanrail.net — i.e. my homepage — and you’ll see how rapidly China has developed its metro systems.
But muh centralized government. OK, and?
The day before, I headed from Beijing South railway station on high-speed rail to Tianjin station, from where I took line 2 of the metro to Tianjin Binhai International Airport.
Since my flight was domestic, I headed to Terminal 2 (Terminal 1 is international).
Check-in and Security
It was an early flight, so fortunately at that time it wasn’t busy. Xiamen Airlines has a mini-hub in Tianjin, so that also explained why they had a lounge in the terminal.
Business class/SkyTeam Priority had its own check-in, or rather, would have its own line, if I had my druthers. But it’s China, so expect passengers depositing (that is, turning from gas to solid) alongside you at any moment.
There was also a distinct security check for business class/first class travelers, which worked out nicely because I was the only one there at the time. At the same time, expect a thorough pat down.
More flying in China advice: keep in a separate bag/bin umbrellas, coins, electronics/wires, power banks, and apparently, TUMS, too. I swear, I had to wait an extra five minutes for not having placed TUMS in a separate tray.
Xiamen Airlines Lounge and Boarding
After security, follow the small sign for Xiamen Airlines First Class Lounge (23). Don’t be fooled by the 23, for the lounge is really near gate 230.
I was there at 5:15am, although the sign mentioned an opening time of 6am. In spite of that formality, it opened at 5:30am. Whatever.
The lounge offered a small buffet — for breakfast, and eventually for lunch and dinner — and had some drinks and weird snacks. But, it was still something to sate me before the flight, so there we are.
Trying to access wi-fi was a joke, as you’d have to scan the passport for the password. Yeah, no thanks (and no thanks to Turkey for doing the same thing).
Staff was nice enough, but I find Chinese airport lounge staff to be more level-headed than in many other countries.
As the lounge was at gate 230, and the boarding gate was 229, the walk was barely a minute. I waited until everyone else boarded, then headed to my seat.
In-flight
I lucked out as the only section (of four pairs of two seats) without a seatmate. I took a window seat to get a take-off video of the dystopian sky, and dug into a movie on my phone.
Given that my last experiences with Xiamen Airlines — albeit in economy class — were rubbish, I expected the meal to be inedible. It helped that the business class in-flight breakfast was mostly recognizable; especially amusing was having a bowl of cereal alongside a bowl of bread. What, no rice and noodles to complement the marathon training?
Really, though, there’s not much to nitpick. Service was decent, the flight took-off and landed on time, and the seat was comfortable enough for the three hour trip.
Fine, the nitpick is a China thing. Flight attendants start landing procedures so early — for this flight, it was around 50 minutes before touchdown — that I was told twice to take my headphones off. The heck, why is that still a thing?
After touchdown, I took the metro to Guangzhou East station, wherein I boarded high-speed rail to Shenzhen station (right by the Hong Kong border).
Xiamen Airlines domestic business class wasn’t so bad, but I really wish something could be done to make check-in less of a pill, and to improve food offerings.
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