Originally Posted by
ConfusedCanadian
Speaking of Xiamen, I'm not sure if anyone has had this booking experience before, but this has happened 3 times over the last few days now and I'm not sure what to think. A flight has popped up on a handful of third-party sites (FlightHub, CheapOair, Kiwi, Travelocity) for less than half of what the airline is charging directly (in this case about $600 CAD vs $1,280 when booking directly) but whenever I go to book the flight, they say the price has gone up, to around $825-900 CAD.
First time this happened, I figured I just missed the boat on the lowest fare... but then the same thing happened the next day, and then a couple days later, those $600 flights were posted again... only to see the price increase once again when I go to book.
Not sure if this has anything to do with the airline or it's just a cue not to use these somewhat less reputable sites to book a flight, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before.
Well, for this the OTA is to blame. They should not publish prices you cannot book.
Having said this, I have peculiar experiences with Chinese tickets (particularly domestic). If you book from outside the country, you often are forced to pay full-fare Y. If you add a leg that brings you abroad (e.g. PEK-SHA-BKK) prices drop significantly while you get an additional leg, since then all of a sudden you can book in lower fare buckets. I spent a few months visiting some institute in China and from there I still have a Chinese phone number and bank card allowing me to book on domestic sites - and then you get more reasonable prices.
Back to the original topic, Xiamen air is a decent airline which I flew often - au par with the other Chinese majors. Always FB Plat recognition in the form of a pillow and wate bottle on your domestic Y chair. It is no 4 after Air China, China Eastern and China Southern and if I am right controlled by one of them. Food on domestic flights is just ok (rice with chicken or so) but in any case better than the KL or AF sandwich I am used to in Europe.