DEAL: Business Class sale to China from West Coast

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on Sep 22, 2016 | 2 comments

It seems that good business class deals are getting less and less common, so when we do find a good deal, we like to post about it as often as we can. That’s why a couple of days ago we posted about the British Airways Companion Fare Sale, in the hopes that some of you would be able to find some discounted tickets around the holidays.

As the year comes to an end, mileage running for status, or just to earn some extra miles, is becoming more and more necessary. In a time where flying on partners seems to be less rewarding with revenue based earning, business is the way to go! They often give you a cabin bonus for flying, and you can pack more miles into a shorter amount of time.

Xiamen Air 787

Enter Xiamen Airlines!

Back in November of 2012, SkyTeam (aka The Gang of Misfit Airlines) welcomed Xiamen Airlines as its 19th member. At the time, Xiamen didn’t serve any destinations outside of Asia, but they had plans to start service to Australia, Europe, and North America. Since then, they’ve launched service to Amsterdam, Sydney, and Vancouver.

Well, as of September 26 (next Monday), they’re going to start their twice weekly service to Seattle from Shenzhen, and they’re launching with some deeply discount fares throughout the rest of the year.

Xiamen Airlines Crew

Flights leave Seattle at 12:25pm and arrive the next day at 6:15pm, and they return from Shenzhen at 12:45pm and land back in Seattle at 9:25am.

Currently fares on every day they fly, with the exception of the inaugural flight, are under $1,600.

Xiamen Fare

Just a quick search on YouTube reveals some pretty awesome videos of the flights between Xiamen and Amsterdam, and give you a great idea of what the service and seats look like.

I’m actually kind of excited to visit Shenzhen, as I heard a while back about this place called Window of the World. It’s an amusement park where they’ve created miniature versions of some of the world’s most famous sights, including an Eiffel tower and a working mini-Niagara Falls.

The fares book into “I” class inventory, so if you’re crediting to Delta, you can plan to earn around 9,721 qualifying miles and 12,970 redeemable miles.

Xiamen Chart on Delta

So while not the best earning (only 75% MQM), if I’m gonna fly 14 hours in a plane to China, I’m gonna do it in Business Class, and finding something this inexpensive is pretty rare.

For only around $100 more, you can connect onwards to virtually any other city in China, but you’ll probably have to connect through Xiamen instead of Shenzhen, since that is the hub after all. Most of those flights book into “C” class, so you’ll earn a nicer bonus on those intra-China flights.

Is anyone heading to China? 🙂