Has had anyone had any experience with Xiamen airlines flying to SE Asia? Currently ~650 round trip to Bangkok in April/May

Oh God we just flew with them to Australia with a layover in Xiamen there and back. The flight was OK, food was OK, English was not strong on the flights but made it OK and the movie selection was minimal but their airport was a nightmare. On the way there we had a 15 hour layover. If you're leaving the airport it's not that bad and they offer you a free hotel with a layover over 6 hours I believe. But on the way back we had a two hour layover and we barely made it to the gate in time. We had to go through 4 security checks- two just for our bags (the ones we came off the airplane with, mind you) and two full checks. They even patted down my 2 year old toddler - twice. They screwed up the name on my son's ticket and sent the wrong luggage to the airport - we wanted to pick up the stroller in xiamen and instead they sent a bag so we needed to have a 30mins discussion when picking up our second boarding pass that this was not another bag we were adding but the same one they sent over. Again English was not their strong suit and Chinese is not mine. But yes super cheap. If you're not stopping in xiamen it should be fine, otherwise be prepared for ridiculousness. And have an electronic or paper version handy when you get off the plane at xiamen. We barely got out because they wanted to see our second boarding pass for our connecting flight (I guess st customs? It was before grabbing luggage) but low and behold we weren't getting that til they let us through. I thought it wouldn't be an issue on our way home with the two hour layover because we weren't leaving the airport but again it was.

Sorry electronic version or paper copy of your connecting flight

Thanks for the info!

I've only flown through Beijing in China... but twice. And both times was very difficult transiting. My family now avoid the Chinese airlines because of this even if they are by far the cheapest, assuming that our transiting experience would be the same at all Mainland Chinese airports.

We had layovers in Hong Kong last year and it was fine. Hong Kong was a huge airport though so I'm sure they've worked out the inefficiencies.

Oh, and the first time, was similar to Shannon's experience. No boarding pass for the 2nd flight and I could only obtain it by going through Customs/Immigration to the check-in counter. I ended up having a Customs officer the height of Yao Ming escort me there.

And yeah, HK is fine for transiting.

Brutal! There were definitely others that were having a tougher time then us. I think it helped that we had a tired toddler.

Laura Clark...

I second Shannon. The flight/plane/staff/food was fine. And they are star alliance, safety record seems fine.. the only thing is the layover in Xiamen! At your departure origin they don't print your second boarding pass, you MUST leave through customs and security and then get another boarding pass before going back into customs and security again. The whole process took 2 hours. My layover last week was 4.5 hours in Xiamen, there was a 2 hour delay, and then 2 hours for the security, I barely made it. I have a 1.5 hour layover there on the way home in March, so I guess I'll see what they do when I more than likely don't make my connection.
Also, 20kg max baggage INCLUDING your carry on. 15kg checked, 5kg carry on, or MAJOR charges (1.5% of the total full fare of that flight if it was purchased on the day that you are flying)

That being said, $700 round trip to Singapore, when all my other options were $1000+... I think as long as I didn't have to get somewhere immediately, I would fly them again.