A frugal passenger bought a fully refundable China Eastern ticket and re-booked it 300 times in order to get free dinner at the VIP lounge at Xi’an International Airport’s (XIY) VIP lounge…for 300 days. Thanks to reader Rakesh in Mumbai for sharing this story and to his cousin for obtaining the OK on sharing the summary below from the Times of India:
A Chinese man booked a fully refundable first class ticket aboard China Eastern Airlines and then re-booked his ticket over and over again to have free meals. The man flashed his ticket to lounge staff at the Shaanxi province airport before his trip, ate a meal just like any first class traveller and instead of getting on the flight he would change his flight’s departure to another day. The next day he would show up with his newly issued ticket for the revised date, eat and then again change his ticket date. He did this over and over again. China Eastern Airlines officials only recently figured out the man’s scheme after noticing his single ticket being re-booked 300 times over one year. Airline officials admitted there was nothing they could do to stop the frequent diner. The freeloader ended up cashing in his fully refundable ticket and getting back all his money.
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8 comments
You’re at least the 10th blogger to regurgitate this story – and a week late at that!
@Brian – Just returned home from Tokyo after 2+ weeks. Thanks for your first comment!
I hear there is a movie that just came our about a guy who had to live in an airport terminal.
Man posts story that has already been posted 300 times. Oh wait. That’s this.
First time I read about this story and I read through quite a few travel blogs including those in Boarding Area. For those of you have nothing better to do than complain on blogs, may I suggest gardening.
@Kent C – Thanks 😉 …seems to be quite a few others too as the post has a ton of views today. I know it was the case for me – two full time jobs, the blog, and juicy miles, plus i’ve been in Japan so I didn’t have a chance to read about this until today. I also find it interesting that these are all first time commenters…
@Kent – Gardening is a delightful activity. Thanks to your suggestion, I may very well start dedicating more of my time to it.
Well first time for me to read this. Just FYI…I have been to the lounge, the food there sucks! I can’t stand hotel lounge breakfast after the first week, can’t imaging eating the meal for the 300th time.