Man uses first-class plane ticket to eat free for an entire year
Published on Sep 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Sep 30, 2025 at 5:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
One frequent flyer has come up with the ultimate life hack by using a first-class plane ticket to eat free for an entire year.
The Chinese jetsetter managed to use the purchase of just one first-class ticket to gain access to an exclusive VIP lounge at Xi’an International Airport.
The man apparently pulled the stunt for almost a whole year.
Unfortunately, the airline did eventually catch on to his money-saving scheme.
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Genius uses a first-class plane ticket to eat free for an entire year
This man managed to eat in a VIP airline lounge every day for free, without ever setting foot on an airplane.
He bought a first-class, fully refundable ticket with China Eastern Airlines, which allowed him access to an exclusive VIP lounge at Xi’an International Airport.
Instead of actually flying, he would use the ticket to check in, head straight to the airport lounge for dinner, and enjoy the complimentary food and drinks.
And he didn’t just do this once or twice, he did it every day for almost an entire year.
This is how he pulled it off (take notes).
Before his flight was due to leave, he would reschedule his ticket for the next day.
He repeated this process again and again.
He had more cost-saving tricks up his sleeve
After almost a whole year, the airline finally caught wind of the unnamed Chinese man’s money-saving scheme.
By that point, he’d racked up over 300 free meals in the airport lounge.
And he had even more tricks up his sleeve.
Airline staff confronted the man, but there wasn’t much they could do about it all, because he hadn’t technically broken any rules.
The cherry on top of the cake was that in the end, he simply cancelled the original ticket and got a full refund for the price of the first-class ticket.
This meant he’d wrangled hundreds of first-class meals at essentially no cost at all.
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Daisy Edwards is a Content Writer at supercarblondie.com. Daisy has more than five years’ experience as a qualified journalist, having graduated with a History and Journalism degree from Goldsmiths, University of London and a dissertation in vintage electric vehicles. Daisy specializes in writing about cars, EVs, tech and luxury lifestyle. When she's not writing, she's at a country music concert or working on one of her many unfinished craft projects.
