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Beijing-born Sam,

Is a world-renowned aviation blogger.

He's not an airplane pilot.

But two-thirds of the time a year,

Experience flying in the sky.

Because I often fly first class on the world's major airlines,

Plus identity mystery,

Aviation enthusiasts call him "Sam Chui."

Sam made a big decision in 2018.

Quit steady job at Dubai investment bank that earns more than a million dollars a year

To be a cameraman full-time,

to fly different planes all over the world,

Shoot a short flight experience movie.

Nearly 40 years old before naked speech when the net red?

Sam says it's not a reckless decision made based on a hobby.

it's a choice made in response to changing conditions,

It's no less than working in an investment bank.

"What I have is strength,

I'm not panicking at all! "

 Readme.   Sam Chui  Edit.   Mo Junwei

Sam Chui

I was born in Beijing after 80, Chinese name is Cui Jiaxing.

He moved to Hong Kong with his family when he was very young, and then went to Australia to study and live. In the last 89 years, I have settled in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It's not quite right to settle in Dubai, it should be in the air.

Although I'm not an airplane pilot, I may be in the sky more than 20 days a month. On average, every two or three days, you fly about five or six hundred thousand kilometers a year.

Many of the world's aviation fans know me, I have my own website, out of 3 books about flying. The Youtube channel has about 1.2 million followers, and I've filmed a short flight experience that has been viewed 240 million times. I also regularly provide commentary on aviation to CNN, Bloomberg and other media.

Sam's flight map for 2018

From the time I was 13 in 1993, when I first traveled alone, I should have been on nearly 2,000 flights. Including civil aviation aircraft, helicopters, small aircraft, private aircraft, and even cargo aircraft and so on.

In fact, not a lot of countries have been to, that is, about 100, I just want to go to that country to take the strange plane there. Like North Korea, Iran, Sudan and so on, they have some very unique, antique aircraft.

 Most luxurious:

 Etihad Airways' 'air residence' 

General travel, I will choose to fly first class or business class. I want to experience first class on planes all over the world.

The best of the civil aircraft, I think, is the Etihad Airways A380's "Residence in the Air", which is one level higher service than first class.

From abu Dhabi, they offer pick-up and drop-off, and there is an exclusive lounge in the terminal with a bar, gym, hairdry area and even cigar room.

Sam is enjoying Etihad Airways' "The Residence" service

The so-called air residence is actually a large three-room room on the Airbus A380. There is a private toilet, living room and bedroom on board. There is also a dedicated butler to serve me.

In fact, first-class passengers generally pay the most attention to privacy, the second is space, to buy time to rest.

Emirates First Class

The development of first class is getting better and better, more and more personalized. Like Singapore Airlines' first class has a double bed, Emirates has a shower and can even bathe in an airplane, although there are a variety of electronic devices.

 Most beautiful:

 Emirates flight attendants 

In fact, every company should have some beautiful flight attendants, aesthetics, different from person to person. What I care more about is their communication with the guests.

Personally, I prefer Emirates flight attendants. In an Airbus A380, there are usually 26 flight attendants from all over the world, even from small countries such as Mongolia, Bhutan, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago. Then you can learn a lot of interesting things from them.

Golden Deer Airlines Boeing 787 business jet

 Most time-saving:

 Private jet 

I've also been on many private jets. A private aircraft modified by a Boeing 787, like Jinlu Airlines. It's too luxurious to have a super-conference living room, master bedroom and cloakroom.

A double bed inside a modified Private Aircraft of the Boeing 787

In fact, most people who choose to fly private jet are not to enjoy luxury, but to save time. Even in many places there is no need for security checks, just 10 minutes in advance to get to the airport. As soon as the door closes, it flies away, saving two or three hours.

Because for the rich, time is money.

Concorde supersonic aircraft

 Most special:

 It's only 3 hours from New York to London by supersonic plane 

On April 17, 2003, I flew from New York to London on a Concorde, about six months before it retired.

Concorde, a supersonic aircraft that went into service in the 1970s, flies fast, flies twice as fast as it can, and can even turn around, and still doesn't have a passenger plane that can surpass it.

In July 2000, a Concorde caught fire as it took off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and crashed two minutes later, killing 113 people.

Concorde is a great design, but because of the crash in France in 2000, the safety of supersonic aircraft was questioned, coupled with the flight itself noisy, cabin walls will heat up, in 2003 no longer have airlines operating it.

It now takes seven hours to fly from New York to London. But the supersonic plane only needs three hours to get there.

It flies higher than any plane, and at 58,000 feet you can see the surface of the earth, the color of the sky is dark blue.

Take-off, landing, supersonic aircraft have special runways, but also take-off and landing priority, sitting inside the feeling is really amazing.

Sam is pictured with the captain of the Concorde

It's expensive to fly on a supersonic plane, which was originally priced at $9,000. So its passengers are either entertainers or politicians. I bought a very special ticket before it retired.

Sam has traveled exclusively to North Korea to experience the aircraft of Air Korea

 Most thrilling:

 "Bomb scare" in Russia 

I'm an airplane fan, not a "big plane" who has to fly first class and business class. So I've been through a lot of amazing things.

In 2004, when I was flying back to Beijing from Siberia, preparing to take off, a man claimed there was a bomb on the plane and was about to get off. All our passengers were frightened at the time.

Special police came up and searched the plane, and then all the passengers cross-questioned, and finally determined that it was only a false alarm, but also the suspect was arrested. It took 5 hours, more than 4 o'clock in the middle of the night to let the plane take off, really thrilling.

Sam is flying a small plane

Another time in California to fly a small plane to Arizona. About 40 miles away from Phoenix, when it was about to land, the engine stopped because there was no oil and the propeller stopped.

We immediately contacted the airport control tower to send out an emergency distress signal, using the radio shouting "Mayday", "Mayday". The tower later lit up the entire runway and let our plane slide slowly down. Like the movie, all the fire engines and ambulances are coming.

In the end, it landed smoothly, without risk.

This may be my fate with the plane, flying so many times is very hard not to die!

 I've been an airplane fan since I was a little girl,

 "Someone else goes to the playground, I run to the airport." 

I grew up an aviation fan and loved everything about planes. Other children may run to the playground as soon as they are out of school, and I often run to the airport to see the plane.

Sam and Mom

When I moved to Hong Kong as a child, my school was in the semi-mountain area, and Kai Er Airport was in Kowloon City, and it took an hour by car. Sometimes also skip class to the airport to see the plane, always see dark at night. Often back home is already nine o'clock in the evening, and often blamed by mother.

At that time, there is no Internet, will go to collect different airline schedules, luggage labels, stickers, very happy and very exciting.

I'm more independent, and I've traveled to more than a dozen U.S. states since I was a teenager. Also often fly, like flying people in the air, slowly also got the airline frequent flyer program silver card, gold card. I already liked the feeling of flying.

At that time, like United often oversold. Because to ensure seating, economy class often sells more tickets than the actual seats. So we these Gold members, often buy an economy class ticket, can sit in business class, very cost-effective.

Later went to Live in Australia, where I got a study driver's license, just learned to drive alone, the first destination to go to the airport.

Sam's aerial photography collection

In the late 1990s, when I was about 20 years old, I came back to Beijing once a year and would take a plane at the Capital Airport. It was a good shot at that time, there were vertical railings at the end of the runway, and the lens was on it. There are only one or two people in Beijing who can shoot planes at the airport like this.

At that time is still using film camera, I scanned the negatives, put on the Internet, a lot of people see learning, also followed to shoot.

Later developed to make videos, work trips, or vacation travel by plane, I will record a variety of flight experience, will also be put on the Internet for everyone to see.

Before shooting video is very casual, shooting a little east, shooting a little west, do not want to how to direct and present. I was filming on the plane and the passengers thought you were weird.

I started wondering for myself how I could shoot better. Later, his face was revealed, adding some descriptions of the scene. Make the whole video more vivid. I just found myself a show-goer.

It wasn't until 2017 that the Etihad 'House in the Air' film caught fire online as soon as it came out, and the audience felt terrible. So far, the video has been seen by more than 20 million people. Then I learned that a lot of people had spent $120,000 on the plane because they had seen my film.

It was a turning point, and I found that there were so many people on Youtube who liked planes that they encouraged me to keep doing it.

 38-year-old full-time netizen,

 I'm not panicking at all 

I used to work part-time, and I studied finance and economics in college. After graduation, I worked in data at Bloomberg before joining an investment bank in the United Arab Emirates, where I earned more than a million yuan a year.

After filming the plane for more than 20 years, this interest has been developing, and later to work and hobbies conflict, both sides want to spend time, but both sides do not do well.

In the end I chose to quit my job. Since April 22, 2018, I have become a full-time aviation blogger.

Everyone wants to turn their interests into careers, don't they? As long as there is this opportunity, but also can rely on this to earn money to support the family, I believe many people are willing to try. It would be silly if it were really purely for the sake of love naked words.

I am 38 years old this year, nearly 40 years old quit high-paying work to be a net red, I actually do not panic at all.

My source of income now, mainly from my share of online advertising on the site and Youtube, is growing steadily every month and now exceeds my annual income at an investment bank.

I haven't received a penny from an airline over the years. Most of my air tickets were purchased at my own expense. I won't get a free ride unless it's a special flight, such as the first flight of a new plane, and so on, and I can't get a ticket myself.

 In first class,

 Others are enjoying, I am at work 

Usually I'm shooting a video alone. I'm very focused on the "end to end" process. From the airport to get off the plane all the details, I hope to be able to record. And I'm inclined to interact with people and show what a lot of passengers can't see.

Flying around every day, it seems like a lot of enjoyment, but in fact the workload is very large. Filming, editing, websites and social media operations are basically all I do on my own, all on my own. Sometimes you sleep a few hours a day.

Like last week I took an ANA flight from Tokyo to Hawaii. It took six hours on the plane and a few hours in Hawaii. Go back to the hotel and get up for 2-3 hours, start cutting the film at 8 p.m. and cut it until 8 a.m. the next morning.

From taking pictures to making videos, from investment analyst to full-time airline blogger, it's just changed over and over again for me.

Because "change" is a person's formula for success, if you do not adapt to the times, do not progress, willing to lag behind others, will be eliminated.

What I've always advocated is to spend the least amount of money to get the most luxurious experience. So over the past ten years, I have also accumulated some experience in buying air tickets can be shared with you.

 1. Buy early 

Generally three to six months before departure, it is most cost-effective to buy a ticket. Within two months, the demand for planes will slowly climb, and prices will rise.

So if you make a good trip, the sooner you buy a ticket, the cheaper it will be.

 2. Multiple people travel together 

Now first class, business class prices have been falling, often there will be a variety of preferential activities. For example, Lufthansa and Swiss Airlines first class, some of their current routes, two people set off together can be 50% off. If you set off with three or four people, the discount will be even greater.

However, first-class prices are also mainly based on routes, those that are not competitive, or very popular routes such as Hong Kong to Singapore, the price will always be very expensive.

 3. Research mileage 

If you are interested, you can gain an in-depth understanding of the airline's air miles program. Use miles to upgrade, or buy a round-trip ticket, which can save money.

My most expensive ticket is $7,000 (about 48,000 yuan), which is usually $16,000 (about 110,000 yuan) to fly from Abu Dhabi to Paris from Etihad Airways' official residence.

If I want to take a private jet, I have a way to save money. For example, there are official charter flights that, when they transport passengers to their destination, need to return to their place of departure empty, a situation known in English as "Empty Leg".

At this point you can learn about the flight by mileage or flight membership, and if it fits your travel plan, you'll be able to travel by private jet at a discount of two or three percent.

Some of the images were provided by Sam Chui

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