When boutique Taiwanese carrier Starlux first showcased its long-haul premium cabins in 2022, and super-positive reports started surfacing, I knew I had to find a way onboard.
An opportunity finally arose when the carrier announced its latest route to my home base of Seattle, which launched on 16 August, 2024.
Starlux provided tickets from Seattle to Taipei to San Francisco for me to sample its business class product. Between availability and timing, I wasn’t able to travel on either of the inaugural flights, instead flying out of Seattle a few days later in mid-August with a return to SFO the same week.
There’s a lot to talk about here, so let’s dive right in.
Check-in was super easy for both flights. The airline does have an app, but I couldn’t get the check-in feature to work. That may be a reflection of having been booked by the airline, as I’ve seen that issue in the past.
In both Taipei and Seattle the airline is using common-use ticketing counters, so its exact location shifts day to day. But in both cases it was easy to find, with no line for business class. A helpful agent had me on my way in minutes.
Security in Seattle was a bit of a mess. The TSA reduces its footprint to only a few lanes airport-wide after midnight, with no dedicated premium or TSA PreCheck queues. That worked OK when it was just EVA, but now with three airlines headed west to Taipei at 0200, it backed up quickly. Taipei was smooth and efficient, though there were no dedicated premium lanes there either.
The airline does not maintain its own lounge in Seattle, but contracts with The Club. It’s perfectly fine for a quiet place to relax and get a bite. It’s not worth arriving early for.
Taipei, though, is a different story. The airline recently opened its flagship ‘Galactic’ lounge in terminal two, where all of its international flights depart. The two-story space feels like walking onto the set of Star Trek.
Doors slide open with a light whoosh, while the color palette is dark greys and blues against gold and yellow accents.
The space has two showers, and I thoroughly enjoyed washing off a day’s worth of exploring the city in the summer before the flight.
The catering is excellent, offering both a traditional buffet and dine-on-demand meals via a QR code. Beverages include top-shelf liquor, a variety of pressed juices, and high-end non-alcoholic beverages like honey lemonade. I sampled so much that I had no room for dinner on the flight to San Francisco. I have no regrets.
Boarding began exactly on time in both cities, with first- and business-class passengers boarding after those requiring assistance.
Stepping onto the jet, an Airbus A350-900 widebody, I was immediately struck by the stunning cabin design. Silvery greys mix with black, brown, dark blue, and gold to create a bold color palette that somehow manages to feel welcoming instead of imposing or ostentatious. The lack of interior overhead bins, common on the A350, lends an airy feeling to the cabin.
Artwork on the rear bulkhead and a pink-orange mood light combine with the other elements to give the cabin the feel of a high-end residence or hotel. I loved it.
Additional elements continued to call out their galactic ambitions, from the shape of the sconce light to the unquestionably space-themed safety video.
Logistically, the cabin is arranged in a standard 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration with 26 suites. There is a small, single-row first-class section at the front of the cabin. It is separated with a higher privacy wall, but not a full-on bulkhead.
The seat itself is a highly-customized version of the Collins Aerospace Elements pod suite, and the direct successor to the company’s very popular Super Diamond seat.
The pitch is 77 inches, with a width of 21 inches. It is fully lie flat and adjustable via a 4.7-inch touchscreen panel on the armrest, as well as a truncated set of options near the rear wall for use in full-flat mode.
The armrest can be adjusted to add an additional six inches of width to the seat in full-flat mode. The seat also features a unique Zero-G position, based on NASA’s neutral body posture specifications.
I kind of pooh-poohed the Zero-G feature at first, but after an hour reading in it, I became a believer!
Combined with a comfortable mattress pad, luxuriously soft duvet, and a pillow provided after departure, I found myself sleeping soundly for hours on both flights. Starlux also offers very comfortable PJs with pockets, but only had sizes that were too big for me.
Storage is above average, with a small but deep open storage space near the feet that can hold water bottles or the very cute Bric’s-branded amenity kit.
A second storage compartment is wide but not very deep, located on a flat panel next to the armrest. It’s good for storing a passport but not much else.
The largest space is at head-level, and is arguably big enough to be called a small closet.
The space was large enough to store my DSLR camera, phone, headphones, charging cords, a bottle of water, and a few other personal items with room to spare.
It is also chock full of the latest tech, a feature the airline clearly prides itself on. There are four types of chargers, all located in the large storage space: USB-A & C, a wireless charging pad, and a standard international outlet. All of them worked, though the charging pad was so slow as to not be terribly useful.
It has Bluetooth connectivity too, which worked well with my headphones, though the Starlux-provided headset was also perfectly serviceable.
The windows are dimmable, with a sliding control surface at the bottom of the window. Normally the domain of Boeing’s 787, Starlux is understood to be the only Airbus A350 customer to have installed the feature to date. I liked it and found it very easy to use.
Whether it was in fact enabled for use was a different matter. With Seattle-Taipei flown completely in the dark, it didn’t really matter if the windows worked. On the return flight to the US, the windows were locked into the darkest setting for all but the last few hours of the flight.
A sliding door completes the experience. At 50 inches high from the floor, it did a good job of adding a real sense of privacy, which was extra nice as the cabin was full flying out of Seattle. The flight to San Francisco, however, was light, at only three passengers. After boarding, I didn’t see them again until we landed.
Starlux is, so far, the only customer to have launched the suite in revenue service, and it has replaced its predecessor as my favorite seat in the sky. The added customization, in features, colors, and textures takes it to another level. You are likely to see this seat elsewhere in the future, but this one will be undoubtedly Starlux.
The first of two meal services began not long after departure. Dinner is a multi-course affair, the order having been taken on the ground. The second is served two hours out from arrival. It is also a multi-course affair, instead of the usual single tray common in most other business service flows I’ve experienced.
With all of Starlux’s long-haul flight times averaging 11-12 hours, a series of light dine-on-demand meals are also offered.
Short version, everything is good. From the signature co*cktails to the main entrees, wine list to dessert, it’s all good. Some of my favorite bites included the pineapple bun Wagyu hamburger with black truffle butter, which is the best burger I’ve had in the air and ranks among the better I’ve ever had anywhere, ever.
So too was the Taiwanese breakfast, with a delicious pork dumpling frittata.
An after-dinner dessert of peach gum and white fungus soup was the other standout, and something I normally would not have tried but am very glad I did.
With both flights effectively operating as red eyes, I did not lean heavily into alcohol. But I did sample a few co*cktails for testing purposes. They, and their mocktail versions, are great. I especially love having availability to the latter on long-haul red eye flights.
Starlux’s tea selection is also delightful, and I couldn’t get enough of the carrier’s Sun Moon Assam black tea. I will be seeking it out on the Internet.
Believe it or not Starlux also serves boba milk tea, and it’s pretty good.
The only change I’d recommend is moving dinner to a dine-on-demand model, especially with all of Starlux’s long-haul flights leaving in the middle of the night. The inbound from Seattle departed at 0200, and the dinner service didn’t fully wrap until 0430. I skipped dinner on the return to San Francisco, in part because I stuffed myself in the lounge, but mostly because I just wanted to get to sleep right away.
While I wasn’t sleeping, I was delving into the Safran Passenger Innovations RAVE Ultra inflight entertainment. Displayed on a gorgeously crisp 24-inch 4K monitor, the system was stocked with an above-average number of movies (~200) and a below-average number of TV shows (under 100, mostly single episodes) for the region.
The monitor can be controlled via touch, or a tethered trackpad remote that tucks into that large storage cubby.
The system had no lag or delay, including while scrubbing through a movie. It did, once, outright refuse to play a title, which was weird, but otherwise a small hiccup in a good system.
The crew and their service are also top notch.
These are mostly little things and details that add up to big impressions: asking you how you’d like to be addressed and then sticking to that the entire flight; noting what you like to drink and proactively offering refills. Each time a crew member stopped by they’d kneel to speak at eye level.
The meal services are delivered by hand on plates with precise table settings, I never once saw a generic tray or even a service trolley. These are all markers of an exceptional premium service.
The only significant issue lay with the Wi-Fi, with service powered by Viasat’s Global Xpress (formerly Inmarsat GX) and managed by aero ISP SITAONAIR(which is exiting the cabin connectivity market.)
Free to business class passengers, and available to the rest of the cabin at tiered rates, it often wasn’t working, and even when it was working, it wasn’t reliable.
At times I could scroll through Instagram without issue, then two minutes later it wouldn’t connect at all or the connection was so poor that anything other than texting failed to load.
I could never get it working well enough to run a simple speed test. Based on reviews and experiences I’ve read elsewhere, this is not an isolated issue. Hopefully they’ll get it addressed quickly.
Both flights landed a bit behind schedule, not that I minded. With no connections to make or places to be in town, I was quite happy to have more time on board. In fact, the most disappointing part of the experience was having to get off at the end.
You can book tickets in all of the usual places. Business class regularly prices at $2500 to $3000 one way. Hardly inexpensive, but in line with competitors China Airlines and EVA.
Award availability is fantastic for folks in Alaska Airlines’ mileage program, but the redemption cost is steep: 175k each way for nonstop, 250k with a connection. Yikes.
Overall, I absolutely loved both of my Starlux experiences. Not only would I fly this airline again, but I’d go out of my way to do so. The carrier ranks, in my opinion, among the best premium cabin experiences out there today. A few small changes could vaunt them into the best of the best.
I hope my next ride comes soon, but in the meantime, you’ll find me scouring the Internet for that burger recipe.
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- Safran’s first Unity: a strong experience in JAL A350 business
- Starlux leans into branding and heritage to deliver top-notch PaxEx
- Collins Aerospace Elements suite and Secant lighting fly on Starlux
All images credited to the author Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
