During my first class quest to Japan, I had the chance to spend some time in the Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei Taoyuan Airport (TPE). I had a roughly three hour layover, as I had landed in Starlux’s A350-900 first class from Los Angeles (LAX), and was connecting to Starlux’s A350-1000 first class to Tokyo Narita (NRT).
The Starlux first class experience offers an incredible soft product but a lackluster hard product, with the point of differentiation being just how attentive the ground experience is. Departing Los Angeles, I got to use PS LAX, which is unarguably the best first class ground experience offered by any airline in the US. Ironically, the Taipei ground experience wasn’t quite as impressive, by comparison.
Yes, it was super private, and the entire experience was seamless. However, the lounge setup feels a bit like an afterthought. And I suppose in a way that’s for good reason, since the first class lounge isn’t even intended for those originating or terminating in Taiwan. Let me explain…
Starlux First Class Lounge vs. Huan Yu VIP Terminal
The Galactic Lounge is the “flagship” Starlux lounge at Taipei Taoyuan Airport. The Galactic Lounge has both a first class section and a business class section.
However, if you’re originating or terminating in Taipei, Starlux gives you two lounge options. You can either use the Starlux First Class Lounge, or you can use the Huan Yu VIP Terminal (if you want to use the latter, you have to request it at least three business days in advance). This is the airport’s exclusive VIP terminal that’s not actually run by the airline.
If you’re eligible for access to the Huan Yu VIP Terminal, that definitely seems like the best option. However, the catch is that if you’re on a connecting itinerary in first class, Starlux only gives you access to the first class lounge, and not the Huan Yu VIP Terminal.
Since I was simply connecting in Taipei, I had access to the Starlux First Class Lounge, but it’s important to emphasize that this isn’t the lounge that many passengers will use. For those curious, the Huan Yu VIP Terminal ordinarily charges 12,000 NTD (378 USD) per person.
Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei location & escort service
The second I deplaned my Starlux A350 flight from Los Angeles, I was greeted by a Starlux first class representative, who would be escorting me to the lounge. There’s no transit security in Taipei when connecting from the US, and it was a roughly 10-minute buggy ride to the lounge. I must say, it was a rather awkward ride, as the buggy makes a very loud beeping noise whenever it’s moving.
The Starlux Galactic Lounge is located in Terminal 2, near gate D7.
As a reminder, there’s also the Starlux Lounge Terminal 1, which I’ve reviewed before. We know Starlux’s chairman is a big space enthusiast, so many elements of the passenger experience (including the lounge) reflect that.
As you enter the lounge, you’ll find the reception in the center, with the business class section to the left, and the first class section to the right.
Also, how cool are these bomber jackets (or whatever they’re called) that are just hanging in the reception area of the lounge?
For what it’s worth, when it was time for my flight to Tokyo Narita to depart, I was once again driven to the gate in a buggy, and escorted all the way to the door of the aircraft.
Random note — I’ve transited Taipei Taoyuan Airport more times than I can count, but I just can’t make sense of the layout. I could give you directions around most major Asian hubs in my sleep, but in Taipei I feel completely lost every time. Is it just me? That wasn’t an issue here, of course, since I had someone by my side the whole time, but it’s just a general comment. 😉
Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei hours
The Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei doesn’t have exact published hours, as they vary based on the flight schedule. But the idea is that you can expect the lounge to be open any time you might want to use it, within a few hours of departure.
It opens from very early in the morning, often before 5AM (given that it’s when the bank of long haul flights arrive), and it’s open until late at night, often after 11PM (given that it’s when the bank of long haul flights depart). It also stays open throughout the day, despite the lack of passengers.
Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei entry requirements
The Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei has strict entry requirements. You have to be flying Starlux first class to use the facility. And if you’re originating or terminating in Taipei, you have to elect to visit this lounge over the Huan Yu VIP Terminal, since that’s also an option.
While this lounge is very low capacity, I suspect that even so, it never gets anywhere close to full. I was the only person in the lounge for my entire visit, and I suspect that’s what it’s like most of the time.
Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei seating & layout
The Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei sort of feels like a futuristic cave in outer space, or something. I don’t know how else to describe it — the space is really dark, and you sort of have no clue where you are. But again, Starlux’s chairman has quite the commitment to the space theme, so that’s really all you need to understand.
As you enter the lounge, you’ll first find yourself walking down a dimly lit hallway, which has some storage lockers along the side, and then the two bathrooms and shower suites on the opposite side.
Toward the end of the hallway you can then turn left, and that’s where you’ll find the main part of the lounge.
The lounge has one main room, which you’ll see below. It essentially consists of two seating areas, each of which has a banquette plus two chairs. Then there’s also a bar with five high-top seats. I don’t want to be a jerk, but the seating kind of gave me McDonald’s vibes, in terms of the colors and general comfort of the seating.
The lounge then has one small private room in the back corner, which I was placed in. Since I was the only person in the lounge, that was kind of unnecessary, but I appreciate the concept.
I do have to say that the lounge attendant would always close the door to my private space — that’s nice in theory, but it felt a bit like being in a closet.
The only natural light in the lounge was in that little private room, and it just looked out over the roadway from the airport, and didn’t have anything in the way of plane views.
The only other thing worth mentioning is that there was a Snoopy cardboard cutout, as I guess there’s currently a collaboration between Starlux and Snoopy.
That’s it, as aside from bathrooms and showers, there are no other amenities in the lounge. There’s no rest area, or no other space for lounging.
I’m conflicted here. This is a rather underwhelming lounge space. At the same time, the lounge also seems unnecessary, and I was the only guest. It seems to me like Starlux should just abandon its own first class lounge, send all first class passengers to the Huan Yu VIP Terminal, and instead use this space to expand the overcrowded business class lounge.
Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei food & drinks
The moment I settled into the Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei, I was presented with the menu, the drink list, a tea-based welcome drink, a warm towel, and a glass of water.
You can find the Starlux First Class Lounge breakfast menu below.
You can find the Starlux First Class Lounge drink list below.
To start, I decided to order a cappuccino. Absolutely massive credit to Starlux for this, as the cappuccino was barista made, and the espresso machine was insanely high quality — the taste was amazing, and it was one of the smoothest cappuccinos I’ve ever had.
As an OMAAT reader pointed out, this espresso machine is from the Netherlands, and retails for around $30K. Price isn’t necessarily indicative of quality, but I’m not kidding when I say it was one of the best cappuccinos I’ve ever had.
After that, I decided to order a glass of champagne. As I’ve explained before, these overnight Asia flights where you land at 5AM just kill me in terms of exhaustion and jet lag, and sometimes a small buzz helps (I know I sound like a total alcoholic here — I don’t really drink at home, but I struggle to sleep when I travel, so I’m just being honest!).
I wasn’t really very hungry after sitting for 14 hours and devouring what felt like an entire buffet of food, but I figured I still had to order something, for review purposes, of course.
I don’t eat pork, which narrows down dining options in Taiwan. I asked the server which dish he recommended, and he said that the first two menu items were exclusive to first class (there’s a smaller a la carte selection in the business class lounge as well), so I figured I should order one of those.
So I opted for the fish en papillote with lemon and vegetables, which was okay, but not particularly good. I totally get the “en papillote” concept, but it just didn’t really work that well here. I was also amused by the menu suggesting that this dish had 750 calories, more than some of the fried things on the menu.
I do wish that there were more “snacky” things on the menu. I imagine I could’ve asked, but you’d think they’d have things like yogurt, fruit, overnight oats, etc. (I realize those aren’t traditionally Taiwanese, but the selection was international).
Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei bathrooms & showers
The Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei has two bathrooms and one shower suite back toward the entrance of the lounge.
The bathrooms were nice — they were spotlessly clean, and had a sink, toilet with bidet function, and urinal. Toiletries were from Aesop.
There was also a shower suite, so I decided to take a shower. The water pressure and temperature control were good, and I also appreciated all the bath products and amenities that were available.
Bottom line
The Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei is a strange lounge. On the plus side, it’s very private and uncrowded, it has possibly the best cappuccino I’ve ever had in a lounge, and it also offers a la carte dining and a good overall drink selection.
However, the space is just so unremarkable otherwise. The seating isn’t actually comfortable, there’s a tiny private room that’s almost a bit awkward, and there’s a lack of basic snacks available.
What makes this all strange is that presumably most Starlux first class passengers never actually see this lounge, since those originating or terminating in Taipei can use the Huan Yu VIP Terminal instead. It sure seems to me like Starlux should just make this space part of the business class lounge, and send everyone to the Huan Yu VIP Terminal.
How rare to see an airline offer a better ground experience at an outstation (in the form of PS LAX) than at the hub.
What’s your take on the Starlux First Class Lounge Taipei?
Ten Forward vibes.
Should've ordered an Asian dish instead of fish en papillote, you're in Taipei after all.
If you think this is bad, just wait till Elon Musk designs his first class lounge for spacex flights….
This was also your opportunity to visit the Galactic J lounge in Terminal 2 — since you hadn’t seen that before (though you did visit the much tinier T1 lounge before) — unless there was no time for it (though I’m sure your ticket permitted you to do so)…
And did your flight use the new Terminal 3 gates? TPE has never felt like a particularly large airport to me, unlike HKG, which is simply...
This was also your opportunity to visit the Galactic J lounge in Terminal 2 — since you hadn’t seen that before (though you did visit the much tinier T1 lounge before) — unless there was no time for it (though I’m sure your ticket permitted you to do so)…
And did your flight use the new Terminal 3 gates? TPE has never felt like a particularly large airport to me, unlike HKG, which is simply humongous — though the new T3 gates, design-wise, genuinely feel like a massive improvement over an airport that otherwise belies the ultra-premium experience that BR/CI/JX deliver in the air. It should also hopefully have a number of good lounges in the future, since all three local carriers have some flights departing from T3.
@ Proximanova -- Well this is part of that Galactic Lounge. I was able to briefly walk around the business class area, but a) the top level was largely under construction, so it wasn't really practical to review and b) the lounge was packed, partly because the construction going on. So unfortunately I'll have to save a review of the business class section for next time.
I asked this before on the preview article for this lounge, but I dont think you answered. You originally called Starlux F one of the "most consistent" first class products in the world, or something to that effect, in the first preview (LAX-TPE). After the F lounge experience, would you still call it that? This lounge seems like a pretty large speed bump in the whole experience, considering price paid and the onboard soft product. First world problems, I know.
@ GuruJanitor -- Sorry I didn't answer the last question. I think your question was in reference to this comment, which I made:
"After Air France, I’d argue that Starlux has the most consistently excellent first class ground experience of any airline in the world, in terms of the consistency with which you’re looked after."
Perhaps I should've phrased this better, but I think the point stands. I'm not saying it's the best first...
@ GuruJanitor -- Sorry I didn't answer the last question. I think your question was in reference to this comment, which I made:
"After Air France, I’d argue that Starlux has the most consistently excellent first class ground experience of any airline in the world, in terms of the consistency with which you’re looked after."
Perhaps I should've phrased this better, but I think the point stands. I'm not saying it's the best first class ground experience in the world in absolute terms, but instead it's the most consistent in terms of end-to-end service. I can't think of any other airlines (beyond Air France and Starlux) that escort you the entire way on both arrival and departure at all stations.
To be clear, this lounge doesn't even crack my list of the top 10 in the world. But my point is simply that the airline consistently looks after you, and that's something to be said for that in terms of minimizing the hassle of the ground experience.
I’m not familiar with TPE but is the reason they don’t use the VIP terminal related to immigration processing?
@ JustinB -- That's a great question, maybe others can chime in? It does seem that parts of the lounge are located past immigration, so perhaps that's a consideration. Then again, I imagine most Starlux first class passengers can enter Taiwan pretty seamlessly.
This looks terrible. A combination of institutional office vibe with a corner for "socializing" and the 2010s-American Airlines' hospital aesthetic of its lounge decor. I would expect a lot more for a brand that is noisy about its offering. Nothing there screams premium or luxury.
Great review! Btw I fly to/from Taipei multiple times per year and am still sometimes confused by the layout of the terminal as well.
For the East Asian market, their offerings do reflect the best Taiwan has to offer, including dishes from Michelin restaurants. Its quietness is reflective of the high prices, so even if one could afford it, they may not have the appetite to book at those crazy First Class fares.
https://youtu.be/xt88bgoxC6k?t=765
They should just gut the place and start all over. It looks unfathomably depressing.