Starlux is the new Taipei-based "luxury" airline that is launching operations in January. They just began selling tickets as of today, and I can't wait to fly with them. It's really only today that they published their full website (coinciding with ticket sales), and in this post I wanted to take a look at their…
Continue reading: Starlux Airlines’ COSMILE Frequent Flyer Program
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I actually worry for them. Will EVA & China allow them room for long term expansion? Their widebody orders seem ambitious, and that’s putting it mildly
Can't join if your postal code contains an Alpha character. Can't complain about a website issue unless you specify the Origin city of the flight you flew. I'll give them some time to get their sea legs
From reading the Chinese language website, when you status match before Dec 2020, your status will be valid for four years(!), after that, status matches will be for twelve months. Agreed that a bit of it has been lost in translation.
Exciting, and makes a lot of sense as they already have lounges, and need some people to fill them somehow.
1. It wouldn't take 191 Macau roundtrips to earn top tier. 50 roundtrips would fulfill the 100 sectors requirement.
2. The 4 year adjustment means if you are matched to, for example, Insighter, your membership tier will last for 4 years (rather than the common 1 year, or sometimes 2 years), if you're matched before 2020 end-of-year. Presumable because the lack of long haul flights (or destinations in general) make it difficult to extend your status by flying.
3. Dynamic award is unlikely. They're a new airline with no alliance or partnership as of now, and their competitors (EVA and China Airlines) do not do dynamic pricing, so it would simply not be competitive to making pricing dynamic.
I guess you've not been to Penang then? Plenty big companies manufacturers all sorts of things there. You know, small, unknown companies like Osram (ok, they changed the LED business name to something else earlier this year, but I can't remember it now), Bosch and AMD, among others...
And there would be some business traffic between there and Taiwan for sure. That said, if it's Taiwanese, they'll most likely be in economy, as Taiwanese companies are quite stingy.
I guess they haven't published award rates because no one has earned miles with their programme yet, given their first flight is in January. I suppose by the date of their launch they should publish award rates.
I'm confused why this is worthy of a post given many other bigger airlines' frequent flyer programs haven't had any coverage on your blog. Airlines like PR, AT, etc. or even many alliance ones.
In my dream they codeshare with Porter and both carriers join OneWorld next Tuesday
@ keitherson -- Because I'm really fascinated by this new airline. If Global Ghana Airlines or Air Belgium or Baltia launched frequent flyer programs, I would have been among the first to cover those as well. 🙂
@ Bruce -- Fair, but if they're publishing mileage earning rates, you'd think that you'd also want to know just how much those miles are worth.
@keitherson
based on the status of Eva had enjoyed within the circle, its a worthy pursuit to follow Starlux.
Don't know how these other programs are doing, nobody else has said a thing about them.
Hi Ben, they have an award chart in Chinese. It's in the COSMILE -> "COSMILE Manual" tab. The English version only has one page, but the Chinese version has 16. The chart is on page 12. There is only one region: intra-Asia. Economy round-trip award costs 35,000 miles, and business round-trip award costs 50,000 miles. One-way trip is half the cost. I can help you translate the rest of the terms if you want.
The redemption is shown once you have an account (on account home page). It says 15,000 mi for upgrades, 17,500 mi for one way economy ticket, 25,000 mi for one way business ticket, 35,000 mi for economy round trip, and 50,000 mi for business round trip
@Lucky you’re setting your hopes high for this airline. Don’t be disappointed.
Being funded by deep pockets and people who used to run EVA, there is a possibility that they know what's going on and the weakness of their rivals. I am rooting for Starlux.
The rivalry begins! The founder of this airline was suppose to inherit EVA but it went to his brother. I would love for them to join oneworld, one could dream right?
Starlux IS the successor to EVA Air.
EVA Air has a brand problem that spans many many levels.
Firstly, it suffers from a brand recognition problem. The airline's English name EVA Air, is the result of a failed attempt at naming the proposed airline Evergreen Airlines. With troubles intiially faced during startup, they basically created a mashup of Asia's Star Alliance members livery, which for the longest time, being the outcast actually allowed them to basically copyright infringe for the longest time until now...
The airline's English name has no relevance to its IATA code nor to its Chinese name. This is reflected in EVA Air's almost lack of short haul routes, to China compared to CI and SkyTeam
Starlux, in a very nostalgic way, is reminiscent of Air New Zealand, which I believe, led by UA, AC and SQ, restructured the airline and built it up bottom up standards, from which Star Alliance would eventually impose. I could certainly see Starlux as the concept of short/ medium-haul Star Alliance ttavel if only to convince customers that it is workable, viable and that intra Asia travel won't become cheapened the way it did in Europe.?
@Lucky you are fascinated by airlines that seem to go out of business or never start. So this is not a good sign for Starlux!! 😉
They have a pamphlet you can download on the website with T&C.
35K for Economy R/T within Asia and 50K for Business R/T (O/W at 50%)
15K for Economy upgrades (Req. 80%+ fare)
Can anyone download the status match form? When I click on the link, I get this response in Chinese, which I can't read: 您似乎迷路了...稍後我們將帶您前往首頁！
Hi Lucky, Is there an email where you have to send the form, other airline’s member card and a flight record? Thanks
Hi Ben, just received an e-mail from STARLUX and I've been upgraded to INSIGHTER (from ANA's Diamond applied on 24th Dec). And it's good until January 2024!
My status match was a successful as well. I am from Slovakia, Oneworld emerald at Qatar Airways and currently live in Taipei. I got Insighter status valid for four years.