A first-hand look at Starlux Airlines' A350 first class from LAX to Taipei, covering the ground experience, seat, food, and standout crew service.
Excellent review, Ben!
Even if the hard product (single row of 'sorta' first class suites) isn't literally The Residence or even La Première, it still seems quite nice. On board, the additional privacy, elevated dining (c'mon, that caviar), additional amenities (fancy PJs, Aesop... niccce), and dedicated service. And, that VIP-style ground experience, while not worth paying outright for P/S, was a great inclusion, too.
Fine, it's definitely not necessary for most; like, if I can find that sweet-deal 75-85K/way in J with AS points (like @samar pulled off recently from PHX), I'll go with that instead. Ahh, how I wish JX flew JFK-TPE nonstop. Overall, I think the airline deserves a higher ranking than Hainan (#8? Psh) on the recent Skytrax updates (feels like pay-to-play, over there).
Anyway, "as a completionist" ... Ben, I take it you'll be at ABJ, soon enough! (Finish it!!)
Great review! Just such a late flight not to get a glass of champagne on the ground, especially with you presumably still being on Eastern Time. Well done eating all of that food overnight! Hey, someone has to do it.
Almost feels like they should be offering buy-ups to the seat at check-in if no one else is in F, and then just deliver a J experience. But I guess that wouldn't preserve the exclusivity of the product, even if it would be a logical way of monetizing it. Don't have to give J customers Loro Piano blankets and Huntsman PJs and such for them to enjoy the more spacious bed on overnight flights such as this one.
@ Peter_ -- Yeah, they've really chosen an unusual method of monetization. I've heard that their paid upgrades at check-in on long haul flights cost $5K, and that's without the first class ground experience or catering. That's of course completely ridiculous, and a ripoff.
Meanwhile I also get how it's tough to basically create a product that's on the one hand all about exclusivity, ground experience, and soft product, while on the other hand, having flexibility with assigning people into it at the last minute.
I think the fair compromise would be to offer buy-ups at a certain point that are more reasonably priced, while still trying to offer most of the onboard soft product, except the special ground experience.
I think the bigger point of confusion is that the airline only has a total of 30 seats between first and business class, with four being in first class, and 26 being in business class.
China Airlines and EVA Air have closer to 40 business class seats on most aircraft that fly to North America. At a minimum, you'd think the airline would frequently oversell business class if the demand is there, and just upgrade people to first class. However, that just doesn't seem to happen a lot, since the airline seems to avoid operational upgrades to first class.
It's all very strange, and I'm confident this current product isn't the one that maximizes revenue or profitability. It's just so rare to see a cabin where actually filling it up isn't in any way a priority. Even Air France proactively sells La Premiere upgrades at check-in.
Given that family drama as it relates to Starlux is an understatement, I wonder if half the reason the Starlux F cabin exists is to troll the EVA part of the family with a better product that they all do not have access to. So if monetization is not the goal, maybe it makes a bit more sense?
Is it me or was that the largest breakfast @Ben has ever been served?
@ hbilbao -- Hah, for sure. The two starters were the size of mains on other airlines, so it was almost like having three breakfasts. I only ate some of each, because it was way too much.
The one thing all carriers who call TPE home have in common is having some of the best whiskies for their class.
Now this is the only first class product out of TPE carrier so was interested to look at the whiskies list on the menu. It does not disappoint. Kavalan Solist Amontillado is definitely very, very fine whisky.
@ BBT -- I'm not at all a whisky drinker, so that's interesting to hear and good to know.
@BBT I would struggle to decide whether sleep or drinking those whiskies were more important on this flight. Definitely a great list.
What do you think they do with the rest of the champagne? I felt bad after having a single glass of Salon in JAL F, being the only one drinking it. I was interested in trying the whiskeys and sakes as well.
@ Sel_D -- While I wish they'd offer it to business class passengers, I suspect it just gets poured out, unfortunately. This is one of the downsides of selling so few first class seats. Oh well. I won't feel bad about it, since at least the airline doesn't waste as much food as other carriers.
Anxiously awaiting ORD_is_his_asylum to chime in with his customary insane garbage.
No skimping here. The Loro Piano pillow & throw retail for about two grand. Nice way to make you feel cozy for a couple hours! And the caviar with mother of pearl shovel very elegant! And I remembered the cost.....
Thanks Ben for such an in-depth review!
On the champagne and wine list Starlux truly deserves a round of applause. While pretty much every first class product nowadays has gone cheap on their wine list and only shell out for the champagne, Starlux offers something pretty special. Here’s just the champagne and the reds:
Bollinger Le Grande Annee Brut 2015 95 pts $215
Chateau Belair-Monange 2014 93 pts $165
Pahlmeyer Jayson Cab Sauv 2021 93 pts $100
Macan Rioja 93 pts $130
Having just flown Starlux business TPE-SFO, I can attest that what you experienced in First class is definitely not just "business-plus". The attention to detail across both hard and soft product is amazing and the quality of the items in First (Loro Piano throw, the pajamas, wine, etc) are all a huge step up over what is already quite nice in Business.
Great review! I’m seriously tempted to try this out (or fly Starlux again) as soon as possible, before additional partnerships (AA) makes finding already scarce award space even more impossible. Though to be honest, if I’m going to spend cash to book an F flight, I feel like booking La Premiere would be a better use of my money?
I forgot about the music in the lavatories…I found that a bit weird but the music was good at least.
Shouldn’t Starlux make your list of the best F products on the basis of the soft product and ground experience alone? It’s bordering on the La Première pricing and experience — pay thousands of dollars but get everything out of it, never mind that the hard product isn’t some JAL-style enclosed suite. I think JX has East Asia’s second-best F product after JAL, especially when both operate the A350-1000 (though JX’s -900s and -1000s have identical products, unlike JL’s).
Also, it’s the first time I’m seeing a Mandarin Chinese-speaking airline (CX isn’t Mandarin) provide such high-quality service and fluent English; the Taiwanese are seriously upping their game in that regard. Chinese-speaking airlines other than CX aren’t otherwise known to be great at English, and that reflects in their entertainment selection — so BR and CI are next in line to improve this aspect accordingly.
I'd love to see how often they sell the cash First fare on the ONT route.
Has to be the most random airport to have 3 cabin First service. Yes I now it's a big Taiwanese origin airport (China Airlines), and some biz travel that doesn't want to deal with the traffic to LAX, but still...
@lucky, thank you for this detailed review!
Given what JX provides in terms of its first class soft product & ground service, plus its lean team handling first class details, I'm now quite dubious that, even if some sort of loyalty reciprocity between JX and AA is established, JX F will be bookable with AA miles. (Also there soon won't be any first class on AA, or any U.S. carrier, so there wouldn't be anything to reciprocate regardless, though I realize in practice it might not be executed quite one for one like that.) Maybe some sort of stripped down version of JX F with AA miles might be offered (likely without PS LAX access.) Hopefully I'm proven wrong on all counts.
So, barring a COSMILE currency sale down the line (which I'll be ready to pounce on), you've probably flown transpacific JX F as inexpensively as possible for a U.S.-based customer.
Really appreciate your shedding light on how best to book this. What a shame it ranks second, just below the more luxurious, prepandemic version of Etihad The Residence, in terms of cash cost among all your flights!
I wouldn’t expect JX to release F awards to AA, considering they never have for AS. It’s clear they want this product to be hard to attain.
I am not sexist, but I do like it when these Eastern airlines have attractive young stewardess and senior male pilots. It is how I remember things when America was a happier place before wokery.
@ Hank Tarn -- But we've ended "wokeness" under Trump, right? So it's no longer an issue here?
@Hank Tarn, you mean you liked it better when women knew their place and didn't force me to be better to get the best jobs? If you can't compete on your own, then go ahead and pine for the "good old days."
Looking at that North American airport list, it's now become clear to me why Starlux F is such an oddity.
Over half of their stations don't really support F. LAX makes sense, SFO sort of, although not as much as LAX. SEA/PHX/ONT haven't ever really supported F, nor will they ever. And those stations won't ever have a good ground experience for F passengers ever. Even at SFO, Starlux sends F passengers to the Alaska lounge.
At some point it just doesn't make sense to keep expanding and flying what will most definitely be 100% empty F cabins. This is why airlines have different cabin configurations for different routes. They need a non-F A350 configuration.
I love that set of S&P shakers!
Of course, I wouldn't be crass enough to pocket them, and wonder if there are any boxed sets for F pax who enquire since they appear to be very proactive in anticipating passenger desires.
I can’t decide what I want to eat tonight, let alone 2 days from now.
Some of the joy of flying first is the process of having unknown dinner options (like a new restaurant menu), and making the decision right there in the moment.
I’m not happy about food waste on a flight, but I’m also not happy about the reduction of airline costs being sold as a plus for the customers…. Starlux seems to at least add an extra amount of attention to food quality as their trade off…. but thats not a guarantee down the road or with other airlines following the same model.
If you don't pre-select anything online, Starlux loads one of everything (minus the online exclusives). Last time I flew Starlux business 2 of the first class seats were occupied. From what I overheard, the husband pre-ordered and the wife did not. Wife went to bed and skipped dinner service. The flight attendants offered the husband additional items on the menu and they served him the additional appetizers and entrees that were loaded.
@ FoulOwl -- Correct, as flagged by John, if you don't select a meal in advance, they'll load all of the non-online exclusive options, so it would be like any other airline. 🙂
@Ben, with which card did you pay the $5100 this cost you (for points and taxes/fees)? The value of whatever points you accumulated from that should be calculated somewhat into the value, the same way you felt that getting the PS Salon ground treatment helped offset the cost.
@ jallan -- I used the Bilt Palladium Card, so I earned 2x points plus 4% Bilt Cash. I assumed this wouldn't qualify as an airfare purchase since it was processed by points.com, or else I would've used the Amex Platinum. I had also considered using the Atmos Summit Card, which offers 3x points on foreign purchases (even if billed in USD), though I was worried it wouldn't process properly.
So with the Bilt Palladium Card, I got a minimum of a 3.4% return on spending (not factoring in the value of Bilt Cash), so that's something, at least.
Ah. So in total you got… a 3.4% return (especially this time of year given the imminent expiration of B$). 🙃
I mean he's got 3 months so not sure that's imminent, but yeah, definitely a spoiling asset
Looks like an awesome flight and experience! If pricing is about equal ex-US, then it seems LAX is by far the best “value”, given the PS access.