After a transpacific flight in Starlux first class, I tried the airline's short intra-Asia first class from Taipei to Tokyo. Here's how the two compared.
Can't wait to see a photo of the badass F luggage "crate", @Ben! Who opens it when it arrives at the baggage belt?
Let the countdown begin for the ACd'I party in the clouds!!!!!
@ hbilbao -- Hahaha re: ACd'I! There seems to be a dedicated Starlux employee who is at baggage claim who opens it, as she met me as I arrived there with the escort.
In terms of genuine first class on short haul flights - what about QR to CAI? They have one or two flights per day with both business and first class. I don't know how much they differ from each other, nor from their two-class planes, so it's entirely possible they don't really qualify.
It should be noted that out of the four A35Ks that JX currently has, two (B-58551 and B-58552) have the Carbon Fiber tail (and you got one of those), while the ones that you wanted to fly on — B-58553 and B-58554 — have the Airsorayama Silver and Gold livery, respectively. So even if not the Airsorayama birds, you still got a pretty cool livery by all means.
Curiously enough, most airlines that operate the A350-1000 belong to Oneworld — including upcoming member Philippine Airlines. The real ‘gahhhh!’, according to me, comes from the fact that Starlux will most likely NOT be able to join Oneworld!
You can try using your specialty.
Gaslight oneworld into accepting Starlux.
"visualise oneworld flying with Starlux or something of that kind! ;)"
To me this seems more like regional F quality in the Middle East. For example, QR does this on their DOH to DXB flights. You do get Al Safwa access and stuff, but the in flight experience is nothing crazy.
So, SQ got the new Skytrax totally-not-pay-for-play '#1 airline in the world,' but JX probably should have been closer to the top, instead of #13. Like, Hainan (#8) can't be better than this. C'mon.
Just from reading both reviews.
I totally get it now.
I actually believe Starlux might be on to something. They either foresee this or stumble on it accidentally. But this is totally a possible untap market.
You're paying those fares not for over the top bling like ME3 or AF.
It's for The Row not the Birkin.
Maybe that's exactly their strategy and it's working. But it just takes time to mature.
Or they could just be too far ahead of its time and this will be a commercial flop.
That pillow is anything but basic for an airline.
I think it’s very cool that in addition to the excellent Bollinger La Grande Annee champagne, they offer a high-quality small-batch Taiwanese sparkling wine with local grapes (shown in a photo above) that retails for around $140 (US). I appreciate some local flair!
Really impressive the soft product on both your short-haul and long-haul JX flights. Seems like they can do that because of the relatively few F seats they actually sell. Makes me want to splurge on the F seat sooner rather than later, assuming they figure out how to better monetize their F cabin.
I miss the days when many Asian airlines offered first class on almost all routes. At the fan de siècle I was still flying SQ FC cabins to BKK and even had FC on some flights to KUL. Jeepers, even 15 years ago CX was still offering FC HKG to BKK and DPS, amongst other Asian destinations.
I miss those days.
"shouldn't that be fin?"
Yup. One would think living in St. Gallen during some of one's formative years would limit the French fat fingering... 🙂 Thank you for the correction!
Ben, you forgot Chinese airlines that still offer first class. (For example, Air China on its 747s and 777s on domestic flights)