In 2023, we saw Alaska Airlines and Starlux Airlines launch a partnership, coinciding with the Taiwanese carrier commencing service to the United States. As many may recall, award availability was exceptional when the partnership launched… for about a day.
Starlux had virtually endless award availability, though the floodgates were closed very quickly, as I imagine the airline wasn’t anticipating the level of demand that we saw. Along those lines, I wanted to take an updated look at the current state of redeeming Alaska miles on Starlux, as there are actually some pretty solid opportunities that are often overlooked.
In this post:
Redeem Alaska miles for Starlux business class
Currently Starlux Airlines doesn’t belong to any global alliance (though the airline hopes to join oneworld), and Alaska Mileage Plan is the only practical program for redeeming on Starlux. For the past year or so, saver availability hasn’t been very good, plain and simple. There has been a fair bit of availability at the inflated, “rule buster” prices, but that’s about it.
However, I think it’s worth emphasizing that availability isn’t necessarily as bad as some people assume. Specifically, Starlux seems to release saver level award availability on some transpacific routes close to departure.
What’s award pricing like, if you’re redeeming Alaska Mileage Plan miles? Below is the Alaska Mileage Plan award chart for the Asia-Pacific region, which covers all flights in question. Specifically:
- You’ll pay 15,000 miles for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of under 1,500 miles
- You’ll pay 50,000 miles for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 1,501-3,000 miles
- You’ll pay 60,000 miles for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 3,001-5,000 miles
- You’ll pay 75,000 miles for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 5,001-7,000 miles
- You’ll pay 85,000 miles for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 7,001-10,000 miles
Also keep in mind that Mileage Plan allows free stopovers, so you can always stop in Taiwan enroute to another destination.
So, what are the availability trends like? Currently, Starlux’s destinations in the United States are comprised of Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA).
On the San Francisco route, we’re pretty consistently seeing business class awards at the last minute, including multiple seats. In some cases it’s within a few days of departure, and in some cases it’s in the weeks leading up to departure.
Seattle has some availability, but not nearly as much.
Meanwhile the Los Angeles route almost never has saver level business class award space.
For the routes that do have award space, there’s often also availability for connecting itineraries, if you want to travel beyond Taipei (TPE).
Being able to redeem 75K-85K miles for a transpacific business class award on a great airline is an opportunity worth being aware of, in my opinion.
Why this is a solid redemption opportunity
Award availability across the Pacific simply isn’t as good as it used to be, especially in premium cabins. That’s largely because airlines from mainland China are operating a small percentage of their pre-pandemic transpacific schedule, and back in the day they did a lot of capacity dumping.
So the truth is that reliably finding any business class award space across the Pacific isn’t easy. Now, Starlux’s award availability isn’t ideal, in the sense that it’s only available at the last minute. However, Starlux has an excellent business class product, so if you have flexibility, it could be worth seeking this out.
Keep in mind that so many frequent flyer programs don’t have change and cancelation fees on award tickets, so you can always lock in a mediocre product at first, and then if Starlux has something that opens up that matches your needs, you can rebook.
I’ve reviewed Starlux’s A350-900 business class, A330-900neo business class, and A321neo business class.
Bottom line
Alaska Mileage Plan miles can be redeemed on Starlux Airlines. The catch is that award availability isn’t necessarily great. However, close to departure you might find a good amount of award space, especially on the San Francisco route.
While you can’t necessarily plan around this, it’s something to keep in mind if you’re looking to go to Asia and are planning last minute (or at least can change your plans last minute).
What do you make of redeeming Alaska Mileage Plan miles on Starlux?
Seems like this is 175k now all the time? Hopefully it's only temporary.
One glaring issue about booking Starlux using Alaska miles is that you can't manage your Starlux booking using the Starlux booking code. It's been a known issue from the beginning, but it seems nothing is being done to fix it. The Alaska website even acknowledges the issue. You can't pre-select food, can't pick seats on line among other issues. I have booked MANY international partner flights using Alaska miles, and this hasn't been a problem with any other airline.
I’ll keep shepherding my reservation. I’ve done quite well with repricing AA awards close to departure
If rate goes down and an experience is good, it might get me to my 2025 Birthday RTW EK HND DXB IAD Flights with Game Changer and previous Game Changer A380 Showers.
Lucky, I found plenty of award space TPE-SFO within the next weeks, but always just for 175K Miles - how did you find the saver awards? Is there blackout dates?
What lounges is Starlux sending its J passengers to in SEA, SFO, and LAX? Guessing oneworld sapphire rules do not apply?
I flew LAX TPE. I was given access to the one world lounge. I also stopped into the LAX centurion lounge which I don't much care for
Lucky, I don’t know if you have any JX contacts that could clarify, but TPE-HKG 2x daily was recently launched with much fanfare, but appears to drop off their schedule again by late October. Anyone have any insights on what the future holds for this key route in Asia?
The article should probably say that Starlux's destinations to the US are LAX & SFO, and soon to be SEA (starts 8/17). Along the same lines, the availability of SEA awards is probably "too early to tell." With SFO, most of the last minute availability is before 8/17 (I found only a couple seats after that). Perhaps once the SEA flight starts, we will see more last minute availability.
"Keep in mind that so many frequent flyer programs don’t have change and cancelation fees on award tickets, so you can always lock in a mediocre product at first, and then if Starlux has something that opens up that matches your needs, you can rebook."
This may not be as easy as it sounds, because, unless you live in LA, SF or Seatle and your final destination is Taipei, you'll most likely need connecting flights...
"Keep in mind that so many frequent flyer programs don’t have change and cancelation fees on award tickets, so you can always lock in a mediocre product at first, and then if Starlux has something that opens up that matches your needs, you can rebook."
This may not be as easy as it sounds, because, unless you live in LA, SF or Seatle and your final destination is Taipei, you'll most likely need connecting flights (possibly in both US and Asia). Those last-minute connecting flights could be expensive, and if the connecting flight isn't on the same ticket, you also run the risk of a misconnection that completely ruins your entire trip.
so true
Locator flights are just part of the game. There are plenty of ways to use miles for last minute domestic locator flights. Is it perfect every time? No. Can it be done? Yes.