In 2023, we saw Alaska Airlines and Starlux Airlines launch a partnership, coinciding with the Taiwanese carrier commencing service to the United States. While award availability was great for about a day when the partnership first launched, unfortunately it has been extremely limited since then. Every so often we see a dump of award availability, and this is one of those cases!
In this post:
Redeem Alaska points for Starlux business class
Currently Starlux Airlines doesn’t belong to any global alliance (though the airline hopes to join oneworld), and Alaska Atmos Rewards is the only practical program for redeeming on Starlux. Fortunately there’s some good news for those who are ready to book travel, as reported by @milesmadeeasy and flagged by @findflightsforme.
Basically over the course of the next year, there are many dates with availability on all transpacific routes. I don’t want to say availability is amazing across the board, but it’s very good, with plenty of flights having availability, and some having multiple seats.
This is true across Starlux’s destinations in the United States, which include Los Angeles (LAX), Phoenix (PHX), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA). To find availability, just use the calendar function on Alaska’s website, and pick dates from there.
What’s award pricing like, if you’re redeeming Alaska Atmos Rewards points? Below is the Alaska Atmos Rewards award chart for the Asia-Pacific region, which covers all flights in question. Specifically:
- You’ll pay 15,000 points for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of under 1,500 miles
- You’ll pay 50,000 points for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 1,501-3,000 miles
- You’ll pay 60,000 points for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 3,001-5,000 miles
- You’ll pay 75,000 points for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 5,001-7,000 miles
- You’ll pay 85,000 points for a Starlux business class itinerary covering a distance of 7,001-10,000 miles
Also keep in mind that Atmos Rewards allows free stopovers, so you can always stop in Taiwan enroute to another destination. 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.
Let me just remind everyone that this award availability will go fast, so I’d be cautious about transferring points to Atmos Rewards (from programs like Bilt Rewards) to take advantage of this, since some availability may be snatched up by others, and may no longer be available by the time you book.
Alaska Atmos Rewards lets members redeposit award tickets for free (minus the partner award booking fee, unless you get a waiver for that), so locking something in is pretty low risk.
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. When a quality airline like Starlux makes a lot of business class award space available, it’s absolutely worth taking advantage of.
I’ve reviewed Starlux’s A350-900 business class, A330-900neo business class, and A321neo business class.
Bottom line
At the moment, Alaska Atmos Rewards has a significant amount of Starlux business class award availability for travel through the end of the schedule. Many flights have multiple seats, so take a look at availability out of Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle. If you’re interested, I’d recommend locking something in ASAP.
Anyone taking advantage of this great Starlux award availability?
Thanks for the heads up -- I got it as my AwardTool alerts were going bonkers!
Many of the flights were gone by the time I clicked through, but I managed to book three separate OW awards (PHX-TPE-BKK, LAX-TPE-BKK, and PHX-TPE-BKK) over the next 10 months in about a 20-minute period.
For those saying this was an error or mistake fare, 85k is what these flights go for when they open up, and...
Thanks for the heads up -- I got it as my AwardTool alerts were going bonkers!
Many of the flights were gone by the time I clicked through, but I managed to book three separate OW awards (PHX-TPE-BKK, LAX-TPE-BKK, and PHX-TPE-BKK) over the next 10 months in about a 20-minute period.
For those saying this was an error or mistake fare, 85k is what these flights go for when they open up, and it's what I have always "paid" for Biz class on Starlux from/to West Coast using Atmos.
This was 100% a mistake they quickly fixed. 0 from SFO (direct) over the next 12 months. :\
Those were error award bookings. Starlux never shows up that cheap. Prices are back to the normal 350K ONE WAY now.
Not necessarily error. They do release awards at 75k (85k from PHX) from time to time, just that they are often gone quickly. I've redeemed them at least 3 other times before today at 75k.
Absolutely NOT an error -- I often get Starlux for 85k from West Coast to TPE and on to Bangkok. They just fill incredibly fast when available. MY AwardTool alerts were going nuts this morning, so it appears they just opened a bunch of availability from SEA, LAX, and PHX.
Craig will tell you this is a regular occurrence. Those of us who search SFO->TPE regularly know that this article was posted because this was a once-in-a-never event.
Admittedly, looking back through my itineraries, far more of my Starlux flights have been from/to LAX than SFO, but I just booked it on May 1 (so NOT during this promotion) for travel next year: BKK-TPE-SFO for 85k miles.
I find much better availability from/to SFO on EVA than Starlux, but I guess Starlux has worked out better for me from LAX.
@Lucky don’t forget ONT-TPE
I had no idea Starlux flies to ONT. Thanks for the info!
Mostly gone now lol
Those were short lived.
Best part of my day. Booked two one-way tickets to TPE for over 4.5 cents per mile in value.
NICCCE. Now they'll have to call you 'El Jefe' because you're the 'boss,' man!
Wow, thanks! I've been having trouble using my Atmos points (no mix partner has really been a problem). I have been considering going to Palau for a while but couldn't find a decent award. Was able to book two one ways from the West Coast (RT was showing much higher cost).
All gone?
RIP.
Looks like they've all been raised to 250k per person
Yeah same for me, all dates at 250k now. They must've patched it quick.
The fact that they so quickly jacked it up to exorbitant 250k ow now just shows that they don't actually want to help their loyal Atmos customers, they are always going to try to stick it to the customer. They are just another airline after all.
It's not like 85k is some incredible deal, that's what ow transpac should cost, but for them to have every single day as 250k makes it clear they are...
The fact that they so quickly jacked it up to exorbitant 250k ow now just shows that they don't actually want to help their loyal Atmos customers, they are always going to try to stick it to the customer. They are just another airline after all.
It's not like 85k is some incredible deal, that's what ow transpac should cost, but for them to have every single day as 250k makes it clear they are just another Skymiles or, to a lesser extent, Mileageplus. No more good deals to be had unless they are a mistake I guess.
Thanks for the heads up, booked our family of four next year.
Does anyone know if you cancel starlux space (on Alaska) if it immediately goes back to inventory? I expect to earn the 100k cert next month and would love to switch one of our 85k seats to a cert, but obviously dont want to lose the award availability with cancel and rebook.
I have canceled a Starlux award on Alaska before and yes, the miles immediately went back to my account. You do lose the $20 partner booking fee though. I think it's not guaranteed though that just because you cancel an award that award will instantly ( or ever) be bookable at the same rate.
im not worried about miles going back to my account, i wanted to know if starlyux immediately puts those seats back into available inventory. some airlines do, some dont.
Atmos login seems to be down now. Anyone else seeing that?
Just booked round trip for 75k each way. Thanks, Ben!
Happy almost-50th, buddy. You've earned yourself a nice business-class trip to/from Taiwan!
Need to book one to check if it's real or phantom
There was an article (CNN?) that said 50% of Americans canceled or scaled back travel in summer due to higher costs.
But, but... we're 'great' again... /s
If Disney Land and Disney World are still open, there is no way travel costs too high.
Creditian, you forgot the '/s' again. Disney isn’t open because they’re affordable; they’re open because they’ve priced out the masses to cater to the affluent. When the 'magic' (and ROI) evaporates under that greed, even Disney may become a shell of what its parks once were.
I love when it's wide-open!
(Wish they flew to NYC...)