After months of anticipation, the day was finally here — it was time to fly Starlux Airlines! I can’t even begin to describe my level of excitement and anticipation, as there’s something I enjoy way too much about having no clue what to expect from an airline.
The last time I was this excited about a flight was when I flew Air Belgium for the first time, except in this case I actually came in with high expectations.
Starlux Airlines Check-In Taipei Taoyuan Airport
My flight from Taipei to Penang was only departing at 9:20AM. However, I saw that the Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge opened at 5AM, so I showed up at the airport at 4:30AM, since I wanted to be the first person in the lounge to get pictures.
Starlux Airlines departs from Terminal 1 at Taoyuan Airport, and I easily found their check-in desk in row six. It was surreal to see Starlux Airlines in the “flesh” for the first time!
Starlux Airlines check-in counter
I had already checked in online, but figured I’d go to the counter for document verification, and in case they had a cool-looking boarding pass or luggage tags. When I got to the business class counter I was told that check-in wasn’t yet open for Penang, and that I should come back around 8AM (in over three hours).
I mentioned I already had a mobile boarding pass, and they told me that I could then proceed through security if I wanted. They then clarified that they thought I had checked bags, and that if I were checking bags I’d have to return later. It was a bit of an odd experience, but whatever.
Starlux Airlines business class check-in counter
From there I headed through security. This was the Monday after Chinese New Year, so the security queue was long, and it took about 30 minutes to get through.
Starlux Airlines Lounge Taipei Taoyuan Airport Review
With the check-in experience out of the way, here’s a look at Starlux Airlines’ Galactic Lounge. As you can tell based on the name, the airline has a space theme. If nothing else, they deserve credit for the coolest airline lounge name ever, no?
Starlux Airlines Lounge Location
Most of the lounges in TPE Terminal 1 are in the same area. When you pass security you can either turn left or right and walk down the hall, and then the stairs and elevators leading to the lounge are along the center of the terminal on level four, not far away.
Taipei Taoyuan Airport lounge signage
In this area there are the lounges for Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Plaza Premium, and Starlux Airlines.
Taipei Taoyuan Airport lounge signage
As you can see based on the below diagram, there are two separate China Airlines lounges and two separate Plaza Premium lounges. I’m not sure if this is by design, or just comes down to the challenges with taking over space in airports, where over time they were able to acquire extra space.
Taipei Taoyuan Airport lounge map
The Starlux Airlines Lounge is located between one of the China Airlines lounges and one of the Plaza Premium lounges.
Corridor with lounges in Taipei
Is that a swanky-looking lounge exterior, or what?
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge exterior
Starlux Airlines Lounge Hours
The Starlux Airlines Lounge is open daily from 5AM until 7PM. At least that’s what Starlux Airlines’ website suggests. For now most of Starlux’s flights are in the morning, though they initially had a 6:45PM Taipei to Macau flight.
However, temporarily they’ve suspended two of their three daily Taipei to Macau flights, which means their latest fight from Taipei is at 3:20PM. Therefore I would imagine the lounge actually closes earlier, since there are no passengers to use it in the evening.
How To Access The Starlux Airlines Lounge
The Starlux Airlines Lounge can be accessed by:
- Starlux Airlines business class passengers
- Starlux Airlines COSMILE Explorer members, who can bring one guest with them
- Starlux Airlines COSMILE Insighter members, who can bring two guests with them
Starlux Airlines Lounge Layout & Seating
Wow, the Starlux Airlines Lounge is beautiful. The lounge consisted of one large room with plenty of seating. Inside the entrance and to the very right was the buffet, while the rest of the lounge was made up of a variety of seating options.
Starlux Airlines Lounge seating
Along the center of the lounge were a bunch of couches.
Starlux Airlines Lounge seating
Then in the far corner of the lounge were a dozen chairs by a wall-mounted TV.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge seating
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge seating
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge seating
My favorite seating was along the far wall of the lounge, where there were cozy chairs with tables and power outlets that were perfect for relaxing and working.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge seating
There were also a variety of magazines and newspapers along one of the walls.
Starlux Galactic Lounge magazines & newspapers
The lounge doesn’t have any natural light, but then again, none of the lounges in this area of the terminal do. That’s simply a limitation of the space they’ve been given.
As of now Starlux Airlines has just three A321neos, each with eight business class seats. This lounge is huge given the current demand:
- I had the lounge all to myself from around 5AM until 6AM
- Then from 6AM until 7AM there were about a dozen others in the lounge, traveling to Da Nang and Macau
- Then I had the lounge to myself again for nearly an hour
- Then at around 8AM, half a dozen people showed up who were also headed to Penang
It will be interesting to see what Starlux Airlines’ long-term plans are with this lounge. Finding the space to build a lounge at any airport is incredibly complicated. The airline has 10 A321neos and 17 A350s on order, so obviously this lounge won’t be large enough to handle all of those passengers.
Will they find a way to expand this lounge, will they open a second lounge, or…?
Lastly, I should note that as expected, the crowd in the lounge was incredibly excited. Every single person who came into the lounge was taking a bunch of pictures and selfies, since clearly no one booked Starlux Airlines in their first week of operation by mistake. These were all people who were very excited to be flying a new airline.
Starlux Airlines Lounge Food & Drinks
The Starlux Airlines Lounge has both a buffet, and a limited selection of a la carte dining.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
While the buffet wasn’t huge, I was impressed by the quality of what was on offer. There were a variety of vegetables and salads, quiche, cereal, bread, and five hot dishes.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
The hot dishes included massaman chicken, steamed fish with green onion, cream broccoli with olives, barbecue sausage with pickled cabbage, and pan-fried buns.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
The dessert selection was perhaps most impressive, with Haagen-Dazs ice cream, I’m Talato ice cream, and some desserts from SEASON.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge buffet
I had one of the fruit tart things, and it was honestly one of the best desserts I’ve ever had in an airline lounge.
Starlux Galactic Lounge fruit tart
As far as drinks go, there was a coffee machine, beer machine, a modest selection of liquor and wine, and a variety of soft drinks, water, and juice.
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge coffee machine
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge beer machine
Starlux Airlines Galactic Lounge liquor selection
Starlux Galactic Lounge drinks
In particular I was pleased to see that they had Evian and San Pellegrino, and also liked their selection of juices, including pineapple and carrot juice, which tasted a bit better than the Minute Maid garbage you’ll find in some other lounges.
Starlux Lounge drinks
In addition to the buffet, I was presented with a menu shortly after taking a seat in the lounge.
Starlux Galactic Lounge menu
The menu read as follows:
Since they didn’t have the fuhang soy milk set, I decided to order the benedict egg set. This was presented about 10 minutes after I ordered it, and was tasty.
Starlux Galactic Lounge eggs benedict
Starlux Airlines Lounge Service
The lounge was well staffed — there were two attendants in the lounge, and then two people at the front desk. The people at the front desk checked on each guest during their time in the lounge to see how they were enjoying their experience.
Meanwhile, the two attendants were attentive and constantly checked to see if anyone needed anything. Just to give an example of the attention to detail, I had finished a bottle of water and went to the bathroom, and when I returned the bottle had been replaced with a fresh one.
Starlux Airlines Lounge (Lack Of) Bathrooms & Showers
My only real criticism of the lounge is that it has no bathrooms. Rather you have to go out and use the public bathrooms in the terminal. Clean and private bathrooms is one of the most basic amenities you expect from a lounge, and that’s an area where they fail.
That being said, I feel like maybe they should be given the benefit of the doubt on this, given the attention to detail the airline has otherwise? Perhaps it just wasn’t possible or practical to have bathrooms in the lounge.
Starlux Airlines Lounge Bottom Line
The Starlux Airlines experience was off to a good start. The Starlux Galactic Lounge experience was excellent — the lounge is nicely appointed, with excellent food and service. This is better than any other lounge I’ve been to at the airport. The major downside is the lack of bathrooms in the lounge.
It will be interesting to see how this lounge evolves over time. This space is plenty big given Starlux’s current fleet, but once the airline expands significantly they’ll need more space. I wonder if they have a plan for that yet, and if that involves opening a totally separate second lounge, or what exactly is going to happen.
What do you make of the Starlux Airlines Lounge?
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