At 60,000 Alaska miles each person, the business class flight across the Pacific was a steal. However, I found the food a bit lacking overall and there were some service issues and problems with their Wi-Fi that hold them back from getting a higher score.

This flight occurred in March 2024.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Springing for Sakura
• Review: oneworld Qantas Business Lounge LAX
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Business Class LAX-TPE (this post)
• Review: Starlux Galactic Lounge TPE Terminal 1
• Review: Starlux A330neo Business Class TPE-NRT
• The Airport Limousine Bus is Indeed Friendly
• Quite a Grand Stay: The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
• Thoughts on Tokyo Disneyland
• Thoughts on Tokyo DisneySea
• Japan Pro Tip: Luggage Delivery Services
• Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo
• teamLab Planets: I Don’t Understand The Hype
• Cuteness Overload: A Review of the Pokémon Cafe Tokyo

Booking

In July 2023, Alaska Airlines briefly made available award flights on Starlux at an introductory rate of 60,000 Alaska miles per person per direction, but exclusively on the route between LAX and TPE. Adding on other segments beyond TPE would have incurred a dramatically higher cost. Thus we had to book our flight segments individually to capture the better price. These days, expect the flight to cost 75,000 miles when there is standard award availability, or much more than that when there isn’t (which sadly seems to be the norm).

Up to the point of this post being published, the Starlux website has not recognized Alaska award reservations. That meant calling in to choose seats (or using the chat feature on the website during Taiwan business hours). I called, and it was simple enough to choose seats for all my segments. The agent also proactively added child meals for the kids on all flights. She also mentioned she would link my connecting reservations in the system so that agents could see my final destination. She didn’t go so far as to say I would be protected in the event of a material delay causing me to miss the second flight, but any potential assistance with IROPS would be helpful.

Earning Alaska Miles

There are three main methods of obtaining large chunks of Alaska miles. The first is simply crediting flights (and, in particular, business class flights purchased with cash) to their program. Alaska tends to have extra multipliers for crediting flights, making their program quite lucrative if you can take advantage.

The second is signing up for a credit card. Currently there is an offer for 60,000 miles publicly available (not a referral link), but note that you might also be able to get an extra statement credit if you sign up while attempting to purchase a ticket on their website (you don’t need to go through with the purchase).

The third approach is to flat out buy the miles. Alaska runs frequent sales where you can buy the miles at a discount. The current deal is to purchase them with up to a 60% bonus. If you were to get the max offer, that would be the equivalent of buying 75,000 miles (the current rate for a saver business class flight on the route) at a cost of $1,386. If you were considering paying cash for the flight, it’s a much better deal to flat out buy the miles. This is likely why standard award flights are a struggle to find.

Check In Experience

We arrived to check in at Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX just before 9PM, right around three hours before our flight would depart. There was a minimal wait for us in the business class line.

The airline agent assisting us asked if TPE was our final destination. I mentioned onward travel to NRT airport but it was booked on a separate ticket. The agent then noticed the notes left in the system the phone agent left. I asked if we could check our bags all the way through to NRT and it was no problem, though he did need a manager to confirm the process. He was about to take a look at our carry on bags (presumably to weigh them), but decided not to since they were just backpacks and not rollaboards.

In all, the interaction took about 15 minutes to check our bags and get our boarding and lounge passes. Not too long, but I imagine the added complication of checking our bags to our final destination added a little bit of time.

After our visit to the oneworld Qantas business lounge, we began a long walk to the satellite terminal. This included a long escalator down to go underneath the runway.

At the bottom of the escalator, you can often find golf carts to take you to the other side. We normally could handle the walk on our own. But carrying two very tired children (it was nearly 11pm at this point) was a bit difficult to handle.

We arrived at our gate about an hour early but found the boarding area fairly crowded. The kids ended up both falling asleep here. Rather than boarding with the rest of business class, staff encouraged us to board with the other families. Though both groups were boarding at the same time, family boarding allowed us to bypass the gates, which would have forced each person to hold their own boarding pass and enter individually. Clearly that wasn’t possible with sleeping children, so it was nice to have another option.

Boarding and First Impressions

I enjoy the color scheme in the Starlux business class cabin. I’m one who generally uses the dark theme on apps and this felt a bit up my alley, aside from the generic-colored ceiling. Admittedly, it might be a bit over-bearing if the whole cabin were a dark-theme color.

As we had five passengers in our group, we chose a cluster of four seats in the middle and one window seat nearby. If we only had four with us, I would still prefer four middle seats next to each other rather than four in a line as it’s easier to communicate with each other this way. My seat was originally 4G but I had to switch with the kids and so I changed to 5D for some of these pictures. But rest assured, the seats are identical aside from it just being inverted as it’s on the other aisle.

Flight attendants handed out a welcome drink before we took off. I didn’t catch the name of it, but it was a bit minty yet light in flavor. The drink was served with a warm towel.

The Seat

The seat itself is quite comfortable and has all of the standard features you’ve come to expect in a modern business class seat. The seat controls were simple to use with sufficient padding on the seat to not give sores on such a long flight. Though I don’t have a good picture that properly illustrates the size of the TV at the seat, it feels massive as it takes up the whole panel right in front of you.

Seat lighting exists in the form of a small lamp in the corner. It does a good job providing light while eating or watching TV and you can dim it if it’s too bright. The compartment next to the light holds both the headset and a bottle of water. Your TV remote control is also here but I never felt the need to use it.

Underneath the TV is the footwell for your legs. I’m 5’10” and found it plenty roomy without needing to bend my legs at all when fully reclined.

Speaking of the bed, be sure to ask for assistance from cabin crew when setting up your bed. While the controls are simple enough to use on your own, you’ll want them to add in the extra padding to provide more comfort when you’re sleeping. You’ll see the padding below in white.

The one thing I’ll say that isn’t too convenient is chatting with your seat mate when sitting in the middle seats. The lamps get in the way and the sliding panel isn’t that large. It was only a problem for us on takeoff with an overly-tired child awoken by the need to wear a seatbelt and sit up straight. Once we reached 10,000 feet, Jenn was able to fully assist.

Food

Starlux allows passengers to choose a meal in advance, but aside from the child meals, I wasn’t able to order anything in advance. But the regular menu was fine enough from which to order. The full menu is as follows:

Roughly half an hour after takeoff, we were served the first course. It was comprised of an octopus and potato salad with some spinach soup. I thought the octopus had the proper texture but, perhaps it was the fact that eating food at atmosphere makes it taste differently than on ground, I didn’t particular care for the dish. The cream soup did hit the spot.

To go with the first course, I ordered a star mojito, which was delicious. It came with a random Dodgers stirrer. I know they had some more Dodgers branding in the past, but the only things I saw with the logo were this stirrer, the paper luggage tags at check in, and a deck of playing cards given to the kids. At this point, it felt out of place.

One of the flight attendants then came around to offer some bread.

For my main course, I ordered the salmon with risotto. The dish was cooked properly and not dry. I ended up finishing the whole thing.

Jenn ordered the abalone and chicken in oyster sauce. The chicken was tasty but it was missing actual abalone.

Dessert came at the end and I chose the Asian option. Jenn also chose it and was a little surprised I went for the more adventurous route. But I figured when in Rome… the soup itself was fine and honestly it felt light enough after eating the whole salmon that it was a good end to the meal. Most of our desserts at home are fresh fruit, so I was satisfied with the choice.

According to the flight attendants, child meals vary by the day and flight, so don’t expect you’ll receive the same thing on this route. The starter course was the same spinach soup the adults received but the octopus salad was replaced by a dish of raw tomatoes and some cheese. I imagine it was their take on caprese but without the balsamic vinegar.

The second course was fried chicken with a BBQ sauce that was skewed a little towards the vinegar side. The kids normally like BBQ sauce at home but not this particular style. The chicken was served over mashed potatoes and vegetables. Note that the chicken wasn’t crispy but rather tasted like it had been microwaved. The kids were also offered the same dessert choices but ended up turning it down since they weren’t hungry. I’m happy my kids know not to stuff themselves silly even when offered ice cream or fruit.

In the middle of the flight, I was offered some champagne and crackers, which tasted like your typical Asian rice cracker snack. The champagne on offer was Charles Heidsieck. Even though the menu lists Bollinger as an option, I haven’t heard of any being loaded on flights recently.

Breakfast started with some orange juice.

By the time the flight attendant made her way over to me, the Taiwanese option for breakfast was no longer available. So instead I chose the Western option. This started with a salad. Plenty of vegetables here.

Shortly after, I was given a choice of mix-in for the yogurt and I went with the lychee honey. You don’t need too much of this as it’s plenty sweet.

After finishing the salad, I was given my main course—the short rib hash. I think it sounded better on paper than in reality. The beef was overcooked and a bit tough while the potatoes lacked flavor. I normally love short rib, but sadly I wouldn’t recommend choosing this dish.

Jenn was able to order the congee in time (I guess they went through her aisle first) and she overall was pleased with the dish. It was traditional and didn’t have anything unique about it, but it was good and hits the spot if you’re looking for congee.

As with dinner, this course ended with some fresh fruit.

The child meal option also started with a salad. This one had some extra protein on it compared to the adult option, though I’m not sure why they chose to apply dressing on it proactively for the children but not for the adults. We would have asked for no dressing had we known what was on the way.

The main course was ravioli, an odd choice for breakfast. Char isn’t a fan of red sauce, so we asked for hers without sauce on it. Quite honestly, I think both kids would have been more satisfied with the adult offerings in this course than what they received as part of the child meal.

Onboard amenities

At the start of the flight, awaiting us at our seat was an amenity kit.

Inside were standard options you would typically find in a kit: a toothbrush, some eyeshades, ear plugs, lotion, a comb, and some socks that always feel too small to fit my feet properly. If you need a new toothbrush, there are some extras in the restroom.

Also at the seat are some slippers. Still waiting to find slippers that will fit my feet.

Before takeoff, we were handed some pajamas and a face mask. The pajamas felt comfortable and it’s nice that some airlines still offer this in business class.

The kids also each received a deck of cards. This was the child toy offered to them. On one hand, it’s always nice when an airline provides a gift to a child onboard as it can help entertain on longer flights. On the other hand, it seems a bit odd that the gift for a four year old is a deck of cards. The blow-up airplane was actually something given to seven-year-old Alex rather than four-year-old Char since they were handing them out when boarding and he was awake while she wasn’t. The toy situation left me a bit confused.

Entertainment

Overall, the movie choices on this flight were fine. There was a selection of old and new. The TV interface was easy to control. It would be nice to have a few more options for such a long flight, and especially if you’re connecting to somewhere else on the airline, but it’s good enough for most.

There are some child options and I think the airline has done a better job here at providing a good variety of options for them. But where they excel at providing variety, they also suffer a bit with providing a sufficient number of episodes for each series. Many series only have one or two episodes (this is the same for the non-children’s series), making it hard to binge-watch.

Starlux advertises that it offers free Wi-Fi to business class customers. To start, you have to log in with your email address, last name, and date of birth. Then you can the scroll down the list of options to select free Wi-Fi for the duration of the flight.

If you are in economy or premium economy, you can pay reasonable prices to access the internet.

However, that being said, I had issues with the Wi-Fi. You can only log in with one device at a time. And our party had five seats in business class, so I should then get five devices connected, right? I could only get one device online. Despite me attempting to log in with everyone’s individual details, the system wouldn’t let me in, saying there was an error with the information entered.

I suspect the problem is I didn’t assign different emails to each passenger when checking in online. Instead, I used my own email for everyone, thinking it would be easier for all communications on the flight to come to me. That was a bit frustrating that only one of us could get internet access. I might have considered purchasing an Internet package, but that seemed to not be allowed either–the options to buy anything were all gone after my attempts to log in the other seats on my device. All I could do was the free messaging.

So much for trying to be productive while on the flight! If I had known I needed to use different email addresses to access the internet, I would have done that during check-in.

Service

I think the service lacked a bit on the flight. Perhaps some of it could be attributed to Starlux still working the kinks out on their long haul flights, but there were some misses. We ordered fruit for Char but it never came. I ordered a black tea with breakfast along with my orange juice, but only the orange juice arrived. Some of us received bread but others did not.

Similarly, don’t expect staff to anticipate your needs unless you ask for it. Drinks were generally not refilled unless you ask for it to be refilled. Staff didn’t ask if I wanted a coffee or tea along with dessert or afterward the meal service ends (I’ve been trained by other airlines to know this is generally a standard offering).

There were no language barriers on the flight. But perhaps service is just not there yet in terms of being polished. Case in point, I was never thanked for joining them on the flight by the purser at the end of the flight. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but the purser did visit with everyone else. Yes, I was out of my seat when the purser came by, but on other airlines I’ve found the purser would still stop by after I’ve returned to my seat to thank me.

Am I nitpicking a bit on the service? Perhaps, as the overall experience on the flight was fairly good. The airline likes to advertise that it has strong attention to detail, so I do want to point out where they come short of that standard they’ve set for themselves. If I had to label the service overall, I’d say it wasn’t memorable–not as good as the standards set by other Asian airlines and generally on par with the service you might expect in the US aside from the service errors.

Branding

Be ready to be bombarded a bit by the Starlux logo being everywhere when you’re onboard. From the headphones to the bedding to even the incense holder and toilet paper in the bathroom, the logo is all over the place. I’ll be honest in saying it was a bit overwhelming to see it every time I turned my head. Personally I would have preferred a little bit of subtlety.

First class?

Starlux has a first class cabin, which is the first row in the plane. On this flight, the seats were empty, as I’ve heard is the case on most flights. Aside from taller walls surrounding the seats, the main noticeable difference of the seats is the better design if you are flying with a partner in the middle. It’s considerably easier to have conversations with your seat mate, but of course the downside is that you need to cough up the money for two first class seats. These are not going to be made available for awards with partner miles.

Recommendation: Yes, but only if the price is right

We got lucky by jumping in when the new LAX-TPE route opened for awards. As is generally the case these days, the best way to find award seats is when new routes are first bookable, as you can usually find the days you want. The award price on this route was also a steal at 60,000 Alaska miles per person for business class. If you can find the flight at 75,000 miles, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly this again.

But sadly, it’s difficult to reliably find award pricing even at 75,000 miles, the standard saver award price. You might be able to find award seats but at double the price. I wouldn’t consider it at this price. Between the service, the Wi-Fi issues, and some letdown with the food, the issues become a bit less palatable and more pronounced with the higher price. I imagine the airline will improve with experience, but it feels like they are still testing things out.

On the plus side, the hard product of the flight between the seats, the TV, and the lavatory are all excellent.

Have you flown Starlux business class across the Pacific? What were your thoughts?