Simply Superb - Starlux Business Class
What’s the world’s best business class flight? Yes, an incredibly useless question, but a question nevertheless. I personally think Emirates holds the undisputed crown for first class. But whose the world’s best business class? I think it’s a battle between Qatar Airlines, and now Starlux Airlines. And with Starlux’s direct connections from Taipei over to the West Coast of the US, it’s hard to justify taking a detour over in the Middle East.
Booking
Flight: JX 32
Departing: Taipei (TPE)
Arriving: Seattle (SEA)
Operated by: Airbus A350
Cabin: Business Class
For the better, all 3 Taiwanese Airlines (Eva Air, China Airlines, Starlux), and Delta fly this route. Which means prices are relatively affordable at between $2,500 and $3,500 for a one way ticket. Delta’s product IMHO is worse than the others, and thus has a commensurate discount of ~$600-800.
Check In and Lounges
The check in process at TPE was a tad chaotic for economy class passengers, with many people checking in bags. However, it was extremely smooth for business class passengers, and members of Starlux’s loyalty program. Similarly, the airport itself was very smooth, and I was through security and customs in no time.
Starlux uses a futuristic space theme for it’s brand, and thus calls its lounge the GALATIC Lounge (yes all caps). It’s a bit far away from security, although it is very close to the actual gates that Starlux departs from.
Upon walking in, I was a bit disappointed at the size of the lounge; however, that changed after I realized it was a 2 story lounge. There is abundant food and drink, with the star of the show being 2 things: 1. Royal Salute 21 (usually retailing for $200 a bottle), and this amazing milk tea that probably retails for like $1 but is equally as good.
I’ve always found the food selection at Taiwanese lounges hilarious, because there is usually one set of traditional Asian Taiwanese dishes, and then theres hot dogs and salads.
I would describe this, as well as Eva Air’s lounge food, as homely, cafeteria food, and I mean that as a complement.
There’s also quite a few made to order dishes, with team members bringing the food over to your designated table. I had the waygu burger - it was amazing, but the patty was understandably small.
The lower floor of the lounge was nearly empty when I arrived at 6PM, but gradually began to fill up as flights departed. Starlux tends to bank it’s flights at between 8-11PM - it will be interesting to see how the lounge feels as Starlux expands.
Overall, I really enjoyed the lounge - whilst not a massive experience like Qatar, it had all the things one could need.
Boarding and Cabin
Starlux’s economy class was quite full - there were 2 boarding lines, one for documentation check (to visit the US), and another for actual boarding. It’s always funny when airlines emphasis the class divide, although there absolutely is a practical purpose for doing so.
The cabin itself was beautifully designed, fully encapsulating the futuristic theme. Another random note is I find the Starlux uniform very elegant, and the flight attendants also a immaculately groomed / great makeup.
Interestingly, Starlux put’s its “First Class” cabins within the business class cabin - it has 4 seats, and is much more private than business class. There are then 26 business class seats laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration - I personally would try to avoid the 2 seats in the back near the restrooms.
The Seat
Time to go out of order! I’ll start with the economy seat, which I sat on during another flight. It was new, but nothing special - one thing about flights in Asia is there serve meals even on flight a couple hours long! Much better than the pretzels / cookies one gets on a domestic North American transcontinental flight.
The attempts at product differentiation include access to private terminals, caviar service, and elevated service - however, the price point is 2 - 3X business class, so I see little justification for actually buying this. Would be interesting to see how this evolves; perhaps it can be complementary for business class passengers with status?
Alright, now onto the actual business class seat. They are reverse herringbone seats, and I love the sleek, futuristic, muted design for them (although I also love the Emirates bling, so there’s that).
You’ll notice there’s actually not that much difference between the first class seats.
I really enjoy the parterships Asian airlines have (think Eva and Hello Kitty, Starlux and Snoopy), although I was a bit sad that there wasn’t any Snoopy branded material.
At the seat were pillows, blanket, amenity kits, and in the cubby some Evian Water. I found it hilarious, but appreciated, that they just refilled your smaller water bottle with a bigger water Evian bottle through the flight. Gotda keep it pure.
There is a a massive 24″ 4K screen, with an extraordinarily crisp screen. However, it was a tad wasted on this overnight flight, as I mainly slept.
There is a slightly confusing mini cubby here, and I don’t know the exact purpose of this.
Overall, really enjoyed the seat, and thus would rank it top among the business class seats. Please see below for this very bad photo of it’s lie flat mode. There is also a “zero-g” mode for optimal sleep - I didn’t try it, but my friends said they enjoyed it.
Food and Drink
Is where Starlux shines. I’ll start by saying on I had the best business class meal on a flight ever. The best.
The menu’s extensiveness makes it seem almost like a first class menu (and indeed it beats out a few first class ones!). Let’s start just with the drinks.
I lied, this is just the wine list. I think there might be some room for consolidation in the future, but this is amazing. Next up is, for the lack of a better word, everything else. I did have a sci-fi cosmos, which was enjoyable but very blue.
And now, the menu. There were both western and Taiwanese style dinner dishes, as well as a snack menu.
Doing against my own advice, I did get the Braised Beef Shank (though it had asian vegetables). And my goodness was it amazing - the beef was tender, melt in your mouth, perfectly sauced. The vegetables were seasoned well, and stood as a dish on it’s own. Perfection.
Amenities / Other
Unfortunately, this is the part where you’ll have to take my word for it, since it was getting late and I fell asleep a bit too quickly. At least there are shots of the bathroom, which was kept spotless and stocked with some amenities.
There we both amenity kits and PJs - to be honest, the PJs were a bit interesting given they were full length and plain brown. I had expected a bit more style from Starlux, but those PJs were thick and comfy.
And finally, the amenity kit.
The Service
Outstanding. I flew on JAL, Cathy, and Eva, and I think that Starlux outshines all except maybe Eva. While being very hospitable and kind, I was mainly impressed by the sheer efficiency of the crew managing an almost full cabin. Concurrently, they were super flexible, offering an almost dine on demand option when there wasn’t really any. The snazzy uniforms didn’t hurt either.
The Point
When a new player appears on the field, they have to do something to differentiate themselves from the existing competition. Especially in a place like Taiwan which already has 2 world class airlines, something needs to stand out besides schedule, plane type, etc. And to be frank, Starlux just throw money at the wall, and made everything better (outside of the PJs). The seat was wonderful, food and drink superb, service attentive, everyone on would want in a business class experience. Now, only time will tell whether this startup can maintain is high quality of excellent, or will have to balance cost and revenue to turn a profit. But for now, let’s enjoy the fun!
