Starlux Airlines is Taiwan’s newest global airline. While it launched operations in early 2020, the airline has really ramped up its network in the past few years, including increasingly flying across the Pacific.
In terms of service to the United States, the airline currently flies from Taipei (TPE) to Los Angeles (LAX), Ontario (ONT), Phoenix (PHX), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA). The airline operates long haul service with its Airbus A350s, which feature a first class product.
Nowadays there aren’t many new airlines introducing an international first class product, so it’s cool to see Starlux offering this. However, the airline is taking an unconventional approach to this cabin. When the airline first launched long haul flights, I wrote about how the carrier’s first class strategy didn’t make much sense to me.
I want to address this topic once again, because years later, it still doesn’t make much sense to me, and I can’t figure out the economic justification for this strategy, especially with how few seats are selling!
Really I’m just writing about this because I desperately want to review Starlux first class, but can’t bring myself to pay the sticker price (to be clear, that’s not a request for a free flight, but instead, a request for the cabin to become a bit more accessible!). 😉
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The seat has some useful features, like 60-inch doors and privacy partitions, 32-inch 4K screens with bluetooth audio, zero-gravity seat settings, and personal wardrobes for storing luggage. However, there’s no denying that the airline didn’t set out to create the world’s best first class hard product.
First and business class is exclusively between doors one and two, and on the A350-900, the airline managed to fit 30 seats in this space (four first class seats and 26 business class seats). As a point of comparison, Qatar Airways’ A350-900s with reverse herringbone seats have just 24 seats in that space (though there is a little bar at the back of the cabin).
To be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with introducing a first class product that’s incrementally better than business class, though you’d also hope that the price reflects that.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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