I enjoyed a short but sweet flight on Starlux from Taipei to Bangkok on the A321neo in business class. While not as luxe as the A350-900, it was nevertheless a very nice flight with great food and excellent service.
Starlux A321neo Business Class Review (TPE-BKK)
Recall that I paid 85,000 Alaska Airlines miles and minimal taxes/fees to fly from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Taipei. I could have flown the A350-900 again from Taipei to Bangkok, but I chose the later A321neo, despite the regional business class product, just so I could review Starlux’s narrowbody aircraft. Starlux operates twice daily between TPE and BKK.
There was no line at the check-in desk and I was directed to use the priority lane for my security screening.
After visiting both Starlux lounges in Taipei, I boarded my flight for the four-hour journey to Bangkok from Terminal 2.
Starlux 745
Taipei (TPE) – Bangkok (BKK)
Wednesday, October 29
Depart: 1:25 PM
Arrive: 4:30 PM
Duration: 3hr, 55min
Aircraft: Airbus A321neo
Distance: 1,546 miles
Seat: 3K (Business Class)
Onboard, a trio of flight attendants welcomed me onboard and the purser, Elaine, escorted me to my seat.
Seat
The A321neo business class cabin is small, featuring eight lie-flat seats (Collins Diamond) in a 2-2 configuration. Seats are 19 inches wide and have a pitch 58 inches. Seats recline to lie-flat beds (82 inches, so 6’10”).
Headrests are adjustable and seat controls are located on the center console between seats. A side shelf offers minimal storage as well as a universal A/C power outlet, USB-A outlet, and a headphone jack.
Unlike on the Starlux A350, there are individual air vents on this aircraft.
These are not particularly competitive seats any more on longhaul routes, but they are perfectly nice and far better than standard recliners on shorter flights like this 3.5 hours journey to Bangkok.
A plush blanket and a pillow were waiting at each seat. I put the seat into lie-flat mode just to make sure it worked, but I was not tired and did not sleep on this flight.
IFE + Wi-Fi
This aircraft was equipped with:
- Safran RAVE in-flight-entertainment system
- Inmarsat GX Aviation satellite Wi-Fi (free for business class passengers)
The IFE library was identical to the A350, with hundreds of movies and TV shows as well as games and music to choose from, with noise-cancelling headphones provided.
Not only did I get some work done, but I also enjoyed listening to Chopin while working. The extensive IFE library onboard included hundreds of movies, TV shows, musical selections, and games.
It was a beautiful day out the window too. We flew right over Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport about 30 minutes before we landed, making a very wide and gradual approach into BKK.
Food + Drink
Before takeoff, I was offered a glass of mango juice and a cold towel.
I was very impressed by how elaborate the menus were, with a detailed wine list you just do not see on many three-hour flights.
Lunch was served shortly after takeoff. Starlux offers meal service preorders on its website and I pre-reserved grilled halibut with truffle potatoes as my main course. The meal came on a tray with bread and a quinoa edamame salad with sliced chicken breast.
Although a very respectable Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut Champagne was on offer, I just had carrot juice to drink.
After meal trays were cleared, dessert was served. I had fresh fruit, Starlux/Ninao co-branded gelato (green tea + strawberry) along with an iced coffee.
Before landing, I had a hot cappuccino. Starlux uses illy espresso and St. 1 Café (a local Taiwanese coffee purveyor). A cold towel and glass of sparkling water was also provided.
Before arrival, candies were offered (much like EVA does)
You won’t go hungry on this flight…
Service
Speaking of beverages, the service on my flight was excellent, with Elaine as well as Victoria and Airel providing attentive and gracious service. My glass never went empty, which is one hallmark of great service. The crew was very kind and also polished…polite and professional in terms of addressing passengers by surname and carefully arranging lunch on the tray so that it looked nice.
Amenties
While no amenity kit was offered, slippers were offered to each passenger.
Lavatory
The lavatory felt small, though it was probably in my head as I am not sure there is much variance between carriers when it comes to the lavatory directly behind the flight deck. It was spotless, though, and had skin products form Thann (a Taiwanese company). The toilet paper was even folded and I wasn’t the first to use the lavatory…flight attendants would clean it up after each use.
CONCLUSION
I was so happy to fly Starlux on both a longhaul and regional flight on my trip to Asia. Taiwan’s newest carrier is excellent and arguably even better than EVA and China Airlines (though fresh reviews for those carriers are in order as well).
It’s hardly a surprise that I prefer the A350-900 business class seat, but the service and food were equally impressive on the A321neo.
Looks like a solid above average product, just like what they offer for long haul routes.
It would be really nice if they could join one of the alliances, even though that seems unlikely for now.
I think the days of alliances are waning, but I agree – would be great to see Starlux join oneworld.
How many flight attendants were working your flight? For you glass to never be empty but they service the lav after each customer makes me believe they had more FA’s than found on your typical US or even European A321 flight.
Also were passengers in coach allowed to use the first class lav? I think its easy to keep the first class lav clean when only 20 or so people are allowed to use it but most US and even some European carriers allow people from coach to use the first class lav which makes it harder for FA’s to clean after each and every use especially on 3 hour flights.
FAs on US airlines would say “This isn’t in my job” when it comes to cleaning toilets regardless of how many FAs there are.
@proschwit: there were always two, sometimes three (when the purser was there) in business class.
Indeed, that lavatory was reserved for only the eight business class passengers so there was less opportunity for it to get dirty.
At least 2 but sometimes 3 people for just 8 passengers wow that is awesome.
We will never see anything like that here in the US, heck on some domestic widebody flights there only 2 FA’s working up front.
We need more of this (lie-flat on narrow-body) everywhere, especially for 4+ hour flights and redeyes. This is true premium, not recliners, definitely not middle seat blocked. STARLUX joins La Compagnie, SQ, TAP, jetBlue Mint, and a few others who pull this off.
AA 321T (at least when they were maintained). Although I do have a soft spot for the old United p.s. 757’s with the angle lie flat seats.
Redeemed 39K AA points for JFK-SFO in F on a321T and the seat was broken, but, it could be manually positioned from upright to lie-flat, just nothing in-between. Believe it was 5F. Wonder if they ever fixed the seat, or they’ve just kept it runnin’ as-is. LOL.
I just flew on a Starlux 85 minute regional flight in economy and we were served a hot meal with metal cutlery. Not too shabby.
In fairness, that is the norm on all full-service Asian carriers, but it’s a delight to fly, isn’t it?
I had a similarly excellent experience (minus the avantgarde cabin finishes) on a CI flight that was barely two hours long. Menus, personalised greetings, espressos, the lot. However, I do wonder about the number of people who actually pay the retail price for those regional flights – that TPE-PUS journey starts from €526 one way and I’m sure it used to be even more when I flew it (with miles) a couple of years ago. I’ve paid less than that for business returns on Lufthansa covering significantly longer distances (e.g. between the UK and Turkey or Greece),
Glad you enjoyed your flight-
I can’t wait to fly Starlux in December TPE – SEA, I’ve heard and read so many good things about them. I flew EVA last year across the Pacific and although the soft product was superb the seats on the 777s were so tired and uncomfortable for sleeping. They too, however, kept the lavatories spotless throughout the 14-hour flight. Compared to CX whose toilets are always filthy throughout the flight and it’s not an isolated incident, it happens every time I fly with them and even in first class. Toilet papers strewn all over the floor, trash bursting out of the receptacle. Just disgusting. I always think that their FAs feel that it’s beneath them to clean the lavatories.