Review of Starlux Airlines flight Taipei → Osaka in Business

Introduction

This is the second part of my trip to Kansai / Osaka in Japan from Hong Kong. This time I tried the quite young airline from Taiwan - the Starlux Airline. Actually the airline runs already before the COVID-19.

I got the very last flight to reach Taipei from Hong Kong and got the flight from Taipei to Kansai Japan at early morning. There was a gap of couple hours between the flights, and it seems that there is no agreement between Starlux and other airlines, therefore I would need to pass the immigration to enter Taipei first, and then collect the luggage and then pass through the immigration again to depart to Kansai.

There is a hostel located at Terminal 2 of the airport. And there is just a couple of hours between the flight, and so I decided to have a try on the hostel there, instead of staying at the airport hotel (It seems that that hotel is not within walkable distance from the terminal and there is not any public transport to access the hotel at night). Walking across the terminal buildings at Taoyuan Airport seems not a good experience, as I would need to take the lift up and down (and the amount of lift seems not enough), passing through some corridors at both terminals until I reach the airport shuttle train platform at both terminals.

The environment at the hostel is actually nice, but I am not that kind of sleeper and cannot fall asleep. It is not the fault of the hostel. Nevermind, it is a calculated risk.

let's get check in

It is time for check-in. The check in counter is located at terminal 1 of TPE. I don’t quite like the design of the airport. It seems that it is a little bit difficult for me to check which airline goes to which aisle to check in. And the efficiency for Starlux seems needs to be improved at Taoyuan airport. There is one counter for Business Class only, and after over ten minutes, I still cannot get checked in. They finally got a staff to open the other counter and get me checked in. 

Just get stuck here for at least 10 minutes….for business class. 

Some flights between the 7 to 9 am are skipped. Unlike Hong Kong International Airport, all flights information , according to the timestamp, is displayed properly. The sign shown at the aisle, indicating the numbers, are so small.  The terminal building is so small and everywhere is crowded. 

Finally got the boarding pass from Starlux. 

Another area of improvement for the airport is the efficiency of passing through the security check. The queue is really long and I guess I need to wait for 20-25 minutes for passing through the security. But it is fast to pass through the immigration counter though.

They are using the same set of style for those signs as Hong Kong International Airport. 

lounge experience

And finally I arrived at the lounge. 

The lounge is somehow comfortable and cozy. The staff there were polite, greeted me politely, led me to my seat, and took my order politely. There were somehow some issues with my baggage, it is not their fault. And they actively helped me to resolve the issues related to the baggage. 

Back to the lounge. Maybe it is due to the limitation of the space at the terminal, the lounge I guess is not big enough. There is no toilet inside the lounge. And the choice of the food is not that much. But I remember the chocolate cake is quite well. 

Apart from picking the food from the bar. You could have a choice of picking the food from menu. The proportion of the food from the menu seems not enough. And somehow it takes longer time than I expected for the kitchen to prepare the meal. Hope that Starlux could improve this in the future. 

This is the breakfast with Taiwan cuisine. 

And this is ramen. But I think the portion is really not enough. 

it is time to get on the plane

It is time to board the plane. Here is some information related the plane:

Registration Number: B-58304
Model: Airbus A330-900neo 
Age: 1.4 Years

For route TPE to KIX JX820
Departure Time: 22 Nov 2023 07:40
Arrival Time: 22 Nov 2023 11:10
Distance : 1,706 km
Boarding Gate: B5

And here is the safety card of the plane:

There is also a printed version of the menu placed at the seat. But actually the menu information could also be obtained through the inflight entertainment system, and before the flight you could have a chance to select for the meal (even not for special menu, you still have a chance to know what to eat before the flight and pick the dish you want).

Let’s see the seat feature. The color combination of the seat is nice. And it features a huge monitor. I did not spend much time on the inflight entertainment system this time, as I wish to take some rest on the flight instead. The remote control is a nice one, like a small touchpad. But i think it is a little bit over sensitive. For business class of course the legroom is very nice. There seems lack a little bit of storage space at the seat, as I remember i could find one for storing the headphone. But of course you get plenty at the overhead compartment. 

What i love at the inflight entertainment system is always the flight map. 

It seems that there is free inflight wifi available for messaging. But I cannot get it to work. 

The menu could actually be seen from the inflight entertainment system. The interface looks stylish. 

There is a welcome drink for business class passengers. I picked the orange juice. And for this flight, i picked the following food: 

The food is delicious! The meat is not dry. The rice is nice, not overcooked, warm and with moisture. But personally i think that the dish may be a little bit heavy for this early time. If I have a chance I guess I will allow them to offer the meal at a later time. Haha. but actually they offer such an option and it is just some issues related to personal preference. 

And finish with fruit and some dessert with Japanese style. I guess it is the rice mochi ball. 

Let’s try the signature drink of Starlux Airlines. If you are not a frequent drinker I strongly suggest you try the non-alcoholic version instead. Don’t overestimate your ability. Haha. But somehow the color of the drink is really attractive. 

There are other signature drinks available but I did not try them. Hope that I would have chance to try them in the future (as i know Starlux will operate flights between Hong Kong and Taipei in the future and let’s see if i could have chance to take those flights later on)

I guess there is a small volcanic eruption near Kyushu, Japan? 

Time flies and it is about time to land at KIX. 

The efficiency at KIX is always that fast. After passing through the security check and immigration, luggages, even for non-priority passengers, are already ready for pick up. Every time I use KIX and the luggage really comes that fast. But the efficiency at the railway station sucks. There was a long queue in front of every counter or automatic kiosk at different train operators at KIX. Perhaps it is related to the red leaves season of Japan, or many flights land at KIX around that time. Finally I changed my plan to take the bus to Kyoto instead.