Review of Starlux Airlines flight from Taipei to Hong Kong in Business

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From the last flight report that actually I took many flights. But I am too lazy and did not type those reports. But for this flight, I must spend some time to type the report here. This is the inaugural flight for Starlux Airlines, a Taiwanese full service carrier, from Taipei to Hong Kong. 

Starlux did not have any flight between Hong Kong and Taipei before. But the Taiwan government saw that some slots between the two places are unused by current carriers and so they reassigned them to allow new carriers to operate flight between the two places. Another Taiwan based low cost carrier will operate their flight soon. 

Originally that I would not take this flight, but my friend just advised me that, hey, it is the only chance that to take an inaugural flight, why don't you take a chance to do so. Therefore I change my holiday plan a little bit, come back from Japan a day earlier to land at Taipei and then take this flight back to Hong Kong. (Let's see if have chance to type the report from Sendai to Taipei later on, as i have stayed in Japan for 10 days and there are still many pictures waiting for me to edit lol)

I bought the ticket a little bit late and so all the windows seat of the business class were already sold out. And all business class seats were occupied for this inaugural flight. 

And as i searched that the boss of Starlux Airlines does not have the license for A330, and so it is calculated that he would not be the pilot for this flight. (but then he gets A350 one and he drives on the next day on one flight from Taipei to Hong Kong !!!! )

from the hotel to the airport

Previous night I stayed at the Novotel Hotel near Taoyuan International Airport. And the hotel offers free shuttle bus service connecting the two terminal buildings at Taoyuan International Airport and the hotel. The flight departed at 8am and i chose to book the shuttle departing at 5am from the hotel. 

It seems that the inaugural flight attracts not only me, as I heard during the short shuttle bus trip that some are going to take the flight from Taipei to Hong Kong by Starlux also.

reaching the airport

Currently there are two terminal buildings at Taoyuan International Airport, and they use the destination of the flight to assign which terminal you should go for check in. (actually i dont quite understand the logic behind this, as i think this will waste the airline resources to run two sets of check in counters etc at two different terminals. lol )  For flight going to Hong Kong, you could check in at Terminal 1 of the airport. And Starlux uses aisle 5 at the terminal. 

Compare with my previous experience of Starlux at Taoyuan International Airport, seems that this time they improved the efficiency, i dont need to wait and so i could reach the check in counter and obtained my boarding passes and deal with the luggage issue.  For easy reference, you could see my previous flight report of Starlux at the following link: 

recently that all flights except some flying to US, run by Starlux, are having promotions with Snoopy. So you could see Snoopy starting from the check in counters ! 

And there are some luggage tags themed with Snoopy, for you to take at the check in counters (I did not take the one at Taoyuan Airport, but they look the same at Sendai Airport, so let me use the picture of that trip here)

After getting the boarding pass, it is about time to pass through the immigration gates and reach the restricted area! But i remember that it takes a little bit time to pass through the security control and the immigration counters at TPE. Hope that they could improve the efficiency there. 

heading to the lounge

Previously that i have entered the Starlux lounge at Terminal 1. you could see the review at this report. 

Knowing that Starlux has opened a new lounge at Terminal 2 of Taoyuan Airport, and so this time I went there to try on this new lounge. 

Walking to terminal 2 seems a long way, but in the middle you could see some themed public area for you to relax, for example the one below, some sports equipment are also installed and so you would have a chance to try on , for example surfing, in this themed lounge area. and the lounge area offers some sitting spaces at the terminal building. 

Finally i reach the lounge entrance at the terminal 2. Seems that for the lounge at terminal 2, they use some high-tech as the theme, as seen from the entrance of the lounge that it looks totally different from the one in terminal 1. as in terminal 1, you could see warm color very easily. 

Even the lounge invitation card was themed with snoopy ! 

lounge experience

Finally this is the lounge of Starlux at Terminal 2! Near the entrance of the lounge, actually there is a place with lockers so that you could place your belongings inside the lockers, and fully relax inside the lounge. 

The agent led me to an unoccupied seat inside the lounge. Apart from the self-service counters at the lounge to get food, you could scan the QR code at the table and order some food from the menu there. Learnt from the previous experience that it may take long to get the food from the menu and so i ordered them early. but this time, the food seems can reach fast. The food is delicious. 

The items that i picked from the menu features Vietnamese traditional streamed rice rolls and a congee with sweet potatoes and some side dishes. i quite love the congee, as after the 10 days trip in japan, and actually in the middle i got some diarrheas. Having a less heavy taste dishes suit me, and also suit the atmosphere of an early morning.   

And here are some random shots of the lounge, featuring the coffee kiosks and the self services counters, drinks and the desserts. But i guess that the food from Starlux lounge seems a little bit limited. But then i still love the environment and experience of the lounge. It seems that there is a lowered floor of the lounge, but i did not visit that floor this time. it seems that the design is similar and it offers more seats. 

it is time to get back to the gate

after enjoying food and drink at the lounge, it is time to get back to the gate to see if there is any special for the inaugural flight from TPE to HKG.

Today the flight departs at gate A8 of terminal 1 of TPE. 

To my surprise that this time there seems no special speech or ceremony held near the gate. But still you could find some interesting thing for the inaugural flight. Each passenger will get a tote bag and some badges. You could place those badges on the tote bag and there is a counter and help you to fix those badges on the bag. 

There is another counter with a backdrop so that you could take pictures with the Starlux staff. 

A random shot of the gate area. Seems that the design of T1 at TPE is not friendly for plane spotting lol

And the boarding pass is also themed with Snoopy!

let's get on the plane!

It is not my first time to try on the Starlux A330-900 neo product. 

Here is some information of the flight:

JX231 from TPE to HKG
departure time: 8:00am
arrival time: 9:40am

Registration No.: B-58303
Model: Airbus A330-900neo 
First flight date: 11/05/2022

This is today's lovely seat. The pillow and the blanket were placed already at each seat before boarding.  

Apart from the overhead compartment, and the area under the TV, seems this is the only storage area for the seat. For business class passengers, a fruit juice and towel will be distributed as the welcome drink. 

And the huge monitor of the seat! The welcome screen features drawing of Snoopy and the features of the destination. (but to be honest it is difficult to find out those large and beautiful neon signs in Hong Kong already, sigh … to the policy, as it actually destroy the city and reduces the feature of the city)  

There are two sets of menu cards for each seat, one is about the food and the other one is about the drink. Apart from the printout, the menu information could also be seen from the inflight entertainment system. 

And the safety card of the flight. 

i did not spend much time on the inflight entertainment system, as it is rather a short flight. But the screen is interactive and the response time is fast. The interface of the map is clean. But sad that seems due to some policies issues that there is no flight camera for Starlux flights, even for those A350 flights of Starlux. 

But i guess that the remote is a little bit too sensitive. I think it is better to directly touch the screen then.
 

And some random shots of the inflight entertainment system. 

special for the flight

as i did not take the window seat this time, and there was no inflight camera, actually there are ceremonial water salute both at Taiwan Taoyuan Airport and Hong Kong International Airport! 

The below picture is obtained from Hong Kong International Airport Facebook Page and the copyright belongs to them. Please note. (As seems that i forgot the way to remove the watermark for this picture)

why not try the food on the flight?

For a short 1 hr and 40 min flight, i am afraid of the speed of the service, seems that if they continue to this mode of the service then i guess those crews would be full of pressure someday lol . maybe Starlux could reference with the efficiency of the CX crew on this flight route. 

For business class passengers, firstly they would be offered a drink. I picked the coffee option. 

And there are two options for business class passengers, and they are: 

Option A: Starlux Edition
1. Bread Selection
- Olive Oil Brioche, Candied Orange & Drink Chocolate Bread (served with Isigny Sainte Mere butter)
2. Tapas & Pinchos
- Sakura Shrimp Onigiri
- Grilled Beef Belly Cheese Roll
- Pan Seared Scallop, Fresk Tomato Salsa
- Fig Salad, Japanese Yuzu Dressing
3. Sweet Finish 
- Mango and Coconut Sago Pudding


Option B: Exclusive International
1. Bread Selection
- Olive Oil Brioche, Candied Orange & Drink Chocolate Bread (served with Isigny Sainte Mere butter)
2. Starter
- Tuscan Tomato Soup
3. Main Choice of 
a) Grilled Rosemary Chicken Thigh, Chives Potato Mash, Black Truffle Gravy or
b) Mediterranean Pan-Seared Halibut, Squid Ink Orzo Pasta
4. Sweet Finish
- Seasonal Fresh Fruit

Actually Starlux offers picking of the choices of the meal before flight departure, through internet and i have picked the Starlux edition.

I heard some noises from the kitchen, seems something is broken or some dishes were broken, not sure about that. But just curious before landing of around 50 minutes that still there is no meal offered to me. Then suddenly a crew member came and apologised to me for the long waiting and explained that seems there were some quality issues and there would be a delay to my meal. Some items could not be delivered from my original meal, and so they suggest that why not try the exclusive international one, and they will also deliver those items from my original meal to me.  The crew is polite and gives possible suggestions throughout the process.  And so after the flight I dropped an email to express my appreciation to the crew of this flight. 

So my meal is a combination of the two sets of meal:

1. Bread Selection
- Olive Oil Brioche, Candied Orange & Drink Chocolate Bread (served with Isigny Sainte Mere butter)
2. Starter
- Tuscan Tomato Soup
3. Tapas & Pinchos
- Sakura Shrimp Onigiri
- Grilled Beef Belly Cheese Roll
4. Main Choice of
a) Mediterranean Pan-Seared Halibut, Squid Ink Orzo Pasta
5. Sweet Finish
- Seasonal Fresh Fruit
- Mango and Coconut Sago Pudding


What a generous act from Starlux Airlines ! :D Although the meal comes around 38 minutes before landing, i am a little bit rush but still managed to finish the whole set of meal. The meat, unlike those from CX, they are soft and with moisture. The bread is soft and sweet. I enjoy the food very much! 

For short flight that Starlux will not offer signature drinks for economy class passengers, but still you would have a chance to try them on business class. This is the signature drink from Starlux Airlines, called Sci-fi Cosmos. it consists of Gin, lactic acid drink, blue curacao syrup and tonic water. Learnt from the last experience that if adding alcohol to the drink then i will definitely in trouble and so this time i told the crew not to add alcohol in it. The drink is sweet and nice. And the drink stirrer features Woodstock, the Snoopy character! 

Actually there are some other signature cocktails and even Taiwan Bubble Tea offered by Starlux. I did not try them on this flight, or say, i tried some on the flight flying from Sendai to Taipei. See if have chance to post them here in the future. 

Some souvenir from the flight

as i said before that currently Starlux is having promotions with Snoopy and you would find many products with Snoopy. From my plane from Sendai to Taipei, i ordered some already, and some "souvenirs" are free of charge and so the cabin crew also helped me to pack them and gave them to me. 

Let me borrow a picture from my Sendai to Taipei trip .

And since it is the inaugural flight, they offer some souvenirs. For example a doll from Hong Kong Tram Company (if for me, i will think it would be better if they offer some Starlux products like plane model etc. LOL ) 

And here is the whole collection of souvenirs from this flight , some are snoopy related and some are hong kong related. 

ARRIVING HONG KONG

Flight map of today's flight.

Our tour comes to the end. Starlux also offer staff at the arrival gate of the airport to welcome guest. 

and finally have a chance to take a picture of today's flight, with the Sky Bridge of Hong Kong International Airport at the background.