The Over 30 Girly's Edit

The time has come – flying the highly regarded STARLUX Airline business class! To say I was looking forward to it is definitely an understatement.

For this trip, I took a round-trip from SEA (Seattle) to SGN (Ho Chi Minh), with a transit in Taipei. And I have to say, the third impression was troubling. Keep reading to find out why!

The Ground Operations

I’m revisiting my previous observation that ground operations are dependent on the airport itself. For instance, airlines like JAL, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic provided very poor service during boarding at SeaTac airport, including when collecting luggage upon arrival. And, I am not surprised, honestly, our beloved airport has a lot of room for improvement. But, proved me wrong, STARLUX. The boarding processes in all airports I was in (Seattle, Taipei, and Ho Chi Minh) were flawless. They were on time (even earlier than scheduled), and the process was so smoothly done. 30 mins to board a long-haul A350 plane is truly impressive! Luggage was delivered fast, too, with priority bags being loaded first, even at SeaTac. How far have we come? And I am not complaining!

The Cabin & Seat

Maybe the best business class seat I’ve flown on.

Although I have only tried: JAL (old Sky Suites), ANA 787s, Virgin Atlantic (coffin seats), Vietnam Airlines herringbone seats, and British Airways new configured seats, I do have a lot more of other newer seat layouts and seats to try. But I can’t always choose the latest plane with the most optimal route to the destinations, so I take what I am given. And oh boy, I will gladly get STARLUX business class seats every single time.

First and foremost, the cabin is stunning. I didn’t think I’d like their brown & grey color scheme in the cabin, but I think it works well and brings a sense of calm and relaxation to the customers. Their business class isn’t large (just one big section shared with the first class in Row 1), but honestly, I prefer it this way. Since there were no First Class customers in all of my 4 flights, and one of the flights’ business cabin was almost empty, the bathroom-to-passenger ratio was pretty good. I never had to wait for more than a couple of minutes to use a bathroom, IF I even had to wait.

Going back to the seat, it’s spacious, and for my small frame (petite sizing over here), it’s more than enough for me to get very comfortable.

The storage space is fine – the cabinet located next to the seat is actually huge and can store a lot of things, but that was kinda it. The storage space above the seat controller is standard size for holding smaller items, and a small pocket in front of the menu offers additional storage. But, again, how much more closet space do I even need? Ha.

Speaking of the seat controller… I think it’s known that STARLUX has the Zero G mode, and it’s rather… interesting. I wouldn’t sleep with this mode, but I did doze off a few times while on Zero G, comfortably.

And now, speaking of sleeping, as I mentioned above, this seat was made for overnight travels. The seat itself is already comfortable, but adding a significantly thicker mattress that actually wraps over the seat (top & bottom) to prevent movement while you sleep guarantees a sound sleep for me. The service from the crew here was noticeably better than that of other airlines’ crews. For instance, when my flight attendant realized I had finished my meal, she asked if I was going to sleep and offered to make the bed for me. This happened on both of the long-haul overnight flights with different crews. I politely accepted the offer and excused myself to use the bathroom; when I returned to my seat, the bed was made, with another fresh towel placed. I managed to sleep at least 5-6 hours on both flights, which is very rare for me.

Amenities

Besides the excellent bedding, they do have an amenity kit that has more than enough necessities for an 11-hour flight. Note that my other 3.5-hour flights did not have an amenity kit, nor a pair of slippers.

The kit is standard, but again, it has everything you may need: headphones, a pair of slippers, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a pair of socks, an eye mask (for sleep), earplugs, hand lotion, serum, and a lip balm. Now, it also has items that some other airlines don’t have for their business passengers: a complete pair of PJs, a face mask, and a hair comb (my first time ever getting a hair comb in business!). Besides headphones, all other items can be taken with you after the flight.

Food

Besides the seat, I think STARLUX’s business class food has been raved and reviewed all over YouTube, and there is a reason for it – the menu is massive with many options IF you check and order online before your flight, which is highly recommended! Onboard, their menu always offers two options: an Asian menu and a Western menu, as well as some snack options, which I sadly did not have because I was busy sleeping! (I did smell and hear people slurping their noodles, though, and although it was very tempting, I had no appetite to eat after just having raced a half-marathon a day-ish ago).

This (the food) is where I almost doubted everything people rave about on the Internet. My takeoff meal was inedible, to say the least. I do want to mention that it was a 1 a.m. takeoff, and I was exhausted, so eating around 2am was not something I was looking forward to. Being cranky AND having served very cold and tasteless scallops as an appetizer, along with very dry bread, and another cold pumpkin/turmeric soup, no thank you. I picked an Asian menu, so pairing these cold starters with it was definitely an odd (but not sensible) choice.

Now, on to the main, which was supposed to be an online-only item of Japanese ginger pork with eggplant and rice. First of all, I had to open the app again to check what I ordered, specifically to see if it was supposed to be a vegetarian item, because I didn’t think there was pork in it, or at least I didn’t know what a piece of pork would look like. I saw the rice, squash, snap peas, other veggies, and eggplant. The flavor of the entire dish was good, and I tasted pork for sure, but I just could not identify it. It was so weird that I had to break the bad news to my husband via text about how disappointing everything was. (Rice was extremely mushy, too BTW.)

There were desserts offered, along with fruits, but I politely declined.

OH NO.

Luckily (for them or for me?), it did get better from there. Morning service redeemed the mishap with a fantastic spread of congee and radish cake with eggs. Congee was simple, as it should have been, but the add-ons were spectacular. They also served a smoothie for everyone, along with another hot towel before the service.

Since there were three more flights with three other meals, I won’t go into every single detail about each here. But their food impressions were saved, and I can now confidently say I will definitely fly with them again, especially for this same route. Every other meal was delicious, tasty, and full of flavors. The donburi with wagyu and chicken thighs, the carrot juice, the Com Tam (pork jowl and egg cake) plate with delicious side soup and starters, the short rib (maybe a bit chewy but great flavor), all of them were just great. So, here they are, please enjoy them visually.

Final Thoughts

Overall, an excellent first trip with STARLUX business class. As I mentioned, I plan to fly with them again in the future, either on the same route or a similar one. The bed alone would already be the reason for me to do so, but their exceptional service with the friendliest crew in the business, plus the food (minus cold scallops, cold soup, and “Japanese ginger pork”), was just a cherry on top.

I do have to call out another semi-negative point: the lounge. I’m not talking about the partnered lounges, which they use a third-party service for; I’m talking about their flagship lounge in Taipei airport. It was obviously new and clean, with separate shower rooms, and it stayed on the theme of Star Wars, so that was consistent. I think the food offerings (both buffet-style and à la carte) could have more options to choose from, but that wasn’t even my main issue with them, because I usually don’t eat much in lounges unless I physically need food in my body. My “issue” is that there is no truly comfortable seating in the lounge. Everything is more of a table and chair style, even with the booths. I felt exhausted during transit, even with a short 2-hour layover. There were also no privacy options with the seating situation there; every table was right next to another.

So, I guess two bad scores and a lot of very good ones, so we are more than even! I haven’t flown EVA in a long time and have definitely not tried their Laurel Class, so I don’t have a direct comparison for STARLUX. But, I doubt I would need to because they have me as their newest happy customer.

Thanks for reading! And leave a comment if you have tried STARLUX, or would like to one day.