Avis du vol entre Taipei et Tokyo en classe Première avec Starlux Airlines

Hi again everyone, welcome back to another flight review. Today I'll be taken Starlux on their shortest F product from Taipei Taoyuan to Tokyo Narita. I did an extensive review on this product long haul from LAX to TPE, which was also my first ever review, feel free to check it out. Although the seat and plane model is the same, I primarily wanted to highlight the F lounge at their home base in TPE, the soft product leaving TPE, also how the experience on a 3 hour flight differs. 

I arrived in TPE a few days earlier on EVA from Beijing, and couldn't wait to check out the skydeck. Check out these incredible views! Only the EVA tarmac was visible from up here, but the terminal inside offers massive glass panel windows with great views of everything from inside.

There was also an awesome plane model store in the terminal, with some fair prices.

I spent the night at the Sheraton TPE airport, around 10 minutes from the Terminal. I wasn't actually aware, when booking, that Starlux offers a chauffeur pickup service. I received a call two days before to confirm my address, and a Starlux representative was waiting for me at the hotel lobby in the morning. The BMW offered waters, tissue, and an apple juice box. Great touch and ten points for soft service!
 
I kindly asked my chauffeur if I could grab a quick picture of the sign she held!

I headed over to the checkin gates at T1. Interestingly, US inbound flights arrive at T2, so transit passengers must walk over to T1. Luckily, the two terminals are connected and walkable without needing to exit and re-enter. 

Always love to see elements of their collaboration with snoopy. As soon as I arrived and had my information checked by the guest agent, a lovely gentleman introduced himself as my personal agent and would guide my up until I stepped foot in the aircraft. Great touch, again.

Here we had the back of our boarding pass, with unique elements of Tokyo and our boy snoopy ready for a great trip!

My personal agent escorted me over to security, there was no fasttrack here at TPE T1. Once we passed security, he informed me that although Starlux had a F lounge at both terminals, the one at T1 (where we were) was miniscule compared to the main F lounge at T2, so he strongly suggested we take a walk over, which I gladly agreed. 

A quick interlude was that I realized I forgot my other phone in the car, my PA was quick to call the relevant numbers to get in contact with the driver. It was rapid process and they brought over my phone just under 10 minutes after. However, I was required to re-enter security as they were not allowed to just hand me the phone. Although lining up again was a minor inconveinece, I was impressed with their pace in resolving the situation. My bad!!

The walk over to T2 took around 20 minutes, I did stop to take some plane pics and my PA was more than happy to wait and chat with me about aviation. We passed by a UA and DL aircraft heading to LA and Seattle respectively, and he shared some of his customers' reviews on US carriers.

Starlux's lounge really highlights the brand's galatic theme (it's also called the galactic lounge), looks like a huge Alienware gaming megastore.

Once inside, turning left takes you to the general area for all business and status holders. We are headed right to the private F area.

The lighting is dim and the sleek red carpet highlights the feel of luxury. The golden finishes matches that of their cabin color and provides a really nice overall atmosphere.

There are also lockers if requested. I usually spend some time eating, followd by a walk outside in the Terminal to planespot. In some other lounges I've often utilized the lockers, but today since I was the only one and my PA emphasized that there would be no problem leaving everything in the lounge, no lockers for me!

Since this was an early morning flight, breakfast was on the menu. F passengers can choose from a variety of a la carte options, the same for business passengers in the left lounge. My PA mentioned there were a few options here that was exclusive to F, so I thought I'd give those a go.

The F lounge is very small in comparison to the business, but extremely sleek in its design. There's a full-service bar up front, and only around 2-3 tables for seating.

Interestingly, there is one private area towards the back of the lounge which can be enclosed off with a door. No real need for me to utilize it today since I was alone, but I thought it was a nice area to check out. No extra charge for its use.

What's cool is that even though the lounge had other Starlux representatives at reception, my PA was the only member of staff I ever say here in the private F area. It was him who introduced and recommended food options, and conducted the table service.

I started with an iced americano, and their signature welcome drink which was a lovely fruit tea, refreshing and not overly sweet. This came with a hot towel.

I first went with the 'Toriki Chicken Skewers Set' which was accompanied by an egg roll, small salad, warm and crispy rice ball, and a miso soup. The skewers were the highlight as they were delicious with the chili flakes, the rice ball was slightly heavy considering the massive congee set that came next. 

This was really the highlight. The 'shrimp and dried scallop congee w/abalone'. Everything here was absolutely incredible, probably the best a-la-carte dish I've ever had at an airport. The congee was so incredibly delicious with the fresh seafood, salted to perfection. The spicy pickled raddish also complimented it perfectly. The egg roll was the same from the previous dish, and the fried dough stick stuffed with shrimp was also fantastic. If not for the massive portion, I definitely could've done another.

I then asked my PA if I could do the skewers again but just the skewers and the egg roll.

Both of these dishes, I believe were F exclusive. The other one from the menu exclusive to F was the minced meat rice, which is a Taiwanese classic.

I then headed off to the shower room which was probably the most high-tech looking and confusing shower I've ever seen. Look at all these buttons. I only ended up using the on/off and hot/cold functions. I did eventually realize one of the buttons opens up four smaller nozzles spitting smaller doses of water, which was pretty cool having water blasting from all directions. My PA also encouraged me to pack up any of the Le Labo products that I didn't use. The sink area also came stocked with amentities such as dental kits, more Le Labo products, and body lotion. 

Feeling more than refreshed, I returned to my table intended to head out for some planespotting. To my surprise, my PA had set up a small dessert for me. He shared that the Starlux team learned I recently celebrated my birthday, and they wanted to show their love! What an incredible gesture, again highlighting their soft product! Macaroons are my favorite dessert and these were also incredible, so was the brown sugar pudding, thank you Starlux!

My PA and I began our 20 minute or so walk back to our gate at T1. 

We descended the escalator and caught the flirst glimpse of our ride. Coincidentaly, it was the exact same plane as the one taking me back to TPE from LAX a month or so later. My PA continued to accompany me at the gate, and even suggested the best angles to grab the best pictures. 

As of this moment, Starlux's first A350-1000 has been completed with the 'A350-100' livery. Looks beautiful and can't wait to try that out sometime. It was finally to bode fairwell to my lovely PA. This personalized service throughout and up until boarding really speaks to Starlux's soft product. With its actual F seat being compared to a glorified business seat, these elements really add up. But does it justify the hefty price tags they place on full-fare F tickets, I still think not.

On we go! There's an extensive review of all the F seat features on my LAX-TPE report, so I'll skip some of the details today. Here's a look fro, the business cabin nearing end of boarding, notice how empty the cabin is. Although the LAX-TPE flight did have a heavier load, but not nearly enough to really justify having two LAX-TPE flights departing within 30 minutes of one another. If I recall correctly, maybe 4 business class seats were filled. For those who didn't tune into my other review, F is essentially the first row of business (where the partitions are higher), with slightly more space and slightly higher walls, but otherwise the hard product barely differs from business.

I didn't grab a picture of my seat upon boarding, here's one near landing. I was prodivded with the red/brown fleece blanket, a pillow, and the stocked minibar upon boarding.

I was offered some warm nuts and a welcome champagne, accompanied by a hot towel. For flights departing TPE, Starlux have collaborated with Venchi to provide some solid chocolates.

Here's a brief look at the menu. F offers this massive booklet feauturing nearly 10 pages of drinks. I didn't grab a picture of the food menu mainly because when I couldn't decide which main of the three I wanted to try, my purser simply said "why not try them all?", stay tuned!

The black leather exterior again highlights their sense of luxury. The leather resembling that of the menu Emirates uses on F. (A recent F Emirates flight saw them resort to a regular magazine style menu, no more of the leather, I wonder if that's the new norm)

For those who prefer, the menu is also browsable from the IFE. As I mentioned in the LAX review, Starlux has a massive IFE screen with great noise cancelling headphones, but the IFE variety is extremely lacking, one of the smallest selections on any airline.

Please do check out the other review for an in-depth review of the hard product! :)

Taxi and takeoff moved quite quickly early morning here at TPE, and we were off at 10:36, 4 minutes ahead of schedule.

The meal service commenced shortly after takeoff, with the appetizer being brought out with my choice of beverage. Fresh bubble tea is offered (I believe) in F and Business for flights departing TPE, this was awesome. The appetizers were light, with a piece of codfish, two Japanese style egg rolls, and a small piece of either yam or sweet potato :).

Then came the main that I ultimately decided to order, before being offered all three. This was the Iberican pork, mushrooms, with spicy miso dip. This came with a chilled meatball, pickled vegetables, miso soup, and steamed rice. This was phenomenal. I've only ever had sliced Iberican ham, never a full pork entree, and this truly exceeded expectations. The portion of pork was on the smaller side, but no complaints with the flavor. 10/10

Time for some drinks! All 5 of the signature cocktails were mentioned in my last review, today I went with one featuring orange and whisky, please ignore the fact its 10:30 in the morning.

The crew came around to suggest I try their Sauignon Blanc grape juice, offered as purple or white grape juice. This was wonderfully unique, I've never seen or tasted grape juice like this. I also liked that it wasn't overly sweet, as fruit juices can often be guilty of being.

Then came the second of three entrees. This was a cream roasted chicken breast with the same side dishes from earlier. I took a while to finish my side dishes from earlier, so my purser simply replaced just the main dish, which was completely fine! The chicken was also incredible, maybe not as perfect as the pork but an easy 9/10.

At this point I was already really stuffed, but my purser brought out the final main course anyway. The grilled eel was rather disappointing both in terms of flavor and amount of bones. I've never had a piece of eel with as many small bones as this. No complaints with the other two main courses.

Finally, an extensive fruit plate was offered along with a small fruit jello dessert. The fruit was a good variety and tasted fresh, the dessert was just alright, partly since I'm not a big kiwi fan.

I finished off meal service with another one of the five signature cocktails. This was the Bo Li Chun Galaxy featuring Bo Li Chun Tea, Gin, and soda water. 

The white packets are assorted snack mixes that were offered, along with a small goodie bag full of Starlux branded souvenirs to take home. 

I spent the remaining hour and a half or so catching up on sleep, and we touched down in NRT at 14:32, 33 minutes early. 
Wifi was available on the flight although I didn't use it. F passengers also received a small Lamer branded gift bag which featured some small amenities. 

Upon arrival, a gate agent greeted me and escorted me through fast track security. I must give Starlux huge props here. The lady was absolutely incredible. I think her duties only required her to take me past customs, but she insisted on staying behind for a while once I was exited past baggage claim to ask about my travel plans and if I needed any assistance at the airport. I mentioned that I heard of a planespotting deck and she immediately guided me toward it. When I asked if there was a place I could store my (many) bags, she escorted me down an escalator to the rentable lockers. Upon realizing it was cash only and I had squat, she even offered me 1000 yen to use, which I then headed back to the ATM after locking my bags away to return. How incredible is she? We passed by a Starbucks on our way down to the lockers and I asked if she could wait a quick sec so I could grab a coffee, she even came over and introduced how Japan offers a 'mini' size for their drinks if I wanted to try something new. Finally, I mentioned I would need to fly out of NRT T1 on Air China, and she physically accompanied me to the shuttle bus stop and even handed me a slip featuring detailed instructions of how to arrive at the observation deck from the lockers. Keep in mind, the lovely lady's English was rather limited and we spent most of the time communicating via Google translate, but never for a second did her smile fade nor show any hint of impatience, she was honestly the highlight of this trip. 

There's no 20/10 option for the arrival airport services on flightreport, i would give her 100 if I could