Booking Starlux Airlines
What started as sharing my experience on one booking has now turned into multiple trips with more booked and a sweet spot for Asia if you have Atmos Rewards. Starlux is a Taiwanese international airline company headquartered in Taipei. Its first flights launched on January 23, 2020, and expanded to North America in 2023. It is one of the newer international carriers available to us, and hasn't received as much attention, although that is now changing. I have now been able to book multiple flights over the last couple years with Starlux. I will go over booking and sweet spots for finding space. Let's dive in!
Starlux Booking Options
Assuming you don't want to book your Starlux Airlines with cash, your options for award flights are a bit limited. Starlux has its own rewards program, called COSMILE, but that isn't useful for most. The option that we want to focus on is its partnership with Alaska Airlines (and using the now renamed Atmos Rewards) that started back in April of 2023. When airlines have a partnership, it typically allows you to earn and redeem miles between the two airlines. It also allows you to book connecting flights on a single ticket between two airlines. That is assuming your award search shows those options, of course.
How I Book
The Alaska partnership has meant I can use Atmos miles to book a Starlux Airlines flight. There are some basic steps as well as some tendencies, which are always important to know before any search. The more you search, the more you see patterns. I will also make an important reminder. Many like to rely on aggregator sites, and we are not fans of them. This search and my experience is a great example of why. These are third-party sites that search and alert you to space, but they miss a lot. In many of my searches, I have tested alerts. I have found that if I am actively searching, I am booking many flights without ever getting an alert. I will say I have gotten and enjoy the service and alerts from Thrifty Traveler, which is a better use of alerts if you have some flexibility with your dates. I have often gotten alerts for my dates by luck, and it is a valuable service for all your travel.
Searching For Availability
Here are the steps I take to search for space via the Alaska Airlines website. I always start with SEA (Seattle) to TPE (Taipei) for my searches, as that is the long-haul first flight and where you want to start. I do the same coming back as I start with TPE-SEA. The key is to choose “Use Miles” and “Flexible Dates.” You do not need miles in your account to search or be logged in, but will need them once you are ready to book, as you will need to log in.
When the initial search and calendar come up, it will default to the lowest price available. You want to go to the drop-down menu and choose “Partner Business.”
Once you have chosen partner business, you will see the calendar. The availability you are looking for is 75K. You may see other partner availability in these searches, as well. Those other partners and/or availability tend to be different pricing, usually in the 95K-110K range.
Once you choose that date with the 75K, you can view the flights and how many seats are left (sometimes). I get mixed results with this. I have flown this route and then booked a separate flight to where I want to go within Asia. The other option is to then do your search the exact same way as above but adding in other cities.
More Search Tips
This option with Starlux will show 85K now if adding a city in. In this example the 85K will get you in Business Class (J) on both legs. You are usually at the mercy of what's available.
If the TPE-BKK leg in my route example is not in Business, you will see “mixed itinerary.” Then simply add to your cart to see what the other leg is. I do not hold out for both in business, I take the economy on the shorter leg, otherwise that long haul space can be gone in minutes. It is good to remember that there is a non-refundable partner booking fee as part of the booking. This is waived if you have the Atmos Summit credit card.
Sweet Spots and Tendencies
This is one of my favorite parts of award searches! Diving in, searching everyday and seeing all the tendencies or patterns that occur with searches. It is the basis of a lot of my award bookings. And repetition and practice can help, no matter where in the world you want to go.
Availability In Different Cities
One of the nice things is when you are searching, technically you should only have to search from one city. For example, if I am searching from Seattle (SEA) it will still show up but as 85K. This means it is available but from a different city, which will show in the search. You can then elect to either book as is for 85K, which will include your repositioning flight essentially to that other city. I will note that I have seen the Phoenix (PHX) searches do different results at times. So just in case, I may do a SEA search and a PHX search to make sure.
The alternative is to book at 75K from that city or LAX in this example and book your own separate repositioning flight to get to that airport.
If you are scared about the “mixed itinerary” here, do not be. That search indicates there is Business Class availability, which will be confirmed when you add the flight to your cart.
When To Book
One of the great things about Starlux is last-minute availability. Having booked this on multiple trips even recently as close as just 30 hours out, I can say with confidence it is pretty consistent. Is it guaranteed? Definitely not. But, outside of some rare droughts of space, I almost always find something even if I need to wait until the day before. I tend to start to see space in the 3-5 day range. Other times as I was updating this, I saw 7-10 days worth of space—so you just never know.
On my most recent trip, I booked and canceled several flights as I worked toward the exact flight I wanted. I was able to book a flight the week of and within a couple days almost like clockwork from at least one airport. I will note that there is never a guarantee your points come back immediately. However, in each booking and rebooking I have made, it has been instant. I always cancel and rebook and avoid trying to change the flight. I tried this once and it created a mess.
Let's talk time. I will probably disagree with some of the DPs (data points) I see often. Many times, I see midnight in Seattle mentioned frequently in threads and forums. I am not so sure, but can tell you from experience that I have booked flights all throughout the day. My last flight, for example, was booked back from Asia at 6 p.m. Pacific Time.
How Many Seats?
Can I find more than one seat? Maybe. I have seen as many as six seats available from airports last minute. My recommendation is to always start searches with one even if wanting more. I like to identify the one seat at least and then go up from there. If the site doesn't show you the number, simply click on change your search and enter two as an example.
Other Booking Options
The end of the calendar or when the calendar opens is another option. This is not as consistent in my experience. My alternative is to ABS or always be searching, because I have often picked up scattered availability throughout the year. For example, while updating this article, I found five dates not in the next 30 days that were scattered throughout the year.
I picked up a random December date recently, which was perfect for what I needed. In this scenario, I booked TPE-SEA because that is what was available. I will need my own repositioning flight to TPE or pull a last-minute switch to make the whole trip 85K. Adding on a Starlux flight for that leg becomes a bit more difficult. I love to book last-minute, but if scattered dates come up that work, I grab them. Finally, it is worth stating again: This space goes fast! Book now, think later as we say.
Booking Starlux Airlines With Alaska Miles: ToP Thoughts
My experience booking Starlux Airlines with Atmos miles has become easy and my Asia go-to. Hopefully the lessons I learned and booking tendencies will help you when it is your turn. I love having another option to Asia, and it's a good use of Atmos points. This may be what you use your Bilt Rewards points for too, since Alaska is a transfer partner as well. Have you booked Starlux yet? Let us know your thoughts over in our Facebook Group.
