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Starlux, the luxury Taiwanese airline, is continuing to build on its partnership with Etihad Airways. The partnership launched in 2025 as a codeshare agreement. As of this week, you can now book Starlux-operated flights using Etihad Guest miles.
In principle, this sounds great, since Starlux is not part of an alliance, and you can't transfer any points or miles directly to the Starlux COSMILE program. That makes it pretty challenging to book an award flight on Starlux metal.
More partnerships mean more ways to book coveted premium-cabin award flights to Taiwan. However, as we'll see, Etihad may not be the best way to book these awards.
Booking Starlux With Etihad Miles
On August 11, 2026, Etihad announced a frequent flyer partnership with Starlux Airlines COSMILE. This partnership gives you the opportunity to use Etihad Guest Miles on flights across STARLUX's entire network. Although it doesn't have a super extensive network, Starlux does operate flights to five U.S. gateways:
- Seattle (SEA)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- Ontario (ONT)
- Phoenix (PHX)
However, the partnership won't end there. Etihad Guest members will soon be able to earn Etihad Guest Miles on Starlux flights, and COSMILE members will be able to earn and redeem miles across Etihad's network. This reciprocal partnership should roll out later this year.
Award flights are already live, so how much will they cost? Luckily, Etihad uses a distance-based award chart for partner airlines, so you can reasonably know how much you'll spend:
The ability to book Starlux awards through Etihad Guest is exciting, but as you can see from the award chart, the price is quite hefty. If you're based in the U.S., every flight will fall into the final distance band.
That means flights from the U.S. to Taiwan start at 75,000 miles in economy and almost 140,000 miles in business class. The fees are reasonable at $34, but this award pricing doesn't make it the most cost-effective way to get to Asia.
The excitement of this partnership is also tempered by Etihad's punitive cancellation policies when booking partner award flights. It's virtually impossible to get a refund on award tickets, and if you are successful in getting a refund, it'll be much less than what you originally paid thanks to some convoluted math.
In short, only book a Starlux award using Etihad Guest miles if you are 100% certain you'll take the flight.
Other Ways To Book Starlux Awards
Starlux has been bookable through Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards since 2023, and it's one of the best ways to book Starlux with points and miles. Alaska also uses a distance-based partner award chart, though these are “starting at” values, so they could potentially get much higher.
However, the distance bands are different, and four of the five U.S. routes (excluding Phoenix) fall into the 5,001 to 7,000 mile distance band. That means you can book Starlux awards to Taiwan for just 37,500 Atmos Rewards points in economy or 75,000 points in business.
That's right — the same Los Angeles (LAX) to Taipei (TPE) flight above only costs 37,500 points in economy or 75,000 in business class. That is exactly half the price of Etihad's economy fare and nearly half of its business fare. Plus, as you can see from the screenshot below, premium economy seats are bookable through Alaska Atmos, while Etihad did not show availability.
The downside is that Atmos Rewards is only a transfer partner of Bilt. So, unless you are accumulating Alaska points through flying or credit card spending, these miles — and thus booking Starlux for less — are harder to come by.
How To Earn Etihad Guest Miles
Although the award price is relatively high, the expanded Etihad and Starlux partnership offers more opportunities to book Starlux flights using points and miles.
Etihad Guest is a transfer partner of several major transferable point currencies. Note that American Express recently dropped Etihad as a partner.
In other words, if you earn Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou® Points, Bilt Points, or Rove Miles, you have access to this new partnership. Here are a few of our favorite cards that earn these miles:
$95
- 5X miles per dollar on purchases through Capital One Entertainment
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
$595Rates & Fees
- 12X – Earn 12 Points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com.
- 6X – Earn 6 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel booked on cititravel.com.
- 6X – Earn 6 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants including Restaurant Delivery Services on CitiNights℠ purchases, every Friday and Saturday from 6 PM to 6 AM ET. Earn 3 Points per $1 spent any other time.
- 1.5X – Earn 1.5 Points per $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
- Choose to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend. Use Bilt Cash to unlock point earnings on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee, up to 1X.
- 1X points on everyday spend
Bottom Line
The ability to book Starlux awards with Etihad Guest miles is a solid development, but the cancellation policy and high price tag should make you think carefully before transferring your points. Booking through Atmos Rewards solves those two Etihad caveats, but if Atmos points aren't at your disposal, this is a decent way to get to Taiwan using miles.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (Rates & Fees), and Bilt Blue Card (Rates & Fees)
