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Alaska Airlines and Starlux (the Taiwan-based airline) launched a partnership earlier this year, and mileage redemptions with Alaska Mileage Plan miles are now live. That means you can book Starlux awards. And I'm not just saying, “In theory, you can book awards.” You really can book awards…pretty much any day you want.
Let's show you how to take advantage of this award availability for a dream trip to Taiwan or onward to other points in Asia.
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Starlux Award Availability With Alaska Miles
Starlux is a relatively new airline, established in 2018 before its first flight from its base in Taiwan (TPE airport) to Macau (MFM) in January 2020. The airline operates a fleet of A321neo and A330neo planes with business- and economy-class seats for destinations in Asia. However, Starlux uses Airbus A350-900 aircraft with four cabins of service (first, business, premium economy, and economy) for routes between TPE and Los Angeles (LAX).
Los Angeles to Taipei, Taiwan
Availability isn't an issue on these awards. You can use Alaska miles from LAX to TPE from now through the end of the schedule (June of 2024).
Here's an idea of availability for economy awards in September, which is the WORST month for availability right now:
Other than dates around New Year and Christmas, you'll find tons of availability. And business-class awards are even easier to find than economy, which is nuts:
Here's a look at pricing:
Despite some bad partner award charts recently and a move to dynamic pricing, the prices on these awards are quite good. You'll pay 20,000 miles per passenger in economy, 40k in premium economy, and 60k in business class. Paying just $19 in taxes and fees is fantastic, as well. However, we aren't finding any availability in first class at this moment.
Remember that you can add stopovers to Alaska Airlines awards to add further value.
Onward flights from Taipei, Taiwan
Unfortunately, pricing here isn't great. You might be better off buying a flight to your next destination with one of the many low-cost carriers around Asia.
You're paying nearly double to connect to onward points like Bangkok (BKK, pictured above), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), or other Starlux destinations. Adding 45k–65k more miles for this connecting flight isn't worth it.
Return flights
Availability is fantastic. Other than a break in awards from Christmas through early January, you can fly home nearly any day you want in any class. You should first search for availability from your destination to TPE (if you need a connecting flight), and then search for the whole award from there to LAX.
Bottom Line
Starlux has made big waves lately, and its business class looks great. There's fantastic award availability using Alaska miles here, and you can easily shuttle between Los Angeles and Taipei nearly any day you want. Prices are pretty good on this route, but pricing to add a connecting flight further into Asia is downright bad.
There's a crazy amount of availability for Starlux flights using Alaska miles, but we don't know how long this will last. Moving quickly here isn't a bad idea.
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