Back to Osaka station I went as I started my journey towards Taiwan.
As previously mentioned, I'd be on Starlux Premium Economy for this hop, mainly because that ended up being the cheapest flight I could find at only 10k Alaska MileagePlan miles, making it competitive even with cash fares on low cost carriers, many of which were around $100.
My rail pass included seats on the Limited Express Haruka train to the airport, so in the interest of squeezing a little bit more value out of the pass before I left, I of course went down to take the Hello Kitty train. It helps that the platform for this train - famously far from the rest of the station - happen to be right next to the closest station entrance from my hotel.
Of course my last train in Japan is also delayed 🙃. They had to send me off with a taste of home.
Hello Kitty train
Half an hour later, we were here.
Welcome to Kansai International Airport.
Starlux did not have special checkin lines for Premium Economy, so I went and got in line for Economy check-in. I had not noticed the little sticker above the arrow that said JX 823; I was booked on JX 821 and they ended up pulling me out of the line and checking me in separately, because they were about to close checkin for my flight and the line wasn't moving.
They weighed my carryon rollerboard and made me check it because it was more than 7kg.
Got a cool space-themed boarding pass, and I'm just now noticing this while typing this up, but in the bottom right corner, this boarding pass says Sapphire too! I feel like I'm losing my mind here. Does Alaska and AA want to start giving me MVP Gold benefits at home too? That would be great.
There was quite a long line for security but the line moved fast, and soon I was out of the country, dropped into the duty free area.
I walked to the Priority Pass lounge near gate 12, which apparently closes at 12:45pm and they were no longer letting people in. Instead, they directed us to another lounge by the nearby terminal shuttle station, which was not in the Priority Pass app as far as I could tell, but took my Priority Pass anyways.
Fairly slim pickings, but with a 30 minute delay on my flight, I was happy to get some free food.
30 minutes late, but boarding began. Premium Economy was invited to board with zone 2.
Starlux Airlines JX 821: KIX – TPE
Airbus A350-900, B-58501
6/21/2025 13:25 JST – 15:20 TST
Premium Economy, 20A (window)
There's so little coverage of Starlux's product on this forum that I'll try to fill it out a bit. I was in the Premium Economy bulkhead, which had no storage during takeoff and landing, but at least had nice bright video monitors mounted on the bulkhead wall.
Most of the cabin ended up staying fairly empty for the flight; I had the seat next to me empty.
No personal air vents.
Separate power outlets for each person were available, as well as a leg rest and very mediocre recline.
This is my first time seeing these new A350 windows with the automatic dimmer, and they're a marked improvement over what the 787 has. Not only is it much faster, but also the LED indicators show both the current target darkness as well as the progress the window has made towards that darkness level, so that you know whether you've already keyed in the value you want and are just waiting for the tint to catch up, or if you need to adjust it more. They're still slower than a physical blind, but for the ability to look out the window without waking everyone around me, I like them. They also get really dark on the lowest setting.
Starlux's space-y safety video played as we began the pushback and taxi.
Menus were only available in the IFE.
And soon, I had to bid Japan goodbye.
The crew darkened the windows after takeoff, although luckily they did not lock them.
Provided with the seat were a thin but respectably soft blanket and a not-very-good pillow.
Lunch was served all on one tray.
This tasted like the best economy meal I've ever had, but nothing you'd mistake for business class. The meat was slathered with some very flavorful sauce that helped it go down, and the sides were unmemorable but edible. Real tableware was provided, but otherwise, nothing about the meal itself felt elevated from what the best airlines serve in economy.
In general, I guess that's how I feel about this product as a whole. It feels like a very good economy class product - nothing more. The recline on the seat was rather anemic and certainly wouldn't be something I'd want to sleep in on a long haul flight. The food felt like good economy food with tableware. The seat itself wasn't even that much wider than an economy seat - maybe an extra inch at most (I just checked Aerolopa and it says it's only 0.7 inches wider per seat compared to Economy on the same plane). For the 10k Alaska MileagePlan miles I paid, this is certainly one of the best flights I've had at that price point, but I wouldn't shell out hundreds or even thousands more to fly this over economy. Perhaps that's why this cabin was so empty.
Some okay overear headphones were provided (better than Qatar's First class headphones, at least, in that both ears worked). The IFE selection was okay, though the English selection was not on the level of Qatar, Emirates, or most US carriers. There was free wifi for Premium Economy passengers, though, which didn't activate until we were 10k feet in the air, but was fairly reliable once connected.
And with that, we landed into Taipei.
After letting business class off first, I was permitted to step into Taiwan.
A very long wait at passport control did thankfully mean my bag was already on the belt by the time I got there, so at least getting my bag checked didn't lose me any time.
Taiwan is doing a lottery thing for visitors where you can win, among other things, a preloaded EasyCard, which is the prize I wanted. So I started off my trip with some light gambling. Unfortunately, I did not win.
The airport MRT does take credit card tap-to-pay, so that wasn't a problem.
Unfortunately, once I hit Taipei Main Station, my transfer onto the Taipei Metro would require an EasyCard, and that's when I discovered that all the vending machines that sell EasyCards do not take 1000 NTD bills, nor do they take coins, which composed all the NTD I had on me. After way too long trying to figure out what to do (I briefly got in a very long line at a 7/11 before giving up), I just bought a single journey ticket and decided to figure out my EasyCard problem later, somewhere less crowded.
Really wish I had won the lottery right about now.
And here is the Aloft Taipei Zhongshan, my final hotel of the trip.
My room directly faced a busy street, so this was another property where earplugs were a necessity.
The bathroom had a recessed tub right up against a window.
Breakfast was in the restaurant upstairs.
Among some normal breakfast foods, there was also a rotating selection of strangely heavy dishes like noodles and stir-fried pork.
Eggs were cooked to order.
I did end up buying an EasyCard from a 7/11 near the hotel, which was willing to take my 1000 NTD bills.
Other pictures from Taipei:
I did not know Don Quijote had stores here.
And soon, it was time to pack up and head back to the airport for a Starlux Business Class flight back home to the US.