Alaska Partners With Premium Taiwanese Airline Starlux

This is perhaps the most exciting airline partnership announcement in recent memory.

Alaska Airlines has welcomed Starlux into its fold as its latest airline partner. This means even more air mile earning and burning possibilities for members of its Mileage Plus frequent flyer program.

“Starlux is a premier global airline offering world-class service and amenities,” said Nap Pieper, senior vice president of fleet, finance and alliances at Alaska Airlines. “We’re proud to be their first airline partner.”

This announcement comes on the same day that Starlux made its inaugural arrival in Los Angeles.

Let’s delve into the details of this most exciting new airline partnership and how it could benefit you.

Alaska and Starlux’s New Partnership

When airlines establish a partnership, it creates a number of benefits for both the airline and the passengers.

The main 2 benefits are: passengers being able to fly both airlines on a one-ticket itinerary and earning and redeeming miles on both airlines.

This means that members of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan will now be able to earn miles when flying Starlux.

While Starlux currently only operates 1 route to the U.S. from Taipei to Los Angeles, passengers will be able to connect seamlessly on Alaska Airlines from across the U.S. onto Starlux’s Taipei service departing from LAX.

Mileage Plan members will also be able to redeem their miles to fly Starlux between Los Angeles and Taipei later this summer.

The one-way mileage costs are expected to be reasonable:

• Economy — from 20,000
• Premium economy — from 40,000
• Business class — from 60,000

There’s also first-class seating onboard Starlux’s Airbus A350 jets that operate the route, though these don’t appear to be redeemable for points at the moment.

As a logical next step, Starlux’s partnership with Oneworld Alliance member Alaska Airlines could also be a precursor to the Taiwanese carrier also becoming a Oneworld member airline later down the line.

Given that Taiwan’s other main international carriers EVA Air and China Airlines are members of Star Alliance and Sky Team, respectively, Oneworld would be the obvious choice for Starlux.

Starlux Airlines: In Brief

Starlux’s ethos is to make being on its planes become “the core element of a pleasurable travel experience” for its passengers.

After 3 years of success doing exactly that on short-haul routes around Asia, the airline has set its sights on its first long-haul destination: Los Angeles.

As well as this latest addition, its route network currently includes the following 16 destinations in Asia: Bangkok (BKK), Cebu (CEB), Da Nang (DAD), Fukuoka (FUK), Hanoi (HAN), Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Macau (MFM), Manila (MNL), Okinawa (OKA), Osaka (KIX), Penang (PEN), Sapporo (CTS), Sendai (SDJ), Singapore (SIN), and Tokyo (NRT).

The airline boasts an all-Airbus, state-of-the-art fleet of 20 aircraft comprised of the A321neo, the A330-900, and the A350-900 — the aircraft that operates its Taipei to LA route.

Final Thoughts

There’s a new way of earning and burning miles thanks to Alaska Airlines’ partnership with Starlux. This means that effective this summer, Alaska Mileage Plan members will be able to redeem their miles on Starlux flights from the U.S. to Taiwan and beyond.

Here’s to the continued growth of both this airline partnership and Starlux’s U.S. and global route network.