✈️ My First STARLUX Redemption
After nearly two years of stockpiling Alaska miles, I finally made my first STARLUX award redemption — and I’m glad I waited. This trip marked my first time flying STARLUX, and it came together through a mix of patience, flexibility, and last-minute award hunting 💳📅
At the time of booking, I had a healthy balance of points spread across multiple programs:
Alaska Mileage Plan: 270,000 miles (no expiration)
United MileagePlus: 180,000 miles (no expiration)
American AAdvantage: 130,000 miles (no expiration)
ANA Mileage Club: 130,000 miles (does expire ⏳)
With this much optionality, I wasn’t in a rush to lock anything in early.
🔍 The Strategy: Playing the Last-Minute Award Game
For about two weeks leading up to my departure, I was checking flights every single day 👀
I noticed a consistent pattern:
last-minute award seats — typically same day to four days out (T-0 to T-4) — would often appear around noon Taipei time 🕛
Once I caught onto that rhythm, my daily routine looked like this:
🔎 Search award availability across Alaska, United, American, and ANA
💵 Monitor cash prices at the same time
⚖️ Compare routing, cabin, and arrival times — not just mileage cost
Cash fares during this period were surprisingly reasonable:
Around $500 for itineraries with layovers - vs - around $800 for nonstop options
At those prices, I was comfortable waiting until the last minute and taking the risk 🎯 — especially knowing I had multiple mileage currencies as backup.
✈️ The Decision: Alaska vs. United
On December 19, two solid options finally lined up.
Option 1️⃣: Alaska Mileage Plan (Chosen)
✈️ TPE → SFO in STARLUX Business Class
✈️ SFO → EWR in Alaska First Class (~30 minutes from home)
💰 85,000 miles + ~$50
🕰️ Depart: Evening 12/20 → Arrive: ~6:00 AM on 12/21
Option 2️⃣: United MileagePlus
✈️ TSA → HND → JFK, all in ANA Business Class
🛫 HND → JFK on ANA “The Room”
📍 ~2 hours from home
💰 100,000 miles + ~$12
🕰️ Depart: Afternoon 12/21 → Arrive: ~10:00 PM on 12/21
Even a few hours before departure, I was still seeing ANA “The Room” availability pop up (including alternate routings via NRT).
Normally, The Room would have been more tempting, but timing mattered 📆. With work on Monday, arriving early in the morning instead of late at night made all the difference — tipping the scales in favor of STARLUX ⭐
🛋️ Lounge Experience
🍜 STARLUX Lounge — Taipei (TPE)
The STARLUX Lounge in Taipei offers a huge variety of food options, including a buffet with salads, hot dishes, desserts, ice cream, and draft beer. Each table also has a QR code for ordering made-to-order dishes, which adds a nice restaurant-style touch.
I arrived early and made it a point to try just about everything.
Most dishes were mediocre to good, but a few stood out as genuinely excellent for airport lounge food 👌 The Biang Biang noodles were especially impressive — easily my favorite dish of the visit. The glutinous rice ball was also a highlight, made even better by the fact that it happened to be Winter Solstice that day.
While not every item was a hit, the standout dishes made the lounge experience well worth it — especially before a long-haul flight. I’ll be sharing a separate, more detailed post on the STARLUX Lounge soon.
🍺 Alaska Lounge — San Francisco (SFO)
The Alaska Lounge at SFO was much less memorable by comparison. There’s an open bar, so I grabbed a beer and relaxed between flights. The space itself was fairly roomy and comfortable, but the food selection wasn’t worth mentioning.
It did the job for a short layover, but nothing more than that.
💭 Final Thoughts
This redemption felt especially satisfying after holding onto Alaska miles for so long. Being patient, watching patterns, and staying flexible paid off 🧠✨
For 85,000 miles, I got:
🌏 A premium transpacific flight on STARLUX
💺 A domestic First Class connection
⏰ A schedule that actually fit real-life obligations
That’s a win in my book. 🏆