Time for an introduction for my next trip! I’ll be taking a short vacation in Bangkok, Thailand. I’m pretty excited about this trip because I’ve never been to Thailand before and I’ll get to review some airlines I’ve been wanting to try for a while and a lot of lounges!
Unfortunately, I won’t be taking any complex routes to get to Bangkok. It’ll just be a simple route with a layover in Taipei for both directions. The really neat thing about this trip is that I’ll be able to review all 3 of Taiwan’s airlines. It’ll be interesting to see how they all compare against one another and I can’t wait.
The main reason for taking this trip was because several months ago, Taiwan based airline Starlux became bookable through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. This was a huge deal at the time because Alaska ran a promotion for this new partnership where you could book Starlux business class for 60,000 miles one way! That’s a terrific price and one that I knew I had to jump on immediately.
I quickly booked the outbound and inbound legs from LAX<>TPE on Starlux and was now stuck wondering what I wanted my final destination to be. I knew that I didn’t want to stay in Taiwan because I had actually just come back from Taiwan flying both Japan Airlines Business Class and Cathay Pacific Business Class as part of that trip.
Looking around in Asia, Thailand stood out to me because I had always heard good things about Bangkok. After a little bit of contemplation, I decided that Bangkok would be a fun place to visit and then started planning out how I wanted to fly to Bangkok from Taipei.
I’ll get more into the reasoning of why I picked certain flights later on but I ended up picking China Airlines and Eva Air as the airlines to get me to and from Bangkok respectively.
Looking back, I kind of regret not booking a TPE-BKK leg on Starlux. It would have been cool to be able to review their short haul experience. But it’s ok since I was able to put a good plan in place with some alternate flights that allow me to review some great lounges.
In total, the trip will involve 3 different airlines and span 16,691 miles!
One notable thing about this trip is that I expect to review A LOT of lounges along my journey. Even though it’s supposed to be a vacation, I view this as sort of a review trip because I’ll be so busy moving between all the lounges during my layover and before my departures.
Airlines I Will Fly
For the long haul segments of this trip between Los Angeles and Taipei, I’ll be flying Starlux Airlines business class on their A350-900. I’m pretty excited about these flights since their business class product looks terrific and I’ve heard great things about the experience. I’m intrigued to see how these two segments will compare against each other since I’ve heard that the ex-Taipei leg is a much better experience than the ex-US leg.
After landing in Taipei, I’ll be doing a self transfer to China Airlines to fly their regional business class on their A330-300. China Airlines has a solid business class product on their long haul between the US and Taipei but I haven’t heard too much about their Intra Asia business class experience. I’m curious to see what it’ll be like!
For the final short haul segment flying from Bangkok to Taipei, I’ll be on Eva Air’s business class on their Boeing 777-300. I originally wanted to get a flight on their Boeing 787-10 since it features their new business class seats but unfortunately, there was no availability for the times I was looking at.
However, their 777-300 business class product is still regarded as very good. Eva also uses this aircraft on their long haul flights so I’m looking forward to seeing how the experience will be on this short flight.
Lounges I Will Visit
I’m somewhat dreading this part of the trip because of how tiring it’s going to be haha. I plan on visiting 11 lounges in total! My time transiting through Taoyuan Airport will be especially hectic since I have to not only self transfer but also efficiently visit the majority of the lounges on this list.
I was strategic in picking which airlines I wanted to fly into and out of Bangkok since I wanted access to specific lounges during my journey.
To start things off, I had heard good things about the China Airlines VIP lounge in TPE and how it might be the best lounge in the airport. I knew that was one I had to visit so that’s why I specifically chose to fly China Airlines out of TPE to gain access to their lounges.
For departing Bangkok, I saw that there was a strong Star Alliance presence in BKK and that a lot of people seemed to like the Singapore Airlines and Eva Air Business Class lounges. These two factors made it an easy choice to pick Eva Air to gain access to these Star Alliance lounges.
If all goes well on this trip then you can expect reviews of the
- OneWorld Business Class Lounge LAX
- China Airlines VIP Lounge Terminal 2 TPE
- China Airlines Dynasty Lounge Terminal 2 TPE
- Plaza Premium Lounge Zone A TPE
- China Airlines VIP Lounge Terminal 1 TPE
- Oriental Club Lounge TPE
- Starlux Galactic Lounge Terminal 2 TPE
- Eva Air Business Class Lounge BKK
- Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class Lounge BKK
- Oman Air First and Business Class Lounge BKK
- Thai Airways Royal Orchid Prestige Business Class Lounge BKK
Conclusion
I’m super excited to visit Thailand for the first time. The awesome thing is that I’m fortunate enough to be able to try the 3 Taiwan airlines all in the same journey. I can’t wait to try Starlux’s A350-900 business class and see some cool lounges along the way. Excited to bring you guys lots of reviews!
What is your favorite lounge in Taipei or Bangkok?
