StarLux continues to put on a brave face, recruiting staff in Japan:
Guy
LAX, Chicago, Miami, more planned.
My 2¢: flew StarLux from Osaka to Taipei, caught a cheap two-way ticket on eDreams (cheap but shady: eDreams advertised it as a ticket sold by “Nice Helicopteres”; no idea what happened there). Solid airline, roomy seats, provided a good meal by air meal standards, which I don’t even remember ever getting on such a short trip.
May I ask what the fare was for this route?
Guy
Oh wow thanks for asking actually!
On the confirmation email they say the total cost of the reservation was $390 (USD).
On my credit card statement these m**fers charged me $530!
Guess I’m headed for a CC dispute…
Bloody hell!
If you’re flying out of Osaka, why isn’t the ticket issued in JPY?
Given the exchange rates lately, that would surely be favourable to you. 
Guy
I don’t think it works that way… anyways the whole thing was rightfully shady. Really the last time I go through 3rd party travel agencies.
Big fan of Starlux, but to change your reservation, you have to make a call (or contact the online support chat, which seems to not be in service even during the service hours listed on the website, so you basically have to make a phone call). No way to do it from their online platform.
Update:
And if you have to pay some additional fee (e.g. the day you’re changing your flight to is more expensive + a small change fee), you have to say your credit card info over the phone.
They have a beautiful, modern mobile app and website (compared to EVA Air and China Airlines), so having to change your reservation over the phone is kind of surprising and a real drag.
I’m looking forward to flying Starlux soon though, and I hope they can add more functionality to their app and website in the near future! 
Always wanted to try them while was still in HK for their MFM (Macau) to TPE flight, flights from Macau always cheaper than from HK, but then… COVID.
Exciting to see small new airlines doing things right and not the usual LCC thing, but now unless the fare is cheaper than BR or CI, I don’t know when I’ll be able to try them out.
It’s crazy to think that this market can possibly sustain three full-cost carriers.
Even South Korea (which has what, double our population?) claims that they can only accommodate one carrier to be competitive—hence the attempt to merge Asiana into Korean Air.
Guy
Gonna add, I dig the Pixar-esque cabin instructions before the flight. Glad to see companies are finding ways to make that boring announcement entertaining.
Might be sustainable for the same reason both our carriers were profitable the whole pandemic - high tech cargo shipments. Just guessing but maybe unlike other carriers, here higher percentage of income/business is from cargo.
Do South Korea not ship a lot of tech stuff too? Admittedly a lot of it is LG and not worth shipping anywhere…
Here TSMC is a behemoth, in SK samsung is just one of many behemoths so proportion of semiconductor shipments to total shipments is probably lower.
they make some semiconductor, not as many as TW though. And most Samsung/LG branded stuff is now made outside of Korea. Samsung now moved a lot to Vietnam from China, LG not too sure, but my last Korean phone (was a fan of LG, then moved to Samsung since LG died) was I think the LG G2…
Okay, but not to get too sidetracked with semiconductors, both are massive export economies. The quantum of all exports is not dramatically different between South Korean and Taiwan surely?
Interesting - Starlux plans to add ATR aircraft as well at the end of next year and serve domestic routes. Somehow I can see the market sustaining three full-cost carriers for international routes, but for domestic routes, it seems like tough competition.
StarLux’s first A350 (also Taiwan’s first A350, I believe) arrived in Taoyuan yesterday
Epilogue: CC dispute worked, eDreams will refund the extra $140 they charged.