For those of you that complained that The Alviator was getting too corporate and the nerd spark was disappearing, here you go…
A month or so ago, I wrote about my newfound airline crush StarFlyer, the ambitious Japanese hybrid carrier that offered 34″ pitch with footrests and PTVs at all seats. During my recent review trip around the world, I managed to schedule in a leg on StarFlyer from Tokyo Haneda to Fukuoka. I was really interested in this airline, and was excited to finally meet this airline in person.
Sadly the date felt a little underwhelming to me – the airline came with all the features it advertised (in other words, I wasn’t catfished), but I didn’t connect with the brand as much as I’d hoped. Many of the passenger experience investments were in areas that didn’t matter to me, whereas they didn’t stand out in any of the areas that I personally prioritised. To me, it felt like the airline wanted to be impressive on paper (advertising PTVs on a domestic flight, 34″ pitch and footrests, a dedicated security screening channel, music in the gate area, etc.), though didn’t actually hit any of the elements of what I personally would consider an elevated experience, such as upgraded catering compared to domestic competitors, or WiFi on their older fleet. And that’s okay – I’m sure that the airline has a target market, but I’m not it.
Given the airline’s fairly limited route network, the lack of frequent flyer earn and redeem options apart from ANA Mileage Club, and the lack of WiFi onboard the airline’s older fleet, I’m not sure I’d seek out the airline in the future in place of Japan Airlines or ANA (you do however get priority boarding with Star Alliance Star Gold status, though, as the airline partners with ANA). Here’s a post detailing my first impressions, and I’ll have a full review in the coming weeks.
StarFlyer’s A320 Cabin: Fine, But A Bit Tired
StarFlyer’s A320s come in an all-economy cabin. While most A320s featuring all-economy cabins have 180 seats, StarFlyer’s A320s only have 150 seats, due to the 34″ seat pitch between seats. Despite the airline’s mention of nose-to-tail designer cabins (including the fuselage), I found the seats to be remarkably similar to the Korean Air 737 seats I’d flown the night prior – I think they’re a slightly modified version of those Weber 5751 seats, though I’m not sure.
I guess the black leather is sleek, though it’s definitely lost its lustre over the years the airline’s been flying.
StarFlyer A320 Cabin
The 34″ seat pitch is indeed on the generous side, and I like that there’s a footrest. However, realistically I didn’t find this to make much of a difference on the 2h 20m flight from Tokyo Haneda to Fukuoka.
StarFlyer A320 Footrest
There are also shared power ports between seats. While I appreciated this, I would’ve preferred for the sockets to be truly universal, as this was the type of power port that wasn’t compatible with UK/Hong Kong/Singapore style power ports. Fortunately I had an adapter on me, despite the fact that it kept falling out of the port.
StarFlyer A320 Power Port
StarFlyer’s A320 Entertainment System: I Would’ve Much Preferred WiFi Instead…
StarFlyer’s older A320s feature individual seatback screens and no WiFi, whereas their newer A320neos feature WiFi but no seatback entertainment screens. This flight was operated by an older A320, and I was curious to see what selection they’d feature on their seatback screens.
StarFlyer A320 Personal TV Screen
So what’s StarFlyer’s entertainment selection like? Not great, unfortunately. There were 8 audio and 12 video channels to choose from, and you could basically pick a channel to watch. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been on a plane with PTV screens but no audio-video on demand (AVOD) system, but I guess this was one of those cases.
StarFlyer A320 Inflight Entertainment Selection
Given that Japan Airlines and ANA both have free WiFi on a bulk of their domestic routes, I wished I would’ve been on one of their planes instead. It’s also worth noting that StarFlyer’s own A320neos have free WiFi as well, so I’d try and shoot for one of those aircraft in the future (those planes are weird – there’s 34″ seat pitch in the front half of the cabin, but just 31″ in the rear half).
In this case, the investments they made in the passenger experience really didn’t matter to me
Sometimes you go on a date, it’s amicable, but you part ways because you have different priorities. In this case, I didn’t connect with StarFlyer’s priorities. The main investments they made to the passenger experience were the increased seat pitch, footrest, and PTVs. While impressive, I didn’t think any of these were necessary on my short 2h 20m flight, and actually missed the investments made by other airlines, such as onboard WiFi.
They also made a few other investments in the passenger experience that, while I noticed, I didn’t connect with.
A dedicated security screening section at Haneda Airport just for StarFlyer passengers? Cool! Unfortunately StarFlyer’s security area is the only one in the terminal that still has the old-style security scanners, so you have to take your liquids and electronics out (the Japan Airlines security check gates feature the new-style scanners where you can leave everything in your bag).
StarFlyer Dedicated Security Check at Haneda Airport
Then the jazz piano music and StarFlyer video playing in the gate area was also fine, though not something I particularly cared about.
StarFlyer gate area at Haneda Airport
In fact, at Haneda Airport, I was much more interested by the number of well-setup public workstations, which aren’t a StarFlyer feature. I guess you could say my head was turned before the date even started.
Haneda Airport public workstations
Then onboard, I could see that the safety card was a full, accordion-folded pamphlet printed with high-quality paper. Once again, the quality of the paper the safety instructions were printed on didn’t matter so much to me, and I don’t really want to be unfolding an accordion-style piece of paper if I need to refer to anything during an emergency.
StarFlyer safety instructions on accordion paper
In my mind, I’d have been so much more impressed if they’d spent the same amount of passenger experience budget to provide a small snack alongside their onboard drinks service (they only serve drinks onboard, which is consistent with what Japan Airlines and ANA do in economy). Even an expanded range of options of onboard drinks compared to other airlines would’ve been a nice touch. But StarFlyer doesn’t stand out amongst Japan Airlines and ANA in that regard – they also offer the standard range of soft drinks, and one option of onboard consommé (it was onion soup in this case).
StarFlyer A320 drinks service
Also, while this isn’t a criticism (given that StarFlyer flies primarily domestically), my date didn’t speak my language at all. StarFlyer’s onboard announcements are exclusively in Japanese. That’s a contrast to my return ANA flight, which featured English onboard announcements as well. I reckon that it’s a reflection of the fact that StarFlyer doesn’t really cater to international business travellers or tourists – they’re primarily there to offer lower fares and a snazzy onboard experience to the Japanese population.
My head was turned during the flight as well
While I struggled to connect with the StarFlyer brand, I had no issues enjoying the spectacular view we had of Mount Fuji. This probably wasn’t the clearest day to see it, though I still had my eyes glued to the window as we flew by the famous mountain. I had known that we’d be flying fairly close to Mount Fuji before the flight (using Japan Airlines’ “Which Side is Mt. Fuji?” tool), and intentionally selected a seat on the left for that reason. I was surprised to see that not many others were looking outside their window, and some even had their window shades closed.
Seeing Mount Fuji from my flight to Fukuoka
Conclusion: My Date With StarFlyer Airlines
I respect that StarFlyer is a Japanese airline that has made many investments to the passenger experience. They do have 34″ seat pitch and some of the least dense A320s on the market, and they were thoughtful of many other elements of the passenger experience as well. However, I didn’t personally connect with a lot of these investments, and especially with the lack of points opportunities outside of the airline’s own programme/ANA Mileage Club (which I personally don’t use often), I wouldn’t seek them out in the future.
Have you flown StarFlyer before? What did you think of the airline?
