Airline Background

Scoot is Singapore Airlines‘ low-cost carrier subsidiary, operating a fleet of A320-family and Boeing 787 aircraft from its base in Singapore. The airline was originally founded in 2011 as a long-haul complement to Tiger Airways, then-Singapore Airlines’ existing low-cost carrier. In 2016, Singapore Airlines made the decision to merge the two airlines – interestingly electing to keep the Scoot brand instead of the longer-existing Tigerair. Whilst it may seem counterintuitive, I reckon it’s no surprise given Tigerair’s less-than-stellar reputation! In fact, back in the day, I struggled to accept that Tigerair belonged to Singapore Airlines!

Booking ScootPlus

ScootPlus is Scoot’s premium cabin product. At its introduction, the cabin was originally called ScootBiz, denoting its far superior offerings over regular Economy Class. It was only in 2019 that the cabin was renamed to ScootPlus, to better align customer expectations with Premium Economy products.

The best way to find a ScootPlus flight is by using Google Flights, no doubt. Google Flights shows a calendar of fares, within which you’d bound to find a date with an unusually low-priced Scoot flight. In the case of ScootPlus, set the travel class to ‘Premium Economy’. I found this one-way flight for a measly IDR1,500,000 (£80), which I thought was an incredible deal. It was more so the case when you consider that Economy Class is about 20% less than that. Whilst I had initially planned to fly straight from Jakarta to Singapore, I just couldn’t pass off this flight. Wow!

After finding this fare on Google Flights, I was redirected to flyscoot.com, where I completed my booking. The process was honestly very simple; ScootPlus even allows you to also pre-book meals and seats for free – how nice! Unlike AirAsia, there is no cost to change your seat after initial selection. I similarly appreciated that Scoot charges no credit card fees, unlike AirAsia or Jetstar. So far so good! Or should I say great?!

Check-in

After checking out from the Kuta Paradiso, I was driven straight to the International Terminal of Ngurah Rai International Airport. I arrived at 16.10 for this 20.00 departure, which seems like an awfully early hour to get to the airport. I had hoped to work on my laptop a bit in the check-in area, although seating turned out to be very limited.

Whilst Scoot check-in counters usually open 3 hours before departure, the ones in Bali were interestingly already accepting passengers 30 minutes before that. Nicely enough, there is a roped, separate queue for ScootPlus. A ground staff member is stationed at the entrance of the ScootPlus line and admitted me upon confirmation of my itinerary. Very exclusive, eh? 😉

There was just one person ahead of me and it didn’t take another 2 minutes for me to be checked in. What a breeze! After check-in, I went straight past security and immigration. Annoyingly, Bali’s airport also employs the winding duty-free labyrinth, which has been all the rage at airports lately.

Since ScootPlus does not include lounge access, I spent my entire time working at the empty gate. I initially struggled to find a water refill station, although I eventually found a water dispenser next to the customer service desk near Gate 1. Also, I found food prices in the airside terminal to be absurdly high. Like how do you explain an IDR150,000 high-street Caesar Salad in Bali?!

Boarding

The incoming flight arrived quite late, meaning that we would board way past our printed boarding time of 19.15. Sure enough, our plane, The Future is Yellow (9V-OFE), pulled into Gate 3 at 19.35. This was 35 minutes past the scheduled arrival time of the incoming flight, TR286. By this time, the gate was already overcrowded with tired passengers anxious to get on board. Many were also concerned about missing their connections to Paris and Berlin.

Disregarding that, there is thoughtfully a separate queue for ScootPlus (which hilariously is still referred to as ScootBiz). Unfortunately, the line was also open to anyone who paid for a BoardMeFirst service as well as families travelling with children. Since this is Bali, the latter consisted of around 30% of the flight’s passengers, leaving the line super long.

Interestingly enough, a woman came forward to try cutting in, expressing her annoyance at the length of the line. Referring to her absolute disbelief with the queue, she loudly stated, ‘They are all Business Class?’. When the ground staff refused to let her into the front, she huffed and went back to sit. Whilst I agreed that the line was reaaally long, wow I think that’s some unreasonable expectation for a Scoot flight!

Passengers were invited to start queueing at 19.51 and boarding started at 20.01, a minute past our scheduled departure time. Masks were required and this was enforced at boarding. The flight boarded via door 2L, which meant turning left to ScootPlus, past the Scoot-in-Silence mini-cabin. Scoot played some lively soul-pop tracks as the boarding music on this flight. Waiting at the seat were cups of water.

ScootPlus on the Boeing 787-8

The ScootPlus cabin consisted of 35 TIMCO 3050 FeatherWeight seats, which are also found in Premium Economy on Vietnam Airlines and LOT Polish 787s. The cabin featured a 2-3-2 configuration with a generous 38-inch seat pitch.

The seats are fully decked in soft leather and feature a calf rest, operated manually with two levers on the armrest. They are also equipped with charging ports and headrests. Finally, the tables came out of the centre console and weren’t as wobbly as I thought they would be. Despite that, I found that cabin maintenance wasn’t the best out there. The window tint button by my seat was somehow broken and later in the flight the footrest lever also malfunctioned. As a result of the latter, I had to move to the neighbouring seat.

As expected from the 38-inch seat pitch, the legroom was great – with a knee-to-seatback distance of 23 cm (11 inches). It was even better at the bulkhead row where I was sitting, featuring a knee-to-bulkhead distance of a whopping 54 cm (21 inches)! I really couldn’t have asked for more, especially given the extraordinary price I paid.

Departure from Bali

Upon the completion of boarding, the Singaporean captain made a welcome announcement detailing our 2h15m flight time. He also interestingly referred to the cabin crew as Scootees, which I think is trying too hard on the part of Scoot. The crew then interestingly announced that inflight upgrades to ScootPlus were available, without quoting a price. Expectedly no one came forward, likely due to the short flight time. The cabin crew then went around the ScootPlus cabin to reconfirm our meal and beverage choices. Shortly after, a manual safety demonstration was conducted.

We finally pushed back at 20.33, 33 minutes past our scheduled departure time. After waiting on the apron for 10 minutes, we took off from the east at 20.42. The seatbelt signs were switched off at 20.49, 7 minutes later. The cabin crew went to prepare to serve the meals immediately.

ScootPlus Entertainment

Whilst Scoot used to offer an entertainment service called ScootTV, this was discontinued in 2019. In its place is ScootHub, which is a wireless entertainment and control hub featuring a set of games and features to purchase food or duty-free. Unfortunately, ScootHub wasn’t switched on on this flight, so I wasn’t able to try it. Wifi was available, however, and ScootPlus passengers are afforded 30 MBs of free wifi. Whilst a measly amount, it’s better than nothing hey. Wifi vouchers were distributed after takeoff and I found it useful to keep in touch on WhatsApp.

ScootPlus Supper

I ordered the Oriental Treasure Rice, which is a relatively new addition to Scoot’s menu. The dish was served on a tray featuring a dessert of biscuits and wooden cutlery. Whilst I had low expectations of the food, I was pleasantly surprised by its taste and quality. The rice was very soft and flavourful, topped with generous portions of chicken meat, mushroom, and a Chinese sausage. Very nice!

Scootees Service

I’ve flown Scoot just once before this flight, on an ex-Tigerair A320 crewed with an ex-Tigerair crew. That flight was awful, given how rude and hostile the cabin crew were. I’m pleased to report that the crew on this flight were absolutely lovely, having been very friendly and also very eager to help. I saw that they came quickly to help passengers stow their belongings into the overhead lockers and kept on observing the cabin to see if we needed anything else. When my seat’s calf rest broke, the crew apologised very profusely for the issue. Wow, was I on Singapore Airlines?!

The crew also made sure to patrol the front lavatory and prevented non-ScootPlus passengers from using it. This was unexpectedly very exclusive?!

Arrival in Singapore

After the meal service, the cabin was dimmed for the remaining duration of the flight. At 22.28, 25 minutes before landing, we started the descent, during which the cabin lighting was turned into this funky-looking spectacle. The captain made another announcement detailing the arrival of our flight and thanked us for flying Scoot. The cabin was prepared 15 minutes before landing, followed by the lighting of the seatbelt signs. Headsets were requested to be taken off during taxi takeoff and landing.

After circling Singapore and approaching from the north, passing Johor Bahru, we had a smooth touchdown at 22.51 on runway 20L. As such, we arrived 15 minutes past our scheduled time of arrival. After a long taxi, we pulled up to our gate in Terminal 1, passing by three Qantas planes, including their massive A380.

We disembarked at 23.01 via Door 1L. Unfortunately, for many flight from Indonesia, Singapore has reintroduced on-arrival security checks, which I think its quite annoying. Oh well… Afterwards, immigration was unexpectedly long, although I thankfully was eligible to use the automated immigration gates. Sadly, the wait at the baggage claim was really lengthy. It took nearly 30 minutes for the bag to come out, which I think is highly unusual for Changi.

Verdict

Overall, I had a very enjoyable flight in ScootPlus. Despite the faults of the hardware and the delay, the great crew really more than made up for it. I was also impressed with the priority check-in, the comfortable seats, and the unexpectedly pretty good food! I really don’t have anything bad to say, since the experience was very nice, especially for the incredible deal I paid. As such, I won’t hesitate to fly ScootPlus again in the future, particularly if I find a great deal like this one.

Read more from this trip here!