Scoot Long-Haul Flights: A Killer Deal or a Pass?

Have you ever desperately wanted to take a trip to a far-away exotic destination, only to stare dumbfounded at the cost of the tickets?

We sure have.

Flying long-haul can sometimes be so extremely costly that a huge chunk of our budget is taken out before we even leave our home.

That means less time spent on location, and less time to explore and enjoy all that our destination has to offer. That’s why, while planning our last trip through South-East Asia, we were surprised when we came across Scoot.

Scoot Airlines is a low cost airline subsidiary of Singapore Airlines that offers cheap flights across the majority of Southern Asia and Australia, with a few destinations in Europe and the Middle-East.

They were our primary airline when travelling to South-East Asia, so we got to experience both long and short flights from multiple destinations, such as Athens, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

In this review, we’ll look at the deals that Scoot offers (and doesn’t), and whether the incredibly affordable price for a ticket is worth sacrificing a few comforts and luxuries.

Let’s get started.

Booking your flight with Scoot

Booking a flight with Scoot is, for the most part, a relatively straightforward affair, even if their website is a little bit of a mess.

While there have been recent updates to fix some of the issues, we encountered several bugs, non-existent pages or were just simply booted out of our flight research and had to start back from the beginning.

What we noticed is also that the website tends to be a little laggy and unresponsive. This problem, however, seemed to only appear when we tried to make a booking while logged in as guests, and seemed to fix itself somewhat when we created a KrisFlyer account, Singapore Airlines and Scoot’s frequent flyer program.

Small annoyances aside, the Scoot website definitely makes it easy to get a clear overview of the most affordable flights for your chosen time frame. Destinations, dates and fares are clearly displayed in coloured graphs, making it very easy to compare prices for different dates.

Pro-Tip:

Payments through the Scoot website are always easy and safe, and we recommend you make your booking through them instead of using a third-party website. This will insure you a better chance of a refund or re-booking in case your flight is delayed or cancelled. 

Our check-in experience

Checking-in for your Scoot flight couldn’t be easier, as you can simply-check in online through the handy mobile app.

Except, you do not receive a boarding pass, or a barcode, or anything else.

Wait, you’re supposed to go pick it up at the check-in desk at the airport?

Yes, checking-in with Scoot is easy, except for the fact that it doesn’t make a lot of sense. For reasons only known to them and the Airport Gods, online check-in is basically useless as it doesn’t provide you with a ticket. You are still required to go and stand in line at the check-in desk, even if you don’t have any bags to drop off.

Note: 

Scoot has updated their policy, meaning it is now possible to receive a digital boarding pass on their mobile app. This is, however, so far only available for flights departing from Singapore!

Aside from not having a digital boarding pass, we also tried to print it out ourselves by using a self service kiosk. Unfortunately, Scoot never appeared on the available options, and selecting Singapore Airlines did not work either.

We tried the kiosks in at least three different airports in both Europe and Asia without success, so its safe to say that going to the check-in desk will likely be your only option, unless you’re flying from Singapore.

With that in mind, we recommend arriving at the airport a little earlier than you usually would to account for the extra time you’ll spend in line.

As far as our boarding experience is concerned, it was always fairly smooth.

We did have a couple of minor delays here and there, with the longest being 30 minutes on our flight from Athens to Singapore, but we always seemed to catch up by the time we landed.

In-flight experience

What does a standard fare get you?

The thing to keep in mind when booking a standard fare with Scoot is that you are essentially only paying for a seat on the flight.

Everything else, from basics such as food, drinks to comforts such as blankets (included in a “snooze kit”) and even checked luggage, is a payed add on.

Entertainment options exist but we couldn’t get them to work on any of our flights, and they are in any case limited to a few games and a flight map. As for on-board wifi, it is available for a fee, but given how we couldn’t even get the basic entertainment portal to work we didn’t feel like paying to try it out.

Cabin and seating

Payed add-ons aside, what you do get is overall very good. The cabins on all of our flights were extremely clean, as were the seats and the restrooms.

We chose a seat by the window as per usual, and, being huge tech geeks, we were quite delighted to see that the windows automatically darkened to simulate the day-night time condition at our destination in order to minimise jet lag.

We also need to give a special shoutout to all the crew members that assisted us on our flights, they were all extremely friendly and professional from boarding to landing.

Seating is comfortable and spacious, and leg room is nothing to complain about.

However, the comfort did start to wear thin over a while, and we found ourselves needing to get up to stretch more often than we did with other long-haul carriers.

Pro-Tip: 

If you’re on the taller side, you might be more comfortable booking a seat in front of an emergency exit or in the first middle row, as those will afford you more leg room and allow you to get up without having to bother your seat neighbour. 

Meals and drinks

As we mentioned before, Scoot goes a little against the common norm of long-haul carriers and does not provide free in-flight meals and drinks.

Now, bringing your own is actually against Scoot’s policy, but we did on some flights and nobody seemed to mind. If you stick to sandwiches and the like it should be fine, just don’t pull out a three-course meal out of your backpack.

Just keep in mind that you would be technically breaking the rules, so if you’re told to stop you should do so without making a fuss.

All Scoot meals are subject to availability, so because of that we recommend you pre-book your choice up to 72h before your flight.

Not only will this guarantee you get the meal you want on board, it will also be more affordable than buying it later on. This is also a good way to ensure you get your choice if you have any specific dietary restrictions, such as requiring Halal meals or suffering from allergies.

Pros & Cons

+ Affordable prices

+ The low cost allows for greater investment into your trip

+ Friendly cabin crew and staff

+ Clean aircraft and facilities

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- Clumsy check-in

- No in-flight entertainment

- In-flight meals and drinks not included in the price

- Ok seating, but uncomfortable over long periods of time

Would we recommend you flight with Scoot?

So, after four different flights connecting three cities in two continents, would we recommend you book your next flight with Scoot Airlines?

Well, it depends.

• If your intention is to travel as comfortably as possible, then we recommend you invest more money into booking a higher-end carrier that will afford you all the comforts and amenities you’re looking for, because you’ll be disappointed with Scoot.

  This also goes for families with small children; Remember that you’ll have to carry all of the entertainment for your kids, as there is none provided on board.

• If, however, you’re willing to sacrifice yourself a little in order to get the best possible deal on your ticket, then Scoot flights are the way to go.

  You’ll have to cash out to get a meal or bring your own, make sure to bring a blanket or a warm jumper and will be a little sore when you arrive at your destination, but you’ll have more money in the bank to explore your destination to the max!

For us, we will definitely continue using this airline.

We can do without the extra comfort (long-haul flying is going to be tiring either way), and the amount of money we saved by not booking with more expensive carriers allowed us to stay in Asia for much longer than what would have been otherwise possible.

Based on these things alone, flying with Scoot is, for us, a no-brainer.

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