Transcription
I'm in Melbourne and today I'm flying to Singapore on Singapore Airlines budget carrier Scoot. Uh, now it's an 8-hour flight, so I have treated myself, uh, to an upgrade on ScootPlus. And I've never flown Scoot, and I'm actually quite excited to see what this experience is going to be like.
But I've got another reason to be excited today, and that's because this is day one of a 28-day Asian Adventure. I'm going to be taking 21 flights around Asia. One of the flights is with KM, and the last flight that takes me home into London, he, uh, is an absolute corner, but that's for the future. Let's start with flight one. Let's go and get checked in.
Hi, I'm Phil, and I'm on a Gray Gap year. Okay, first things first, let's get checked in. Where are we? Oh, Scoot check-in desk. N. I'll reveal how much I paid, how that price compares to the Scoot economy fare, and whether I think that this is premium or just economy towards the end of the video. But for right now, let's take advantage of the first perk of upgrading to ScootPlus, and that is to skip the economy check-in line. And as a ScootPlus passenger, I'll get 15 kilos of cabin baggage and 30 kilos of checked baggage allowance. Okay, go. The priority lane. Thanks. This doesn't come with lounge access, do it? No, that's okay. You don't have to. No, I was pretty sure it didn't. But if you don't, I wouldn't want to get on the plane and then, oh my, I had a great time in the lounge. Appreciate your time. No, it was fine. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Well, that was painless enough. Uh, short weights, uh, very efficient check-in. I'm going to say I'm really happy with that. Uh, took only a couple of minutes. I don't know why some check-in agents just take ages and ages, and other check-in agents can just check people in one after another, nice and quick. Very polite as well, very friendly. It was, it didn't feel like a rushed service, it was just super efficient, and, uh, I was very happy with that. So I better turn this off. I'm going to go into security. Uh, the security lines in Melbourne are usually short, fast-moving, uh, very quick on the scanners. Don't need to take anything out of your bag, not laptops, not anything. Uh, they're normally very, very good, and today was no exception. They were superb. So again, hat tip to you, Melbourne. However, the passport control was actually really poor. It was really slow. Um, a lot of the gates were closed, so there were sort of, it wasn't a long queue, but it's normally faster than that. Uh, so a slight downvote on that.
Last time I was in Melbourne, I flew out with Qatar, so I used my OneWorld status to get myself, uh, in for a three-course dinner in the Qantas Lounge, the Qantas First Lounge. Uh, but on this occasion, I'm not able to do that. Scoot don't give you any kind of lounge access. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to use my Priority Pass to go into the Mahaba Lounge, which is just across the road from the First Lounge, the Qantas First Lounge. Uh, now this is the lounge that Qatar give you if you are flying business class with them out of Mel. So it's going to be interesting to see what the Mahaba Lounge is like. Goodbye, First Class Lounge. Hello, paid lounge. This will actually be quite an interesting comparison, won't it?
A warm welcome and a quick flash of the Priority Pass card, and I'm in. And as you walk in, you can see that this paid lounge is used by China Southern and Vietnam Airlines as well as Qatar. So, would this be a good lounge to start a premium journey? Well, the entrance corridor is pleasant enough, but then you're greeted by a large lounging expanse, which is all completely open, nothing to break it up at all. Then, as you walk through, there's a smaller lounge behind that, and then a room full of the dreaded tall bar stools. Oh, I hate those. And then into the main dining area. So far, so standard for a paid lounge built for maximum capacity, bums on seats. Slag. So what are the catering? Well, I arrived towards the end of breakfast and before lunch, so it's not a good time for me to try and review that. Uh, but there were some cereal and some leftover pastries, a soup bar, which although limited, is unusual in a paid lounge. They don't often let us natives help ourselves to as much as we want. And then some crudités and cheese and breads, but I didn't see any cheese biscuits. Then, then round the other side of this counter is cake. An eclectic mix for breakfast time, for sure. Some self-pour soft drinks, beer on tap, and then I was greeted by the empty bay mares and the last remnants of some scrambled egg. As I said, it was an awkward time to assess the food offering, and I just grabbed a coffee. Do you know what? I think I'm just going to keep this easy and have a long black.
Yeah, I don't think I enjoyed that too much. And then they did begin to bring out lunch just as I was packing up to make a liar out of me. They have actually brought out lunch. I don't know if they've rushed this out because they saw me filming, uh, and I'm not really sure what any of this is. It looks reasonable fare, doesn't it? Nothing wrong with it. Uh, they haven't got the name tags out, but I decided to try my luck at the House Lounge, which is opposite the Emirates Lounge, and this is the lounge that Cathay Pacific use for their business customers. And although the lounge is again open, there are some screens to break it up, and from an aesthetic point of view, and also from a noise point of view, it's actually really nice. Much quieter, more open. I like the color scheme better, just feels more relaxed. Uh, let's find somewhere to park. Hidden away at the other end is this rather nice little nook with about 10, 20 seats in it. I would argue that, I would argue this is the seat of the lounge, isn't it? Wow, what a fantastic view of that A380. So I just after the bar, all of the beers, wines, and the spirits, they're all included in the, uh, the lounge entry price. And I see a coffee machine. So the dining table sits in front of the central bar, and then there's this small food station alongside that. And I say small, but sometimes quality is just going to beat quantity. Well, that lunch is out. Look, I've walked directly from one to this one, and lunch is completely ready. It actually looks really good. I have a little few nibbles. There wasn't very happy with the coffee at the last place. I might have a coffee here, but you know what? I might decide it's time for a lunchtime drink. Let's have a look. Lemon rice. I mean, that looks great. Biryani. Now, I thought that said biryani, which I was really looking forward to, but I'm not sure what this is. It's like a Mediterranean roasted veg section. It doesn't look particularly roasted. Then we've got Greek chicken. So Greek vegetables, Greek chicken, and lemon rice. But I have decided I'm going to have some lunch. So I've got some, uh, some chicken and salad there. So let's dig in and see what it's like. And it was decent paid lounge fare, but it was soon final call at my gate, gate seven.
So, having followed the signs to gate seven, I find my access to gate seven blocked. In fact, there it is, people queuing up there. So let's go around. Now, this looks like a disorganized boarding scrum, but it's actually very well managed. There's a number of queues here, and the gate agent has gone down each one checking passports and boarding cards, and anyone standing in the wrong queue is expelled. She was fierce but fair. Yeah, you stand over there. I definitely want to fly Scoot economy and see how this works. This looks brilliant. I almost want to wait and not board with the Plus people because that line is just going to descend into chaos with everyone in the correct line. Boarding commenced, and with ScootPlus, you get priority boarding, and because this was well organized, we had #boarding. Yes, boarding, and we were quickly aboard this 5-year-old 787-9 Dreamliner. 340 economy seats in a 3-3-3 formation, with at least 30 inches of pitch back there, which compared to Ryanair's 29 inches is positively roomy. I'm turning left through the ScootInSilence economy cabin and into the ScootPlus cabin. And here there's five rows of ScootPlus in a 2-3-2 configuration, making 35 seats in here. Uh, each seat has a generous 38-inch pitch, and they're 22 inches wide, and this is all pretty much the norm for a premium economy seat. And as I settled into the seat, the cabin crew, or "Scooties" as they like to be called, came round with pre-departure beverages. Cheers. Yes, water was the only option. We will be scooting off soon. For assistance, please approach any of our Scooties. Enjoy your Scoot experience. Our scheduled departure was 12:45, so we're pushing back late. And a quick Google search will tell you that they're not the most punctual of airlines, but a few minutes, it's just not a big deal for me.
So the seat is a big, comfortable seat. It kind of feels sort of luxurious. It feels nice. There's two little buttons to adjust the seat. We've got, uh, one to go back and one to lift your legs up. Fact, one criticism of this seat actually would be that it's a little bit high off the ground. So, um, my, my little legs only just reach the floor, and actually they get a little bit uncomfortable because they're not really my legs on lifted off the seat like you would expect, like you would normally have. So I think tall people would probably love this. So it's got an adjustable headrest that will go up and down, and it's got little flaps as well, which is also good. And then you've got the recline, which is quite, uh, yeah, that is a, that is a nice deep kind of recline. Feels very comfortable with my legs up. I could certainly sleep if this was an overnight flight. There's a tray table that comes out of the arm, which is a bit fiddly, even if you're not holding a camera, but it's sturdy, and you'd be able to work on this if you wanted to. To those buttons control the light above and the call bell. Now, there's power in the seat, so, uh, everyone gets an international plug. And I haven't seen a USB plug anywhere on the seat, so I would say if you don't have a power bank, you're going to need to bring a plug and a cable. That way, I never do. I've got the power bank, I'm happy. Uh, but yeah, I couldn't, unless I'm being an idiot, let me know if I'm being silly. The inflight entertainment was very limited, and the screen was low resolution and not very responsive at all. But here's my verdict on the seat as we fly onwards towards Singapore. My thoughts on this flight are, it's a really comfy seat, and that's the most important part. Uh, it's, uh, a broad seat, and three larger gentlemen such as myself, or even larger than me, could all very easily sit comfortably in a row of three. I wouldn't want the middle seat, but I wouldn't like the middle seat either. There's plenty of legroom, the seats are adjustable, it's got a nice headrest, you can really get it into a nice sort of comfy position with plenty of room in front, even when the person in front of you is in full recline.
Another benefit of ScootPlus is your meal choice is included in the fare, but this is the same menu as you can order in economy, and the meal, a drink, and a little packet of treats would cost 20 Singapore dollars, or about 11 to 12 British pounds. A little, uh, Indonesian style spicy chicken with rice, P brownies, and a decent size Coke. It is not cold, so I'm glad that I chose to have ice with that. Now, that, that does not look appetizing at all. See what it actually tastes like. All right, let's see if it tastes as bad as it looks. Get a bit of, uh, a bit of rice in there. Well, the rice is sturdy, like, well, very sturdy. Yeah, it immediately just goes to a paste in your mouth. Oh, that is spicy though. I just got a hit of spice. Try a bit from this side. Well, that's not terrible. It's spicy. It had three chilies, so the warning was there. Uh, it's not too spicy, but it, it is spicy. It's not the worst thing I've ever eaten, but compared to business class fare, in fact, compared to an ordinary economy meal, it, it's pretty, it's not inedible, but I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't pay for that. I'd get snacks. I'm a dessert brownie brittle. It's not little pieces of brownie, but brownie brittle, I guess. Bit like going to be little crunchy brownie pieces. They are all sort of odd shapes, kind of nice actually. If I like those.
ScootPlus passengers get a whole 30 meg of data, which was enough for me to send a few WhatsApp messages and browse a few websites. Not much at all. And the cost of more data is just eyewash. 200 meg is $30 US. I mean, wow. I also spotted that power isn't free in economy, so I guess that having a free power socket is another perk of ScootPlus.
Scoot are a Skytrax three-star rated budget airline, and with ScootPlus, plus, really all you're going to get is a better seat, and then some other things that you could buy like checked bags and meals. Uh, and you're going to get those included with your fare. And it's important to remember this, because if you're expecting premium economy or a business class experience, you'll probably be a bit disappointed. But I have to say, it's an enjoyable 8-hour flight, and I thought the seat was great, a very decent step up from a standard economy seat. But is it worth it? Well, I paid £414 for ScootPlus over the economy price of £129. Now, based on my rule of thumb experience, a premium economy seat is typically two or three times the fare of an economy ticket. So my ticket was a bit on the expensive side, especially as the ScootPlus cabin, it wasn't even full. Now, looking at one-way fares into the future with Scoot, they have an economy fare at £110, and then ScootPlus for the same date in flight is £281, which is sort of more in that zone that I'd expect. If you look at premium alternatives like Singapore and Jetstar's premium economy fares, they're triple those on ScootPlus, and business fares are even higher at around £1,500 one-way. I mean, just ignore that Jetstar fare for a moment, it's the same seat as that premium economy fare that was on the screenshot a moment ago.
But, but is it worth it? Well, for me, it's like this. If you want a premium experience, then you will save a lot of money with ScootPlus over flying with the competition, and you will get a good experience. And that's how I approached it. I wanted a premium flight, but I couldn't justify £1,500 for 8 hours in business class. I mean, my budget, it just wouldn't allow it. So for me, it was totally worth it. Now, if you want to compare it to the cabin behind you, then you need to pay for checked bags, which are £40 for 20 kilos, a meal at about £12, and seat selection at about £8. But if you want an extra legroom seat, they're £60. So the fares that you can see on the Scoot website, they price up a little bit differently to the, uh, Google Flights website. But even so, an economy fare with 20 kilos of checked bags and a meal is going to price up at about £183. So to upgrade to ScootPlus would be a further £125. Now, I don't know about you, but at this point, I'm either picking a standard seat and I'm just going to save the money, or I'm upgrading to ScootPlus because I think the £60 extra legroom seat, well, it offers poor value compared to the £125 upgrade into the premium cabin. And this is the cheapest upgrade to premium economy out there. And on that basis, again, I think this is totally worth it.
So that was Melbourne to Singapore on ScootPlus, and it was a lovely flight. Uh, and I hope you've enjoyed the video. And if you did, do please consider giving me a like and consider subscribing to the channel, and that way you'll get notifications when other videos like this, uh, get released. So thank you for watching, and thank you for joining me on my Gap year. Right, let's go find a taxi.