Transcription
Hello and welcome back to another flight review. If you're new here, my name is Jet, and today I'm flying with Scoot for the first time from Singapore to Osaka in economy.
And Scoot+
Scoot calls Terminal 1 home here at Singapore Changi. There's plenty of check-in desks along with a large self-served bag drop area too. I checked in online, so with a mobile boarding pass, all I needed to do was drop my bag off before heading through immigration. For one 20kg piece of checked luggage, Scoot charges $98 Singapore dollar at the airport, but only $45 Singapore dollar if you pay for it during your initial booking. So, my advice is pay for your baggage in advance to save a good chunk of change.
Our departure time today is 6:25 a.m., so I got here around 4:30. Terminal 1 is still waking up, so most stores are still closed, but some coffee shops are thankfully open.
We're departing from gate D37, which is towards the end of the terminal. The gate area is pretty standard with a water bottle refill station, but no toilets. And a reminder for all of you at Changi: you clear security at your boarding gate, so be sure to do your shopping and go potty before you go through security.
And here's today's aircraft: a 9-year-old 787-9 named Barry, with registration 9V-OJB. For those that don't know, Scoot is a low-cost carrier with very minimal onboard offerings. With that, the water refill station was quite the hot spot prior to boarding.
Boarding started right on time, and I paid an extra $6 Singapore dollars to be in Zone 1, which is the first boarding group. Waiting at the L1 door was a friendly Scoot that welcomed me on board. Scoot's 787-9s are arranged in a two-class configuration. There are 35 ScootPlus seats in a 2-3-2 layout at the front, and the remaining 340 economy seats are in a 3-3-3 layout in the back.
And here's my seat for today: 10K, which is a window seat in the Scoot and Silent zone of the economy cabin, which I paid $40 Singapore dollars to reserve. The seat features a thick, adjustable headrest with a cover and a decent amount of back cushion too. Controls for your reading light and flight attendant call button can be found on your right armrest, and your recline button on the left. Each seat features a tray table that does not fold, but it does scoot forwards and backwards. Beneath that, there's your standard literature pocket, and beneath that, there's some pretty good unobstructed room for your legs.
Legroom is honestly pretty impressive up here in the Scoot and Silent Zone, although it is a bit more snug in the rest of economy. If you're on a 787-9 and your flight is longer, I'd definitely say the $40 Singapore dollars is worth it for the space alone up here. I'd say the seat recline is average, but certainly enough to get comfortable for a 6-ish hour flight.
I know Scoot has recently had some questions raised about cleanliness, and there were a couple of skid marks here and there, along with some gunk between the wall and the window seats. This isn't the dirtiest plane I've ever been on, but it's also not the cleanest.
Boarding wrapped up right on time, and we started our pushback for our 5-hour and 33-minute flight to Osaka.
Once we were up, the crew made a series of announcements, one of which was offering upgrades to ScootPlus for $175 Singapore dollars. Since I already filmed most of the economy product, I thought I might as well upgrade and see what ScootPlus is like. Today's aircraft got swapped from a 787-8 to a 787-9 last minute, so there were plenty of ScootPlus seats available too.
Here's my new new seat: 5K, a window seat in the last row of the ScootPlus cabin. These leather seats feature an adjustable headrest that I could barely move up and down. There's also a universal power outlet for each seat that you don't have to pay to turn on like in economy. Waiting at my seat was a little cup of water along with a kind of useless 30MB Wi-Fi voucher. I couldn't get the Wi-Fi to work on today's flight, but even so, I don't think 30 megabytes would go too far. There's still no IFE in ScootPlus, but you will find a standard literature pocket and good legroom.
ScootPlus seats also feature a leg rest to help you stretch out. Your reading light and flight attendant call button are on the center console, and you'll find your seat controls on your armrest. Also in the center console, there's an average-sized bifold tray table that was pretty sturdy. Unfortunately, Scoot's 787s do not feature individual air nozzles, but thankfully the cabin was kept at a comfortable temperature.
When traveling in ScootPlus, a meal is included. I had already pre-ordered a meal for my economy flight, and they offered me a new one, but I was fine with what I had already ordered. I would like to give Scoot some props, though, for having such a large selection of pre-order meals. There's a lot to choose from during booking, and you can go back and change it as many times as you want. I originally ordered the Laksa, but then swapped it for the Nutty Kora. If you didn't pre-order a meal for your economy flight, Scoot also has a buy-on-board menu in the seatback of each seat.
My meal was served all in one tray, and along with the Kora came a brownie, a cup of ice, and a cute Pikachu cup along with a Coke Zero. You also get a set of utensils and a hand wipe. One thing that did surprise me was how clean this brownie was. There were only seven ingredients, none of which were chemical. Coming from the US, this really surprised me since most everything on our shelves has some type of "ick" in it. I was not expecting to eat clean on a low-cost carrier like Scoot.
Overall, the meal obviously wasn't groundbreaking, but it's all I expected on a low-cost carrier. If you pay for ScootPlus at booking, you're really just paying for the larger seat, extra space, and included extras like baggage and early boarding. I wasn't expecting to be blown away with the cuisine, so the meal was perfectly fine and tasted pretty good too.
I used the hand wipe to clean my seat, too, and similar to non-stop Dan, it was pretty gross. But what I think is actually happening is that the gray seat coating is getting rubbed off by the chemicals in the wipe, so it's not all dirt. This cabin again was by no means the cleanest, but also not the dirtiest. The space between the seats and the walls was pretty gross. There was also some tape down here, and I'm not sure why, but it definitely helped the gunk stick around. I do not know why Scoot planes are not cleaned to the same standard as Singapore Airlines. You'd think they'd hire the same company to clean all the cabins. Good.
One thing that was really clean was the lavatory. Scoot impressively uses two-ply toilet paper, but aside from that, bathroom amenities are slim to none. The lav is pretty standard, but you do get two coat hooks up here. Kudos to the crew for keeping the lav so clean.
As far as inflight entertainment goes, you'll need to bring your own. As mentioned earlier, I couldn't get connected to the Wi-Fi. Scoot does offer a little flight tracker with a nice aircraft model, but it really doesn't do anything besides let you zoom in and out. Also, I'm pretty sure they put a 777 skin on a 787 model. Anyhow, here's Scoot's absurd Wi-Fi prices, which I don't think I would bother paying for unless I can guarantee a connection.
I mentioned it briefly, but economy seats on Scoot do feature a universal power outlet, but you have to pay to turn it on. It would cost $7 Singapore dollars on today's flight, but as you can see, it varies by flight distance.
The rest of the flight was smooth and uneventful, and the crew in ScootPlus made sure we stayed hydrated, coming around and offering water throughout the flight. I think Scoot can get a pretty bad rap, and honestly, I'm sure it can be pretty miserable in a middle seat in economy for a flight longer than 5 hours. But I think if you manage your expectations and prepare yourself, Scoot is totally fine. Sometimes money talks, and their fares really can't be beat. For a reserved seat, baggage, and a meal, I paid roughly $390 Singapore dollars, or about $290 for a one-way ticket. For comparison, at the time of booking, Singapore Airlines was charging about double the cost, so around $517 USD for the same one-way ticket, but in economy. For me, in this instance, Scoot was worth it. Even with adding an extra $175 Singapore dollars for my onboard upgrade, I still came in under the cost for an economy seat on Singapore Airlines. If you don't mind some skid marks here and there and want to save some coin, I'd say Scoot is just for you. For this 5 and a half hour hop to Osaka, it was totally fine, and I would have been fine in my economy window seat too. If you find a decent ScootPlus fare, I'd say don't hesitate to book if it's cheaper than economy on another airline. But if ScootPlus costs the same as premium economy on a mainline carrier, I'd definitely say go with the mainline carrier.
Today's crew was extremely friendly and very professional. There really wasn't much to critique on this flight as everything was thankfully on time. We even managed to arrive in Osaka almost an hour and a half ahead of schedule. Anyhow, to wrap up, I personally wouldn't hesitate to fly Scoot again if the price was right.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Osaka. We've just landed at Kansai International Airport. We have arrived early, 1 hour and 10 minutes ahead of schedule. The local time right now is 4 in the afternoon, and the temperature is 18°C.
And like always, a huge thank you to all of you for watching another one of my flight reviews. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you aren't already subscribed, please help me out and hit that subscribe button along with the bell so you know when I post a new video. Up next for me is J's new premium economy product on their A350-1000, and then I'll be on Delta's inaugural Seattle to Taipei flight in Delta 1. Be sure to subscribe so you can see when I post, and thank you again for watching. See you all again next time.