ycp81 From Singapore, joined Jun 2006, 338 posts, RR: 0 Posted (10 months 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 6757 times:
Singapore Airline's fully owned medium/long-haul low-cost subsidiary, Scoot, had launched its flights for slightly more than a month since. Apart from the initial destinations of Sydney and Gold Coast, it had also started flights to Bangkok in July, with Tianjin, Taipei and Tokyo coming up soon. With the 1x daily BKK flights launched to capture the lucrative Oz-Thailand market, it offered me a chance to try out this new kid on the block on a short-haul sector for a weekend jaunt. Prices were offered from $78 all-in one-way in economy, which was rather attractive, considering the tickets were booked barely 2 weeks before the flight. However the return was booked on Jetstar as it offered the lowest fares on my return date.
Scoot only offered a single daily flight, departing at 1725hrs to Bangkok. This allowed me to work for half a day prior to my flight. Scoot utilizes Terminal 2, which offers a far more pleasant airport experience than Budget Terminal. However from late Sept, all the airlines in Budget terminal are also going to move to T2, which I foresee T2 becoming really busy!
Checking in for the flight. No online check-in is available. 4 counters were opened and the queue moved fast. I only had a hand-carry baggage and it was weighed and tagged as a cabin bag. Scoot is really serious about weight and size of carry-ons!
Proceeded through the efficient immigration and went up to the Sunflower to catch a glimpse of the Scoot aircraft. Most planes on the tarmac were SQs and MIs, with the lone yellow Scoot parked all the way at the end at Gate F42.
Scoot with its big brothers. 9V-OTA (ex 9V-SQA) would be operating the flight today! I flew on this exact plane on its 5th day into service with SQ on SIN-PEN in 1997!
Scoot issues proper boarding passes, but it was all in black and white.
More plane spotting from the terminal. Other than SQ A333s, the next common plane was SQ B772s.
Finally an interesting arrival! Lufthansa A380 arriving from Frankfurt!
Departures from T2. All seemed to be regional flights.
After having a light bite at a cafe, I proceeded to the far end of the pier to the gate at F42.
12 July 2012
Scoot
TZ 302
Singapore (SIN) - Bangkok (BKK)
B777-200
9V-OTA "Barry"
Economy Class
Proceeded into the very big gatehold room, which was apparently A380-ready. With Scoot's B772s seating up to 400 pax, the gatehold room filled up rather quickly. It would prove to be a rather full flight with mainly Singaporeans on short weekend trips!
9V-OTA hidden behind the boarding bridges.
Boarding was soon announced, starting from ScootBiz, followed by rows from the rear of the plane. Even though no staff was seen enforcing the boarding by rows, passengers apparently cooperated with the announcements and boarded only when rows were called. Was welcomed aboard and directed down the aisle to me seat at 60A. The refurbished cabin looked fresh and clean, with no signs that this is actually a 15-yr old plane! However the aisles are really tiny! Guess the width of the aisles have to be sacrificed in order to fit in 10-abreast. Normal seats were in blue while "Super" or "Stretch" seats with more legroom were in yellow.
Friendly crew were welcoming us passengers onboard but they were not too proactive in assisting with hand-carry luggage. However no problems here as most pax were on the start of the trip and thus not much luggage too. Settled into my seat at 60A. First impression, seat pitch seemed not bad for a supposedly 31" pitch. Width was tight, but felt slightly wider than KLM's seats on their B773ERs (see my previous report). There was a cupholder on the tray table and a really tiny seat pocket. No headrest, footrest and of course no PTVs.
Items in the seat pocket. Inflight mag "Scoot", safety card, BOB menu "EAT", duty free "Scootalogue" and iPad IFE guide "ScooTV".
All passengers boarded. It ended up to be a nearly full flight! Amazed that Scoot was actually able to fill up the entire B772 for this short hop. Guess low fares do play a part. Another thing to add about the seats, the seat recline is actually rather good!
Waiting at the gate for pushback. According to the captain, there would be a short delay due to, whats new, congestion in Changi...
First the crew came around with immigration cards. I also took out my iPod, which was to be my only form of inflight entertainment, apart from filling up the immigration card and gazing out of the window.
Shortly after, buy-on-board service started. Quite a number of passengers actually bought snacks, instant noodles or drinks. No hot meals were offered for sale other than pre-booked meals. For a view of Scoot's onboard food menu and entertainment guide, you can vie coot's website. I counted 9 crew in economy class. Not sure about the numbers in ScootBiz though. Quite a fair bit of crew on this budget flight!
Sun is setting...
Now for the Scootitude moment. A pax among a group was celebrating her birthday and her friends had brought a cake onboard to be stored my the crew. Midflight after the BOB service, the Scoot crew came out with the cake with lighted candle and surprised the pax with a "Happy Birthday" song!!
Visit to the lavatory. No changes to them, still the same as on SQ. However, no amenities except the necessary of course. Amenities such as toothbrushes etc will be sold on the longer-haul flights. There is also a drinking water dispenser outside the lavatory, but no paper cups were available. Not sure if Scoot will supply paper cups at the dispenser on the longer-haul flights.
View of the mid-economy cabin. Most of the "blue" seats were taken, but much of the "yellow" ones were empty.
Rest of the flight was spent gazing out of the window at the sunset. At about 40(!!) minutes before arrival, the pilot's arrival announcement came on and the cabin crew immediately prepared the aircraft for arrival! Window shades up, seatback upright, iPod off.... We had not even started our descent! Doesn't this remind you of Scoot's big brother? Just felt that the arrival preparations are done a tad too early, considering that there were not many serviceware to clear too.
Descending through the clouds with speedbrakes up.
Lets have another look at the seats. Blue seats by the window.
Another view of the blue seats. Note the reading and call lights control at the side of the arm rest? It resulted in a lot of unwanted "dings" during the flight, which the crew learned to ignore.
Yellow seats with more legroom.
Final verdict, Scoot offers a value-for-money experience for this short flight. Seat pitch is definitely better than the other carriers operating the A320s, while service is similar. Overall a satisfactory low cost flight. Scoot's foray into the BKK market could result in much capacity increase (400 pax on the B772 > 2x 180 pax A320s), resulting in lower prices and yields for all airlines on this sector. We shall see if the other LCCs would adjust their BKK services in the future with Scoot's entrant.
My past and future travels - http://www.ba97.com/ba97/calendar/report.asp?handle=ycp81
SIA747Megatop From Singapore, joined Apr 2012, 69 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (10 months 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 6536 times:
Thanks for the trip report, was a great read. The 31" pitch is a game changer for me as opposed to the 29" on FD/TR/3K, hopefully we'll see increased frequencies soon! The once daily flight is slightly limiting when competitors have upto 5 daily flights.
Bon Jovi - Train - Matchbox Twenty - Matt Nathanson - Neon Trees
nethkt From Thailand, joined Apr 2001, 985 posts, RR: 3 Reply 3, posted (10 months 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 6445 times:
This could bring SIN and BKK even closer.
A weekend getaway for SINgaporeans and BKKians is possible and cheap!
and a chance for B777 on short-haul! Awesome!!
Thank you for sharing.
net-hkt
Don't be annoyed knowing the passengers around you are non-revs and op-upgraders, be grateful for them. Life is beautifu
gabrielchew From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 2512 posts, RR: 14 Reply 4, posted (10 months 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 5845 times:
Another interestoing report on Scoot. Looks perfectly adequet on a short sector
Quoting ycp81 (Thread starter): Note the reading and call lights control at the side of the arm rest? It resulted in a lot of unwanted "dings" during the flight, which the crew learned to ignore.
Very poor design there. It's sad that the crew have been forced into ignoring the call bells becuase of this...what happens if there is an emergency?
ycp81 From Singapore, joined Jun 2006, 338 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (10 months 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 5659 times:
Stayed at Holiday Inn Silom. Was upgraded to a big and new Premier room with my Priority Club platinum status. Very reasonable price at only around S$80 a night including buffet breakfast!
New shopping mall in Bangkok, Terminal 21. Interesting concept of designing each level to a different city theme.
New hangout place in the evening along the Chao Phraya river.
And how can I forget the food!!!
My past and future travels - http://www.ba97.com/ba97/calendar/report.asp?handle=ycp81
ycp81 From Singapore, joined Jun 2006, 338 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (10 months 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 4847 times:
Finally to wrap things up, the return flight home on Jetstar Asia. It was the standard short-haul budget flight on Jetstar Asia and service was even pretty good! However the down side was that I was allocated row 29 on the A320 (even when during web check-in) and there were no other rows available. The last 4 rows have really tight seat pitch (can refer to my previous reports) and there was no way I can shift to other rows as the flight was almost completely full! Well, at least I was not at row 30.
15 July 2012
Jetstar Asia
3K 516
Bangkok (BKK) - Singapore (SIN)
A320
9V-JSG
Economy Class
Departure was from Gate G4.
9V-JSG will be the workhorse for today's flight.
Jetstar boarding pass. My sequence number was already 167 when checking in slightly more than an hour before departure!
Boarded by rows. Rushed to board to find storage in the bins near my seat as the overhead bins above Rows 28-30 are not available for luggage storage due to the storage of the emergency life raft and medical equipments. 4 cabin crew and 2 pilots on this flight. They were a mix of nationalities, with the captain from Oz, a Japanese 1st officer, 2 Japanese cabin crew (a male and a female), a Singaporean female crew and a Myanmese (I think) female crew-in-charge. Wow, that is a lot of Japanese crew on a flight not bound for Japan! Guess they are mainly hired to operate the SIN-TPE/MNL-KIX flights, with the occasional regional routes.
Jetstar seats.
Really tight seat pitch at Row 29. My knees were almost touching the seat in front! Try to avoid at all costs!
The stuff in seat pocket.
Boarding in progress. Cabin crew were very actively guiding passengers to seats and helping in storage of carry-ons, unlike many other carriers where the crew merely gave mental/eye support! Great job by Jetstar here! With the crews' effort, the cabin filled up pretty fast and everyone settled down in no-time. In fact, all passengers had boarded and doors closed even before the ramp guys had finished loading the luggage!
Some interesting carriers: Tui Airlines Belgium B763 with winglets.
According to the Jetstar Asia magazine, there is supposed to be new dishes offered for the hot meals. But this was not stated in the menu.
Cabin crew dishing out the pre-ordered hot meals (orders were taken prior to takeoff) and conducting the BOB service. Quite a number of ad-hoc orders for hot meals on this flight as the crew were scurrying back and forth from the galley with the mains. Crew also attended to call buttons promptly and service was generally efficient and friendly.
Cruising...
Very soon, the captain came on with the arrival announcement. Even with the "earlier than usual" landing preparations, it was still conducted halfway through the descent, much later than SQ or Scoot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKA4gXx55Pw
Descending along the eastern coast of Malaysia.
Circled for a while before approaching the runway from the north.
Landing on Rwy20R. Even though the final approach was kinda unstable with gusty winds, touchdown was very smooth! One of my smoothest touchdown on an A320 till date. Landed 10min late mainly due to the delays at BKK and Changi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY8LmYpv238
2 Xiamen Airlines B737s at Changi.
Parked at C11, just a hop over to immigration.
Another satisfactory flight with Jetstar, apart from the horrible legroom. Jetstar generally performs well for its inflight service and I would rate them higher than the other LCC carriers. As for Scoot, as it is still rather new, probably it would need some time for the airline to gradually pick up the ropes but for the short hop to BKK, they are a rather decent alternative too.
My upcoming comfirmed flights:
SQ Economy SIN-MLE-SIN
JQ Business SIN-PEK
SQ Business PEK-SIN
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