When the Singapore-based airline Scoot made its Honolulu debut last December, folks who love to travel were excited at the prospect of cheap flights to Asia.
Supercheap introductory fares aside, even what Scoot announced as the expected starting fares — $240 roundtrip to Osaka and $400 to Singapore — offered great promise. Imagine a round trip to Japan for less than what it typically costs to fly to the West Coast.
Of course, what seems too good to be true often is, so local travelers understandably look askance at bargain airlines — Scoot is the low-cost arm of Singapore Airlines — when they pop up. There are many questions: How do the planes compare to those of pricier airlines? How’s the service? Are any corners being cut?
Everyone wants to pay less to fly, but what are we willing to sacrifice? What are we forced to sacrifice?
There’s no sweeping response to the many questions, but giving Scoot a test run of sorts answered many of those concerns.
My family was looking into a trip to the mainland this summer, but fares to the West Coast were as high as we’ve seen. We had given up on the idea of a family vacation when a coworker reminded me of Scoot’s low fares. Another frugal coworker had already booked a trip to Osaka this summer on Scoot, so I decided to look at what kind of fare we could get.
I headed to the airline’s website (flyscoot.com) to see just how good a deal it had to offer. What I found was even better than I had hoped. There was a round-trip fare of $233 available to Osaka. Flexibility is one of the keys to getting the best fare possible on Scoot. Their booking interface offers the option of looking at the price for each leg of travel on each day of a given month. Leaving a day earlier or a day later might save a flyer hundreds of dollars. Find the sweet spot by matching an itinerary that suits your needs with days when Scoot offers its lower fares.
If you have particular days in mind, use the Scoot website’s email price-watch tool. Prices fluctuate dramatically from day to day and what was out of reach financially one week could drop hundreds of dollars the next week.
The downside of the great fare I found was that we’d have only a tad more than four days on the ground. But the flight was cheap and fit into our travel window, so I decided to dig deeper.
As I mentioned earlier, what seems too good to be true often is. But with a price that low, there was plenty of room left in our budget for it still to be a great deal, even with added charges, which have become more common across the travel industry.
Many airlines, for example, charge for check-in baggage and food, and Scoot is no different.
Up to two pieces of checked luggage are allowed, for $35 apiece. Unlike the standard American weight limit on luggage of 50 pounds, Scoot’s limit is 20 kilograms, which equals about 44 pounds. One bonus we discovered at check-in is that when your travel party pays to check luggage, you are paying for the total weight limit, not the number of bags. So if you buy two “bags,” you are allotted 88 pounds total, which you can split among three bags if you prefer. Carry- ons are limited to 10 kilograms per passenger, or 22 pounds.
Preordered meals cost $18, but the in-flight menu topped out at 18 Singapore dollars. At the current conversion rate, preordering is $4-$5 more expensive. The selection screen online warns that “Consumption of outside food & beverages is not allowed on board Scoot flights.” And a friend reported seeing passengers being told they could not eat the food they brought on, but others had no problems smuggling on food and eating discreetly. The key seems to be to not brazenly flout the rule.
If sneaking food on board is not your style, take comfort in knowing that the meals Scoot served us were delicious. Some of the entrees — such as teriyaki chicken and sukiyaki — were complemented with a salad and a cup of ice cream (Tropilicious or Haagen-Dazs). There were also sandwiches and wraps available, and some meals came with a Twix and a Coca-Cola.
One fee Scoot charges that is less common is for seat selection. Only solo travelers can get out of this one, so you may as well count that as part of the basic fare. This fee starts at $10, with higher-priced options based on added legroom or upgrades in class. Scoot flies Boeing 787s from Honolulu to Asia, with seats comparable to domestic U.S. flights, and the flights were as smooth as you’re used to on bigger airlines.
Also offered for a fee are services such as Wi-Fi and entertainment. Seats have plugs between them down below, but Scoot charges for use of those outlets. The flight crew was pretty much perfect. The one quirk I did notice was that meals did not all come out at once. This seemed to be due to the variety of foods offered, as they seemed to serve in waves — they’d serve everyone who had a specific entree first, then move on to the next entree, and so on.
But other than that, flying on Scoot seemed like flying on any other airline we’d flown on … just for much less money.
