The poor safety records of airlines in Southeast Asia means one has to choose carefully what airline to fly on. For me, the question is only how I can access Southeast Asia safely and at budget prices? AirAsia offered attractive rates, but after spending several hours pouring through reviews, I was not convinced I should fly them.

I settled on Scoot Airlines. Though the verb, scoot means to go somewhere quickly, I just think it’s a dumb name for an Airline. Oh, the flight attendants are called Scooties, which is even dumber! Scoot has mixed customer reviews for its service, a substantial number of poor reviews. The airline was in the news a few weeks ago for denying a passenger a free cup of water to take meds. Scooties insisted the passenger had to buy a bottle of water. Just this week, more than 300 passengers flying to Singapore on Scoot were stuck in Taipei for two days because the plane had technical problems. They did make it up to the passengers by providing meal vouchers, hotel reimbursements and flight vouchers.

Most budget airlines have bad reviews primarily because of passengers unrealistic expectations. A budget airline is a budget airline is a budget airline! This means you have to adhere strictly to the ticket rules. If they say no water, you are darn sure you have to buy water if you need it. My advice is to travel with a water bottle as most airports have refill stations. I’ll take a cheaper ticket any day over the little luxuries that used to be associated with flying. As much as we might complain about budget airlines, they have forced the big legacy carriers to bring down prices and make flying accessible to many socio-economic classes.
To fly, all I need is a plane to take me safely to my destination. Generally, flying today is a hassle irrespective of what airline you are flying on. From the TSA lines to the likely delays of your flight, and to the ever-shrinking legroom, flying is not that pleasant.
The reason I settled on Scoot Airlines is safety. Scoot is owned by Singapore Airlines (rated the best airline in the world multiple times by different organizations). Scoot also has a strong safety record. All their flights connect through their main hub at Changi Airport, Singapore. Curious to know the cost of my ticket? US $120! For a flight longer than New York, JFK to London, Heathrow, that’s not a bad deal!

The evening before my travel to Denpasar, Indonesia, I got an email from Scoot informing me that my flight was delayed for two and a half hours “due to operational reasons.” Whatever that means! Where else have I heard that language? Nigeria and Ghana airports. That could mean a whole lot of things or nothing! I did appreciate the early alert because that means I could get an additional two hours of sleep. I’ve never appreciated a flight delay as this. I got sick that night from my meal and was up and weak all through the night. The delay gave me more time to slowly recover and make my way to the airport.

Check-in at the airport was a breeze. I requested for my 7:15AM flight from Singapore to Denpasar to be changed to a later flight, and they complied and put me on a 3:15PM plane, which allowed me to rest and recover in Singapore. The trip from Tianjin to Singapore is 6 hours and Scoot uses a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which is always a delight to fly on because of the ambient lighting. Legroom on this flight was better than on the American Airlines Dreamliner I flew from Dallas to Beijing. Service on the plane is as expected from budget airlines – nothing is free. I mean NOTHING IS FREE! And that includes even charging your phone on the power outlets. There’s the internet, movie streaming, and food to purchase. Their policy is that no outside food is allowed. I only saw that policy on the in-flight food menu. I did bring with me on the plane some noodles I purchased at the airport. I held them visibly in a plastic bag, and nobody objected. Many people had food items with them that they consumed on the plane. I also brought a few bottles of water with me to the flight. The food menu had a variety, and I ordered the Madras Curry with Basmati Rice. They accept different currencies (US Dollars, SGN Dollars, Chinese Yuan, etc.) as well as credit cards.

My flight from Singapore to Denpasar boarded on time and departed promptly. Scoot gives out travel vouchers to passengers for flights delayed for up to three hours. My backpack was now bigger with two other attachments because I had to store my winter coat and travel pillows in pouches. Scoot didn’t enforce the size of the backpacks or carry-ons that people had with them. What I found strange was that in a two and half hour flight to Denpasar, they kept constantly trying to get passengers to pay and upgrade their seats to more legroom. It’s understandable if it’s done during boarding, odd that they did it several times midway into the flight. I just sat through the flight binge watching Hasan Minhaj’s Netflix series, Patriot Act. Really funny!
I have several other flights still booked with Scoot to other countries. If anything interesting happens, it is a sure thing I’ll share it! If you are looking for a cheap and safe airline to travel on in Southeast Asia, I’ll strongly recommend Scoot. If you are looking for First/ Business Class services, then Scoot isn’t for you!