Scooting Home With The Dash 8 Dreamliner

Welcome to my Final Trip Report on Scoot! 

* Aircraft photos are credited to the respective photographers from Airliners.net

Introduction

I have covered quite a bit of this airline so for my future flights with this airline, unless its something spectacular, I won't be doing any more reports. For my past trip reports with this airline, you can check out the links below. 

Boeing 777-200ER Economy Class (9V-OTC: No longer on scheduled flights) Link

Boeing 787-8 Windowless seat (Part 1: 9V-OFA) Link

Boeing 787-8 Windowless seat (Part 2: 9V-OFB) This report 

Boeing 787-9 Economy Class (9V-OJA) Link

Boeing 787-9 ScootBiz Class (9V-OJA) Link

Boeing 787-9 Scoot-in-silence (9V-OJD) Link

Originally my flight was supposed to be on the 30th January, and aircraft type was scheduled to be Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. As the time approached the date, I received a notification by the airline that my flight was cancelled and was changed to a day later. I was fine with it but thinking back I should have changed to another date to test the airline's efficiency. I heard lots of complaints about the airline's service recovery, perhaps next time I should try it to discover myself. As for the aircraft type, I was slightly disappointed as I had flown the -8 series more times than the -9 and later on it turned out that my flight was full, thanks to the cancellation I guess. I am puzzled since Saturday's flight was cancelled, shouldn't the airline use a bigger aircraft, the -9 for this instance? Perhaps the shortage of -9 aircraft on that day, who knows! 

I like this photo from Yun Jie Lee who photographed this at Seoul Incheon Airport. 

After a disappointing stay at a highly rated hostel, I made my way to the nearby LRT to take the train to Terminal 21. Why was I disappointed? Mainly due to the poor service from check-in staff, and what was worse is the drilling noise which woke me up early in the morning. I won't go back there any time soon definitely. 

Some photos of Bangkok 

The Fashion Festival was going on near Siam Paragon (Siam Station)

I had a delicious lunch at one of the Japanese restaurants at Terminal 21 Shopping Mall. 

The interior of Terminal 21 shopping mall

Local traffic 

I like to give this motorbike a test drive.

This caught my attention while I was making my way out of Central World Shopping Mall.

There was a taxi stand with many folks queueing up. After 15 minutes, I decided not to wait and take a taxi somewhere else. Fortunately, I caught one that a passenger just alighted from, outside the hotel, I asked him whether he was taking passengers and would drive to DMK airport, he agreed and I was on my way sooner than I thought. Initially, there was slow traffic at the initial part of the journey but once we made our way to the expressway, it was a smooth passage to the airport. After passing through 2 tolls, we reached the airport. 

Unlike my previous experience, it was a pleasant check-in this time. By the time I reached the queue, I was the 8th person in line but 5 counters were opened so check-in was a quick affair. Do note that Scoot's web check-in applies only for flights flying out of Singapore (Home base). For foreign cities, normal check-in procedure only.

Welcome to Bangkok DMK Airport! 

The terminal isn't big so finding your airline's check-in counter doesn't take long.

Thai Lion Air - We make people fly! 

R Airlines - when is it going to start up? I saw the airline's A320 aircraft before but it has since disappeared. Many of us are wondering, what's going on with this airline? 

Before checking in, I did some plane spotting and met a German aviation enthusiast! 

This was what I saw at that time! 

After that, it was about 3 hours before departure, I decided to head to the check-in counters to do my check-in so that I could more spotting at the airside. 

Checking my flight's status 

There were already passengers queueing up. 

Got Nok Air's supermarket style boarding pass 

Once I was done, I made my way to the airside. Spotted a set of airline crew along the way. 

Did a quick check on Flightradar24, 9V-OFB was on its way to DMK Airport. I am glad that it wasn't OFA. 

Once on the airside, I went to enjoy some plane spotting. 

Beautiful weather that day 

Nok Air's Boeing 737-800 

Great place for plane spotting and photography!

This Nok Air's Boeing 737-800 was heading to Ho Chi Minh City. 

While waiting, I decided to get myself a drink and a hot dog with American cheese.

Time flew past quickly, it was soon night time 

Nok Air's Boeing 737-800 and Orient Thai's Boeing 767-300ER (At the adjacent gate)

Thai Air Asia's Airbus A320 

Boarding gate 26 

My ride: 9V-OFB 

Flight route: DMK-SIN

Miles: 893

Date: 31st January 2016
Airline: Scoot 
Flight: TZ301
Route: DMK-SIN
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
Registration: 9V-OFB
Delivered on 29th August 2015
Name of aircraft: Lickity-Split
Configuration: C21 Y314
Engines: 2 X Roll Royce 1000
Line number: 335 
Seat: 37A 
Gate: 26
Load: 90% and above
Duration: 2 hours 2 mins
Scheduled departure: 2015
Boarding: 1936
Push back: 2020
Take off: 2034
Scheduled arrival: 2340
Actual arrival: 2341
Departure runway: 21L
Arrival runway: 02L

Welcome back on Scoot, Mr Charles! Unfortunately, this set of crew was a disappointment especially after experiencing a great set of the crew on my previous flight with Bangkok Airways. I made my way to seat while passing by a couple of crew who seemed to wish they were somewhere else. Putting that aside, I noticed a windowless seat near the rear of the aircraft, and I knew the outcome. Fortunately, it isn't as bad as seat 7A. I only have to lean forward to access the window. Fortunately, this is a night flight so not a big deal. I asked the crew whether the flight was full and could I change the seat. He had no idea about the load and asked me to wait until the door closed. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an almost full flight and the seats beside mine were taken up by 2 Singaporean youngsters. 

Windowless seat but not as bad as seat 7A, you can check it up on this trip report.

I was sitting quite close to the rear. 

Waiting for the rest of the passengers, hoping for the seats beside mine to remain vacant. 

The windowless seat on the other side, row 37K. 

No rainbow lighting on arrival, I was disappointed.

I didn't take that many photos on this flight so you can check out more of this airline's Economy class photos on this trip report.

The flight was uneventful. In-flight service was normal, nothing fantastic. For most of us, we were asleep since it was pretty late. For the BOB service, I skipped it as I wasn't hungry. 2 hours of flying went past fast and we touched down smoothly at Changi Airport. 

I took some window shot photos and here they are: 

This point, I could do some comparison between this aircraft and the Airbus A350-900. 

Engine start-up is slightly noisier than the A350, but the flaps setting is definitely quieter on this aircraft. Sound is audible but isn't as loud. 

Once clearance was given, we taxied to our assigned runway. 

Almost there! 

Take off was powerful but slightly noisier than the A350. Still quieter than the Boeing 777 though. 

We made a turn and enjoy some view of the city before flying over the South China Sea. 

At this point, we started our descent into Singapore. 

The familiar sight of these ships and I know for sure, we were on approach to runway 02. 

SMRT's Train Depot at Tanah Merah. We were within seconds before touch down. 

The landing was smooth and we taxied for a good 15 minutes before reaching to our gate at Terminal 2. 

My rating:

Airline's website: 6/10
DMK Airport experience: 6/10
Check-in staff: 6/10
In-flight service: 6/10
Seat comfort: 5/10 (my poor knee)
Cabin interior: 6/10
Cleanliness: 10/10
Airlines' livery: 8/10 (Exterior)
Punctuality: 10/10
Enjoyment: 6/10 
Overall rating: 68/100

Conclusion

Flying with Scoot has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is it is now working with Tigerair flying to numerous destinations in Asia and Australia so combining both airline's network, you have more choices than before especially connecting flights from Australia to other cities. Secondly, it operates a fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner with just a spare aircraft: the Boeing 777-200ER which would be retired sometime this year according to a reliable source, the new generation aircraft is definitely more comfortable to fly on than the A320 or b737 narrow-body aircraft. Thirdly, airfares, in general, is cheaper than flying on Premium carriers and you pay for what you need, options that you don't need, you don't have to pay for them (For example In-flight meal, good seats or entertainment (ScootV or WiFi)). Lastly, if you are a Krisflyer (Singapore Airlines' mileage program) member, you can earn or redeem miles on Scoot and Tigerair, that's provided you pay more for the airfare (earning miles) and redeeming miles is subjected to availability. 

As for the disadvantages: The airline operates the 787 Dreamliner aircraft at a high utilisation rate so if one or two aircraft are grounded due to technical problem or weather issues, and depending on whether there are spare aircraft on the ground, your flight may get delayed. The airline is not well known for its service recovery and that may become a disadvantage for you. Secondly, flight timing on certain routes are not ideal and usually for those flights, airfares are cheaper. Are you willing to sacrifice the inconvenient flight timing in order to save money? Thirdly, in-flight meals are pretty pricey and you can't enjoy outside food on board. 

Overall, I am quite satisfied with my experience with this airline. One advantage it has over its competitors such as Air Asia X is the aircraft type. The 3-3-3 on Economy Class is definitely more comfortable on the 787 Dreamliner than the A330-300 of Air Asia X. 

Scoot's main rivals: 

Air Asia X Group: Airbus A330-300 aircraft

Jetstar Group: Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft

What's coming up next for me?

SIN- Singapore 
BKK - Bangkok Suvarnabhumi 
SGN - Ho Chi Minh City
HAN - Hanoi 
MNL - Manila 

Route: SIN-BKK-SGN-HAN-SGN-MNL-SIN (10 days)

Airlines: Thai Airways, Jet Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Philippines Airlines.

Aircraft types: Boeing 787-8, Boeing 737-900ER, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, Airbus A330-300 and Airbus A321 

Taking place on March 2016

Stay tuned for the trip reports! 

Thanks for reading, hope you find this information useful!

Cheers, 

Charles