We are headed off to Bangkok (again) on a short family holiday. Bangkok has become our favourite nearby destination, just to take a break from Singapore and do nothing. Flight time is 2.5 hours (actual flight time only 2 hours, but these days air traffic and taxi-ing can be rather time consuming too).
The last two times to Bangkok, we flew with FlyScoot. Why? Cheap fares. It cost $623 SGD return for the four of us. We did not buy any meals and no checked luggage outbound, but 20kg checked luggage coming back to Singapore.
Fly Scoot to Bangkok - TZ 302 - Singapore Changi Airport. The flight was scheduled for 1745hrs. Very short lines for check-in.
Making our way to the gate on a sunny afternoon.
Gate E8 - a long walk from immigration. Good to stretch the legs though. FlyScoot allocates seats, so there is no need to rush to board, unless you need more overhead luggage space. Fortunately, the Boeing 777 has plenty of overhead storage.
"Goin Scootin" will take us to Bangkok today. Plane was loading food, though most passengers on board would not purchase the food. We find FlyScoot food to be very expensive, and not exactly good to eat.
Where are you Scooting to today?
Looks like the plane was ready to go.
Flight Delay
Unfortunately, there was a delay. There was some preventive maintenance work that had to be done and boarding was held back by about 20 minutes. Fortunately, we were not in a rush. We had brought some food and snacks, which we dutifully consumed at the waiting gate, since FlyScoot's policy was not to allow external food on board.
Delay again!
Boarding the Aircraft after the short delay. We all got strapped in and the plane was pushed back from the gate. Shortly after, the pilot announced that we had to go back to the gate because some problem cropped up. He needed the ground engineer to take a lot. Oh well, more delays!
Here is the safety card, Boeing 777-200. Well, I guess safety first. If there is a technical problem to be fixed, better fix it. Don't try to fly a faulty plane.
The menu. You can purchase food on board. Do so, only if you're very hungry.
Finally, we managed to get underway. The plane took off almost 2 hours late. We had been stuck in our seats for more than 1 hour before the plane took off. Still, better late than never.
Short video of the legroom, or lack of, on the Scoot plane.
Once we got into Bangkok international airport terminal, it was a very long walk to immigration. Clearance was quite fast. We didn't have checked-in luggage, so we got out rather quickly and went straight to Level 2 of the terminal to look for food! That would be the subject of my next post.
Overall Experience
Thus far, our experience with FlyScoot has been cheap fares but not a very good on-time record. Our maiden Scoot flight from Singapore to Sydney was also delayed by 2 hours. Of course, fares were cheap, compared to full service carriers. Bottom-line is that if you fly Scoot, be mentally prepared for delays.
Also, good to bring along some food & water with you, especially if you have kids. Our kids always have their water bottles with them. As for food, yes, you are not supposed to eat on the plane. However, they don't really check. Bring along easy-to-eat stuff like cereal bars, kit-kat, cookies in small packets etc. I don't think the attendants will have any issue if your kids snack on these while on board. (Of course, clear the mess up!)
Safe travels!!
Back to my Bangkok, Thailand page.
