Aussie Trip Report Fall 2014
Photo album of the whole trip report
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Carfield76/library/AussieSeptember2014
Aussie Trip Report Part 1: Scoot – my 200th Airline & what is “Scootitude”?
Here is going to be another series of trip reports involving my latest trip to Australia. It will cover various airlines, including Scoot, Virgin Australia, Qantas Link, Qantas, and Thai Airways. For Australian frequent travelers, this report will possibly be little interests but hopefully it will be useful for other travelers. For me, there are a number of firsts – including Scoot, Qantas Link, and flying into Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. There will be surprises and disappointments, but hopefully there will be more surprises than disappointments.
My trip began with a trip on Scoot, one of the few long haul LCCs! I selected Scoot because I want to try a new airline and its ScootBiz (well more like a premium economy cabin) is really cheap, especially the 6:55am departure time. The total ticket price including various premium meals, snooze kits and services is $4109HKD. I even paid $120HKD for the privilege to have my luggage tagged all the way to Perth, but Scoot Thru still required me to physically check in again at Scoot’s Changi airport transit desk to get a new boarding pass. For $120HKD, I don’t think I am asking too much for an onward boarding pass printed in HK. Anyway, you are not allowed to purchase this HKG-SIN-PER thru flight without paying $120HKD Scoot Thru flight. For most days, the same aircraft operates both HKG to SIN and SIN to PER flight.
September 19, 2014
TZ 221 HKG-SIN Lv0655 Arr1040 Boeing 777-200ER 9V-OTA “Barry”
Hong Kong airport is not really accessible at these early hours. There are surely overnight buses, which involve many local stops and waiting in a lonely bus stop. Airport Express is closed during the night, so my option is limited to taking a car service or arriving at the airport the night before. I took the last Airport Express train to the airport and spent $480 for a stay at the Plaza Premium Arrival lounge. Not sure if this will be the same option if I ever have to fly out from HKG at these ungodly hours though.
Scoot’s counters are the only check-in counters that open around 4am (4:05am to be exact) at HKG. Scoot uses Aisle E. There were only two counters initially but most check-ins were simple and I only waited fifteen minutes. Please not that there was no separate Scoot Biz check-in counter in Hong Kong. However, nobody was really in a hurry and most of the shops were closed at these early hours. I noticed that five counters were eventually opened after 4:45pm. Thankfully the custom and immigration were opened around the same time and I was able to use the Plaza Premium lounge using my priority pass card. Honestly, despite Scoot recommending an early check-in at 4am, you will be fine arriving HKG after 4:45am. Two hours are sufficient, as there is only one other flight that departs at 6:55am – a Hong Kong Airlines flight to Xiamen, and the next major one is an Emirates flight departing at 7:25am.
Not much daylight, so pictures did not come out too good. Anyway, here was “Barry” getting ready to fly back to Singapore.
Gate 16 was used – one of the preferred gates – Scoot got to use this gate possibly because of airport operation reason! No shop was opened but at least it was close to the food court, which featured 24 hours eatery and some early opened fast food outlets.
The flight was actually pretty full in economy cabin, as there were many takers for this bargain flight, despite early departure. There was a separate Scoot Biz boarding lane.
The cabin manager was greeting passengers at the entrance and this service was no different from Singapore Airlines, which directed passengers to their respective aisles for speedier boarding. Scoot Biz cabin was not particularly busy this morning, but I had a neighbor. To my surprise, there was some form of pre-takeoff beverage – Water cup!
First shot of the cabin
Really nice black-leathered seats arranged in eight abreast arrangement
My seat 1A for this segment
Seat Control – the poorly located service buttons and recline!
Seat is definitely not international business class style. They are a hybrid of US domestic first class and premium economy seats. It is of course not a lie flat seat, but it is comfortable for flights up to five hours. For my flights today, they are perfect, but not sure if I will fly it all the way to SYD from SIN, except if it is really cheap. I hope the 787-9s will need a better seat. I managed to take more pictures of the seat in the recline position on the next flight, and you can be the one to decide if this recline is good or not. The legroom is not too bad, as I have pre-booked seat 1A. However I was disappointed with the lack of footrest!
Boarding was completed at 6:47am and there was obviously not much traffic at HKG in these hours, except the typical long haul arrivals. Unlike previous flights, we actually took off from R/W7L, which was normally the runway reserved for arrivals only. We took off at 7:04am for our three hours and nine minutes flight. There was no flight map and flightradar was not too helpful, as we flew in and out of coverage areas.
The service began shortly after takeoff. The F/As have already taken all the beverage orders and verified meal orders prior to departure. My ordered snooze kit was delivered first, along with Singapore immigration/custom forms. The cabin service began at 7:42am and no cart was used in Scoot Biz.
I had pre-ordered a premium meal, which had a reasonable surcharge, and a beverage of your choice, alcoholic or non-alcoholic was included. The entrée was a Hong Kong style stir-fried e-fu noodle with shrimps, which was very delicious. There were two deluxe sides, which were a fruit cup of papaya, pineapple, watermelon, and Melon, and a small tub of Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Ice cream. I was more than satisfied with the meal, and as expected, I slept for the rest of the flight.
Descent soon began at 9:41am local time and we landed on R/W20R at 10:13am and parked at gate F54 at 10:21am. We were more than twenty minutes early. It gave me a bit more time to casually walk towards Transfer E for the onward boarding pass. It was quite a walk from Concourse F.
I took a few shots of the empty cabin after everyone left.
“Barry” here in Singapore

























