Review of Scoot flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in Economy

This is SCOOT!

Scoot is the budget airline spin-off of Singapore Airlines, it began operating in 2012 and offers short-medium haul routes alongside its mainline counter-part. Likewise with Singapore Airlines it offers a varied fleet with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner mainly used on medium & long-haul flights, with the Airbus A320-family being flown on the bulk of the flights, though in 2023 the airline became the first Asian Pacific airline to introduce the Embraer E2-195 into its fleet for regional and low-demand flights. The airline formerly operated Boeing 777-200ER at the start of its operations.

Scoot has operated a single European service from Singapore to Athens and onward to Berlin, however this will finish in late March 2025. Athens will be served without the Berlin 5th Freedom extension, but a new service to Vienna in Austria will start as well!

As with Eurowings for Lufthansa in Europe, Scoot isn't in the Star Alliance, but if you have a Singapore Airlines KRIS Flyer account, you can earn Kris Miles when flying with Scoot. 

Anyway, without further ado, on with this Flight Report and my £17 flight on the Scoot Boeing Dreamliner!

KLIA Express from KL Sentral!

After a quick break from Singapore, it was time to jump back on the short air-bridge and it was off to the KLIA Express service at Kuala Lumpur Central Station! I had a return ticket for £17 in standard class and it was ideal for the journey as I wanted the easiest means of getting to KLIA from the city. Plus it was handy to use the same route in and out for simplicity and maximising my time!

I will feature my shenanigans in Kuala Lumpur in the tourism section at the end of this Flight Report!

Despite its size and the fact there is also a shopping centre (or mall) in the facility, I found it easy enough to navigate using the signs around KL Central Station. The signs were in Malaysian and English, making it easy to navigate as a tourist. A new "MIXUE" branch opened in the station and I opted to try out a cold beverage to get rid of some of my loose Malaysian change, though a speaker blasting out a 60 second jingle on repeat got very annoying, very quickly!!!

I went to the lower levels of the KL Central Station where the KLIA Express Train operates from and I awaited the next arrival, the trains are frequent every 20 minutes and there are only three stops on the entire route: KL Central, KLIA T1 & KLIA T2, the journey is about half-an-hour in either direction.

The train showed up on time and after boarding and making myself at home in one of the seats, it was a quiet service I caught, the half an hour journey took place uneventfully getting me to Terminal Two at KLIA, with some pretty nice views of the main Kuala Lumpur City as well as the surrounding rural areas and countryside as we darted toward the Airport, which is 28 miles (or 45km) away from the city centre.

Overall it was a very relaxing and easy to use service. Whilst it is pricey to use, it is ideal for those who are not familiar with Kuala Lumpur and aren't confident to use the Metro, which takes about 45 minutes to make the same journey, but cheaper.

I ascended the escalators to the main check-in and departures hall, I made my way to the Airport a little earlier than I had planned as I was having issues on checking in with the Scoot app… I did the check in online all as planned, but the App would not issue me a boarding pass. I went to the Scoot check in desks and saw a check in agent who confirmed it was due to me flying One-way into Singapore as a UK citizen. Once I confirmed my onward travel plans to leave Singapore within my 90 days, I was issued a boarding pass and was off airside.

Flying From KLIA T2

Just before I went airside, I went out on the landside viewing areas overlooking KLIA T2, but it was a very quiet period with only one Air Asia A320 visible. During peak times, this would be a good time to spot budget airlines, KLIA T1 looked a bit busier in the distance.

I got through pretty easily at KLIA T2. There would be a second security check just before going to the international gates where I'd my flight from, but the main plaza was easy enough to navigate. I found a massive departure screen in the middle of the Terminal which showcased the forth coming flight that afternoon & evening. Most the flights here were Air Asia Group, but a few odd names cropped up. My flight was showing P10 for its Gate, you can just see it on the bottom left of the screen.

As I was passing through something did catch my eye- an A&W restaurant! I love A&W Root Beer, but its not something you can easily access in the UK, however its very popular in Asia & America. Now in the US the A&W restaurants are very few and far, but there's more to be found in the Far East of Asia, so seeing this one- I opted to dive in for a quick light bite as the flight was going to be very short and I needed to priorities getting to my accommodation in Singapore once we landed. It was nice to enjoy a decent Root Beer for the first time in ages!

After enjoying my novelty bite, I went to make my way to the P-Gates for my Scoot flight. It took a bit of walking and another aforementioned security check, but I found my gate quite easily and went to catch my Boeing 787 back to Singapore!

Scoot TR469 (KUL-SIN)

My flight that evening was operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner registered as 9V-OJE, named "Maju-lah". Delivered brand new to Scoot in June 2015, it wore a 50th Anniversary of Singapore livery until the Spring of 2016, it has worn the normal Scoot livery ever since. 

Boarding commenced starting from the premium cabin and standard economy was boarded from the rear of the plane to the front of the plane. It looked like a very full flight that evening, so I opted to keep seated and look at the Boeing 787 until it was time for the forward economy rows to board. I actually quite like that boarding system myself, all but one of my Asian Airline operated flights did this method on my trip, I'll cover the odd airline out later.

This flight cost me £17 with an extra £4 for reserving a seat for the flight, which is without a doubt the cheapest wide-body flight I've done to date, I can't see this being beaten anytime soon! But a 45-50 minute flight on a Boeing 787 is something I am not going to turn my nose up at!

First thing I noticed about the Scoot Boeing 787 cabin was how basic it looked compare to other Boeing 787 flights I'd done! I wouldn't mind this on a cheap 2-4 hour flight in Asia from Singapore to somewhere like Thailand or Hong Kong, but to think this is the same plane that will fly you in 2025 from Singapore to Vienna or Athens which take nearly 11 hours to fly! Ouch!

I had zero complaints of the wing-view from my Seat for that evening- Seat 9K! It offered an almost FULL ENGINE view! Also I quite liked the funky yellow mood lighting, which matched the airline's branding!

By the time we pushed back for departure it was dark as it would remain for the rest of the flight. We were late pushing back and departing with our scheduled time being 19:10pm, but we left at 19:50pm- almost an hour late!

We took off passing the KLIA Terminal buildings which were all lit up. Our departure took us East and then South as we climbed out of KLIA and turned onto our route for Singapore near the town of Tanjong Sepat, just East of the KLIA Airport. As you can see from this Screenshot of my flight from FR24, this was the route our flight took, it was a bit hard to see out the windows given it was a night flight and we were mostly out over the Sea for just under half the flight.

Scoot offers some magazines to pass the time, including a "Scootalogue" full of Duty Free & Scoot merch you can buy as well as a "Scoot Café" buy on board menu, though with limited options for this short flight. I opted to try out one of the snack items, a nacho & cheese item with a cola drink… it was average at best, you could tell it was fake cheese used.

The cabin lights were dimmed most of the short flight, apart from a brief period during descent whilst the crew prepared the cabin for arrival into Singapore Changi. 

As you can see in the rear left there is a QR Code you can scan to access Scoot's IFE using your own devices rather than them including IFE Screens, like they do on their parent company. I think you can do this on the A320neo aircraft, but I'll have to confirm if I ever fly them in the future.

As quick as our flight started it was soon over as we arrived into Singapore Changi Airport on Runway 02L. Our arrival took us over the island of Batam before coming straight into Singapore over the Singapore Strait, we then taxied over to Terminal 1 where most of the Scoot flights operate from.

As we taxied over to Terminal 1, I noticed that evening's Airbus A350-900 of Finnair preparing for its return to Helsinki, given this is the service I flew to Singapore on a few days earlier and days later would be flying out on this service again.

As I wasn't sure when I'd fly Scoot again, I grabbed some final pictures of the cabin before leaving, and on the way out I was able to visit the Premium Cabin to get a quick look and picture of the Scoot Premium cabin, which looked quite nice for a long-haul budget airline, I think these are the same seats used by the Norse Atlantic (ex-Norwegian) Boeing 787s!

Upon leaving the Dreamliner, it was off to passport control and find my Capsule Hotel for the next two nights in Singapore. I did another entry form for my second time heading into Singapore before making another brief return to Kuala Lumpur a few days later. And that wrapped up my experience flying on Scoot!