TRIP REPORT: Summer Premium Adventures – Scoot TR604 Singapore to Bangkok

Scoot TR604 Singapore to Bangkok
Summer Premium Adventures

In this Summer Premium Adventure (Warning: Long!)

• In the Summertime when the weather is hot…
• Off to Heathrow, British Airways Galleries North Lounge
  
• BA762 London Heathrow to Oslo – A321neo (EuroTraveller)
• Oslo Airport, OSL Lounge
• AY914 Oslo to Helsinki, Business Class
• Helsinki Airport lounging
• QR302 Helsinki to Doha (Business Class)
• Doha Lounge Stop Part 1
• QR946 Doha to Singapore (QSuites)
• Hotel Indigo, Katong, Singapore
• Exploring Hawker Markets
• Intercontinental, Bugis, Singapore
• Orchids Everywhere – The National Orchid Garden
• Off to Changi featuring the Singapore Pokemon Centre
• Scoot TR604 Singapore to Bangkok
• Dream Hotel, Bangkok
• Exploring the Wats
• Food Mistakes in Bangkok (Or Regrets. I have a more than a few)
• Back to Suvarnabhumi, Qatar Airways Lounge, Bangkok Airport
• QR833 Bangkok to Doha (QSuites)
• Another long Doha Layover
• QR175 Doha to Oslo
• Back at Oslo Airport
• BA767 Oslo to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller)
• Homeward bound
• Always Curious

TR604 Singapore Changi to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport
Scoot Airlines, Seat 7F (Switched from seat 7A), Airbus A320
875 Miles flown.

I was welcomed aboard this Scoot Airbus A320 (ex TigerAir A320), and the first thing I noticed was how tightly configured this bird was.

Front row seats 

Welcome to the land of 28” Seat pitch, with old seats. And this matters. I’ve tried 28” seats for some time – and there are a lot of optimised designs out there (the Acro Series 3/6LC, The Recaro SL3510 and so on).

This seat.. isn’t optimised.

My seat (in the end)

Check that legroom 

Actually.. don’t

Cabin during boarding

These planes haven’t been through any seating upgrade. Whilst newer builds will get Recaros, we have the older Weber Aircraft Seats here. With a recline option built-in.

In an ultra-dense formation like this, this is an unoptimised seating layout at best, and at worst – it is god awful. And I’m heading towards the god awful side. A bench would have been better than these Weber seats… and a lot more comfortable.

Settling in, I was politely asked if I would swap seats so a couple could sit together, As it was a window for a window, I wasn’t too objectionable for that. Speaking of the seat, do you think it was aligned to the window?

Nope

Alignment. We’ve heard of it.

Not a lot of pitch

Even on some of the 28/29″ I’ve flown and tested, there is still a little knee room. Here – none.

Overhead panel. At least the air vents are there.

With a full aircraft loaded, it was time for our A320 to head off to Bangkok. A safety demonstration was carried out manually, and we were soon on our way.

Safety card

We taxied out to the runway – and it’s always interesting to look at other airports operations and carriers when you’re far from home.

IndiGo Airbus A320

Scoot Airbus A320 and Singapore Airlines Boeing 777

 
Singapore Airlines Star Alliance billboard plane… in white!

Scoot Airbus A320 taking off

Eventually, TR604 turned for the runway… and its two engines powered up for a take-off run.

With the aircraft in the air – Scoot put on the sales patter straight away. Heck, either Ryanair taught the how, or Ryanair learned off them.

Ho-hum.

I took a look at the sales pages, with Scoot pushing its food and drink options.  Thankfully, I didn’t see anyone have their drinks taken from them – so maybe they’ve got less aggressive on that front.

Saying that, for the #avgeek, they cater well to souvenirs – which is good to see.

28.5″ seats. Me thinks not.

This plane had no IFE embedded into the seats, no in plane wi-fi or no in-plane IFE server – so the magazine and the window were the entertainment options. Meanwhile, I had not adjusted to time zones well, so with the white noise of an a pair of IAE engines and a poorly placed bulkhead… I dozed off until the top of decent.

I can make a habit of this on low-cost/semi-boring segments. I woke up for some sales segments and dozed straight back to sleep. Mainly as the captain had managed to find every bump between Singapore and Bangkok. As such, it was a flight to fall asleep on, rather than stay awake.

At the top of descent, immigration forms were handed out for Thailand (something I wish they did at the beginning of service). In a rush, I did the paperwork (mostly reading it- but shoving in what I thought looked right).

Crew hiding away.

Thankfully, I did this before the tray tables had to be secured and everything was meant to be upright.

The aircraft vectored around the area as it descended through cloud layers and closing in on Suvarnabhumi airport.

With ease, TR604 cut through the cloud and landed safely at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Closing in on Bangkok

With TR604 on the ground, Sunny Side Up decided it was time to hunt for a gate. There was a bit of a taxi around, passing some local traffic, but eventually, he aircraft found a gate to park at.

Pulling off the active

Construction work

Thai Airways Airbus A350 landing

Coming onto stand

Thai Airways Boeing 777-200

And for me – it was a good sign we had been docked to a proper finger gate as opposed to a hardstand.

With the chimes to undo seat belts, there was a mass surge forward to the exit.

We were still waiting to disembark whilst the luggage was being unloaded.

With a little window opening to get out of my row, I took it, grabbing my bag on the way.

I thanked the crew and headed out to the terminal.

Overall: As a method of getting from A to B, Scoot will do that for you without a problem. And as a bare basic Low Cost Carrier – they did that for around £65 or so with a bag thrown in at that price. Which again, isn’t bad value. However, the seating on these aircraft let them down badly. Putting in a reclining seat on a high density aircraft like this is sheer madness that’s filed under “unforgivable”.

And I hate to say it, but sticking in non-reclining seats would be an improvement – least of all, they’re better designed at the back to give more knee room, whilst optimised in the seat for comfort as well as not moving at all.

If you’re flying Scoot – do yourself a favour and get the extra legroom seats – especially on the old Tigerair aircraft. Your legs will thank you for it.

Either that or pay double to fly Thai Airways or Singapore Airlines.

Next: Into Bangkok and The Dream Hotel

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