KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Come share your experience of Budget Airlines

Scoot is the best of all budget airline, seating area is like normal economy airline. My rules for budget is always less than 4hr. Anything more than that will be big torture especially on tiger, jetstar, airasia.

Agree that budget airlines are only for short distance. Took TigerAir before and paid extra for the first row. Much more leg space and treated like "first class" cos has boarding priority. haha!

took airasia .. and dont like it
price unless book really in advance else no cheap than normal airline

I did Jetstar and Scoot.

Will never do Jetstar again bcos seats were uncomfortable and legroom was too small. Food was awful too.

Read that Scoot's planes are old SIA planes and found it not much diff from main carriers, but need to catch a good deal. Otherwise, it can be even more expensive than some regular carriers.

I have taken Scoot a few times bcos it's comfortable. 5-hour and 7-hour flights. Will try an 8-hour flight this year. The only gripe is it doesn't have in-flight entertainment. Food is bearable but may not suit everybody's palate.

Flew budget for the first time recently.

Total price was just marginally cheaper than regular.

Made the mistake of buying 20kg for all for the onward flight.


What i do not like are :
- Very strange design to have the lights and sevice buttons on the top of the arm-rest. And the carpet was super worn out especially on the aisles where the wheels of their carts run over.
- First airline to ask me to remove my noise cancellation earphones during takeoff and landing.
- Meal is served with 2 choices of canned soft-drinks only.
- "outside" food not allowed.

Flew budget for short trips over the past years when it made sense (financially/timing). So far my fav is Scoot. The braised chicken rice is a winner (for me). When booking budget, I will typically minimize luggage when leaving SG, and max when coming back. Usually omit food unless it's that chicken rice from Scoot. I won't smuggle food - if I didn't buy, I will fast during the flight.

Tiger was the worst experience. Super tight seats, and I have this impression it's always late. Had some bad experiences in the past.

But I do like budget airlines allowing me to buy one way without any penalties like full service. End of day, if it saves only a little compared to full service, I will still go back to full service.

tankee wrote:Flew budget for the first time recently.

Total price was just marginally cheaper than regular.

Made the mistake of buying 20kg for all for the onward flight.


What i do not like are :
- Very strange design to have the lights and sevice buttons on the top of the arm-rest. And the carpet was super worn out especially on the aisles where the wheels of their carts run over.
- First airline to ask me to remove my noise cancellation earphones during takeoff and landing.
- Meal is served with 2 choices of canned soft-drinks only.
- "outside" food not allowed.

Which airline was this?

You sound like a fussy flier. What you have listed are least of concerns to me. Budget is not suitable for fussies

A couple of budget flights that I had taken (some more often than others):

AirAsia (Malaysia and Indonesia)
Tigerair (Singapore and Australia)
Jetstar (Singapore and Australia)
Citilink
Wings Air
Lion Air
Malindo (not a true budget carrier, more of a hybrid)

Longest being Singapore to Melbourne via Darwin same day connection (effectively 2 separate journeys) on Jetstar.
Shortest being the hop to Kuala Lumpur.

I don't mind low cost carriers, as long as they don't burn a hole in my pocket.

Scoot is by far the best in the region but it's a tad pricey. Like the new aircraft (B787): clean lavatories and ample leg room esp biz class. Took 5h and 7h flt via Scoot and no issue at all with no-frills, as they were red-eyes.

I used to take a lot of Jetstar flts to/fro HKG and Tiger Airways to/fro MFM, SZE and CAN. Not that I like to chiong with the other passengers on Tiger, but the LCC timings were perfect for my private weekend getaways, as compared to what regular carriers like CZ/MU/SQ/CX/CA were offering then.

I like "7-11" bentos esp Nasi Briyani and Soy Chix Rice, Nissan cup noodles and cold sandwiches, as that's what I eat on land sometimes. I usually bring along my own mineral water, but will occasionally order a cup of hot Nescafe, Boh Tea or Milo if I'm cold. Anyway, I seldom need to take them onboard as I'd hv eaten enough at the airport before boarding lah.

I'm not the type who'll watch 120min movies nor sappy KDs on tablets if the journey is less than 4 hrs. Note that your neck will ache if you place your tablet on your lap for 3 hrs, cos you won't be able to place it on the tray table throughout the flt for self-explanatory reasons. I'm happy with my HP games, travel mags, inflight shop catalogues, newspapers, mp3 on my HP. No. Actually, I'm happier in lalaland...

My outbound baggage is very light so I only pay for the return leg baggage top-up.

Seat selection is a must if it's a red-eye.


Other LCCs I had taken before in EU and India:

1. Monarch
2. ThomsonFly (formerly Britannia Airways)
3. Jet Airways (semi-LCC)

(1) and (2) existed long before RyanAir and easyJet were founded. I recalled having to buy F&B from the flight attendant who pushed the cart down the aisle. The choice of drinks and snacks were more or less the same as those offered on EU trains.


However, we avoided LCCs when we had to tow a tot. That was the era when the Budget Terminal was still around. Hated the long walk and up the stairs! We strictly took SQ, BA and other estab carriers when kid was below 5.