BigE

I noticed that Nokscoot lets you bid on an upgrade to a Biz seat, which is roughly equivalent to what airlines call premium economy (38 inch seat pitch, 22 inch seat width, meal, bag, priority boarding). You can specify any bid you want and they indicate the "strength" of your bid as a number of hammers. 1-2 days before your flight the bid clears (and you pay) or it doesn't.

Anyone ever try this? I've found very few reports online. I'm curious what it takes to win the bid. For my flight, I could have paid about $100 to upgrade at time of booking, but didn't. That cabin seems to be entirely empty at the moment.

I gather it's not a pure bidding action, but rather there is some minimum bid. At least, one person on Tripadvisor claimed that they made a "reasonable" bid and didn't clear even though the biz cabin was empty.

EDIT: What is up with my spelling today? Maybe the mods can change the title to say "NokScoot" instead

BigE

from Flo-e 20 months ago: "I was successful with a SGD81 (USD62) bid for SIN-TAO (B777 operated). 5h50mins flight time. Actually there was three of us who were successful with this bid (online). "

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24741940-post12.html

AussieExPat

I bid (and won) on a "Bid for Biz" on Scoot flying with my wife and two kids about a year ago -- not sure how similar the products are. If I recall correctly there was a minimum bid. On our Singapore - Perth flight (operated on a 787), it was a worthwhile investment for a little legroom. As you describe, the product in this case was very much like a "Premium Economy", and not "Business".

I think I bid somewhere near the SGD$100 mark (per passenger) that you referenced for a flight about 5 hours.

flyer987

I got upgraded on Nokscoot flight XW182 DMK-TPE on 2/13.

Booked the flight on 12/26 and got the first email from option town ("Your FLIGHT details - Booking Reference XX") the day after. Didn't check it.

Got another email on 1/12. Guaranteed biz upgrades were 890THB but sold out according to an error message when trying to book. ( 20kg suitcase alone ist around 1000THB)

Went with standby biz upgrade for 500THB. Also booked standby empty eco row for $3. Option town confirmed that priority is given to the biz upgrade.

About 12h before the flight I got an email from Nokscoot indicating a 30kg bag allowance. 2h later I could see the biz upgrade confirmed in optiontown. The optiontown confrimation email arrived another few hours later.

There were about six empty seats in biz on the plane. My pricing might have been lower, because I booked through an OTA that sold that flight for 2500THB (probabaly POS) when the website price was around 5000THB.