percysmith

Urrgghh more IRROPs from Sccot...

Originally my wife and I and another couple were going to SIN for a day for a wine event. Outbound Sat 31 Oct morn return Sun 1 Nov morn, not staying over. The 1 Nov Scoot inbound flight was cancelled for "operational reasons" and we were reticketed for 2 Nov.

Both couples decided to still go, but the other couple decided to come back on a different flight and accept the dubious Scoot travel vouchers. My wife and I decided to stick it out since we can still well go to work with a Monday morning inbound.

Since the wine event didn't end til late both couples booked one room each in Singapore US$80/room. The other guy was immensely happy cos he can watch the Rugby World Cup finals and returned with his fiancé to HK on Jetstar without issues.

My wife and I arrived at T2 at 2300 and noticed the gate listing has an asterisk next to it. I asked the SATS T2 lounge receptionist what it meant, he said it denotes a flight whose gate has change.

When I got to the gate I saw a note on the gate display that Scoot SIN-TPE-NRT has been moved to gate Exx. In retrospect I suspect our plane has been cannibalised to serve that flight.

Anyway we stayed at lounge til 0130 (sch departure of TZ322 0155). On leaving lounge I was wondering why the website gate display still displayed Gate Open instead of some terrifying Final Call message.

Not long after our arrival at gate lounge were we told there was a delay to 0355 and we are permitted to exit the gate lounge if we returned by 0245. We walked out, took a short nap at a garden bench and rentereed the gate lounge again.

Near the new departure time I still saw the GAs at the reception of the gate lounge and not the airbridge entrance and frowning. A few torches were still flashing around under the belly of the plane. The cargo door was still open and pushback truck and driver was still there though. At 0345 the inevitable delay call to 0430 was announced.

I started looking at revenue and redemption options - there was still Tigerair 0605 and Avios redemption of CX 0655 available. But after 0415 only 8am options became available.

The wife was calm and composed throughout but was anxious to return to work in HK after lunch.

I saw the first signs the Scoot staff were giving up on the plane when the pushback truck driver drove off at 0441. I started calling BA to see if I can still get the 0650 flight back. As I was calling the GAs announced a new plane at 0830 and the crew walked off the plane and out the gate lounge.

BA call centre wasn't able to get our CX 0650 back but somehow it came back on BA.com. I snapped it up, mobile checked in, told the Scoot gate supervisor we were not going to fly their 0830 and asked for directions for T1.

We were back by 10:32 so we only need half day leave on record. The new Scoot plane arrived HKG 12:28 http://fr24.com/SCO322/7dd42ac, 6 hours and 53 minutes late.

Scoot will probably say I'm only entitled to S$50 delay coupon x 2 pax but I'm gonna push back and ask for the whole fare back in coupons, given I received no compensation for the first cancellation.

Poor compensation policy and aggressive operational flight cancellations aside, one point of frustration is Scoot's low performance in IRROPs - we're at its home base, I count 3 787s (including the crippled bird) and a 777 on the tarmac as I was taking off w CX and they can't swap us for another one??!!

Another thing is don't expect to be reseated on SQ or even TR.