I'm here in Bali now. Half the trip down, still more to come.

I may get kicked off the FlyerTalk forum for this, but I've never flown business class or first class in my life. My philosophy of travel is different (and my employer only pays for economy). So, I was in cattle class.

Having read the extremely mixed reviews online, I made sure that I had everything printed out. Which reviews have stated was required. Due to making some errors, I ended up paying for printouts in the airport - expensive. The Scoot check-in desk had a sign up saying that one of the documents had to be printed, but I now can't remember which one. I had it printed in any case.

Despite reviews to the contrary, in Gatwiick they opened the check in desk up well ahead of time and eventually had three people working on it. People were processed efficiently and certainly I who was nowhere near the start of the queue was out in plenty of time to wait ages for the gate to open. Anyone who had 'Scoot Plus' (I think equivalent to Premium Economy) jumped the queue, but I only saw one couple do that.

I was surprised that pretty much everybody on the flight had checked luggage. I've been weaning myself off checked luggage and had none.

For unknown reasons they didn't assign me a seat at check-in, which caused quite a bit of confusion at the gate. They asked me to step aside and wait for a supervisor to arrive, but the supervisor didn't. Eventually they decided to have a go assigning me a seat at the gate, and even though they weren't used to the software, managed it. I had an entire row to myself, and was able to lie down and sleep. Important as my first leg was my longest by far. Even though I stayed on the plane in Bangkok, they had me switch seats to 41E, which I think might be the single worst seat on the plane. However, I didn't mind that. What I did mind was being sat next to two people on my last flight who weren't wearing masks and were coughing all the time. While they asked people to wear masks, they didn't do much to enforce mask wearing, and particularly western travellers had their masks down below their nose, on their chins, or completely off.

All of my flights were late by at least an hour. My last flight from Singapore to Bali was late because they decided they needed to replace a missing part on the wing - not confidence inspiring, but it is said that Scoot is a safe airline.

I did take some food onboard, and ate it discretely. Only a large packet of cashews and some fruit and nut bars. Which turned out to be enough. I had water, but did buy a soda onboard. I also paid for in-seat power. It turned out that my 60W laptop charger would not work with their sockets for an unknown reason, but a standard usb adapter would. On a low power adaptor, my Chromebook will just about stay at the same charge, so that was enough. When I asked the crew about the socket (standard UK mains socket) not working, one of them loaned me his personal charger for the flight. Overall, the flight crew were efficient and pleasant to interact with. In Singapore they had an additional security check at the gate, and they confiscated my water there. I don't think there was an opportunity to refill it there after the additional security - but I didn't go searching for one and may have missed one.

For economy class, I thought the legroom was reasonable, and the seats were reasonably comfortable. I have flown on 787s multiple times in the past, but I did notice that the flights seemed quite comfortable in terms of low airplane noise, and a smooth flight (except during periods of notable turbulence.) I can't remember if my previous 787 flights were the same.

I only found the right place to sleep in Singapore too late on the way out. I plan to sleep on the floor on the way back in the place where most people do. (Though, I noticed some people sleeping elsewhere.) If that works for me, then the overnight layover in Changi will not be such a problem. Yes, I know there is a transit hotel there, but even though paying for a transit hotel on the way out and the way back would still give a total price less than the second most expensive ticket for my trip to Bali, my travel policy is to save money on flights and spend money at my destination.

I plan to visit Waingapu later in the year, and the only sensible way I know how to get there is through Bali. It's likely that I will fly Scoot for at least part of my journey.

My travel methods take advantage of cheap flights that get me a good chunk of my way somewhere and then go further. E.g. Pegasus airlines can get me to Istanbul for about £80-100 return. I can then go from there to places in the Middle East. I'm not sure what the best Far East hub will be, but I suspect that Scoot might fulfil that role for me.