An Honest Review: Is Bidding For ScootBiz Worth Your Money?

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21 Jul 2019

In case you’re wondering, I’m actually writing this article from the comfort of my ScootBiz seat while sipping on a Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc and eating my curry biryani chicken rice.

*Pictured above: Me and my fiancée chilling in ScootBiz’s large, albeit old leather seats*

If you’re wondering why the weird flex, it’s also because I saw this question on our Seedly QnA where someone asked about hacks for bidding for a ScootBiz upgrade:

*Pictured above: A question from a confused Scoot customer*

Seeing that I’ve already tried this whole ScootBiz bidding thing, I thought that I should share my own perspective and maybe some tips and hacks based on my experience.

Let’s be clear: ScootBiz is definitely not in the same league as the business class on full-service airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Korean Air, Japan Airlines or any of those fancy Star Alliance flights. It’s more like a premium economy-level kind of situation, but it gets interesting because of the dynamics involved in how you can bid for an upgrade.

And as always, this is a non-sponsored post, although I wouldn’t mind if they paid me…

(Editor’s note: Ahem.)

TL;DR: ScootBiz Is A Premium Economy Experience At One-Third Of The Price

A regular Premium Economy seat on a full-fare flight would cost you S$998 from Singapore to Hong Kong. (promotional rate till 30 September 2019)

*Pictured above: An example of a promotional airfare for SQ Premium Economy*

For my ScootBiz upgrade, I paid S$190 (fare price) + S$105 (bid price) = S$295 from Singapore to Taiwan.

If I booked ScootBiz from the start, it would’ve cost me S$397 (about half the price of a premium economy seat on a full-fare flight).

Edit: A Return flight for ScootBiz bidding total would cost you $190 + $105 + $105 = $400 from Singapore to Taiwan. Quite similar to the actual ScootBiz return rates.

Price aside, ScootBiz doesn’t come with inflight entertainment (you’ve to use an app or your laptop to enjoy this perk), the food you get is a lot less fancy, and you do not get free-flow alcohol and drinks.

ScootBiz Bidding Largely Happens For Mid-Distance Flights

Before we go any further, I must caution that this strategy works best for mid-distance flights (between 3 to 5 hours, for eg. Singapore to China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan) where the ScootBiz seats are most likely to be left empty.

It is highly unlikely for this to work for long-distance trips like Singapore to Australia, Berlin, or Greece as most of the ScootBiz tickets would already have been booked – it’s a long-distance flight, so it’s understandable that most people would want a more comfortable seat.

My ScootBiz Experience To Taipei

I decided to try bidding for a ScootBiz upgrade on my most recent Taipei trip and placed two bids.

The minimum bid amount was $105 (this amount changes depending on the route and availability):

The outbound flight ScootBiz bid failed (It was a 1am red-eye flight from Singapore which arrived in Taipei at 6:30am)
The return flight ScootBiz bid succeeded (It was a 4pm flight from Taipei which arrived in Singapore at 9pm)

*Pictured above: Flown Scoot recently? You might’ve received this email before…*

Should You Bid For A ScootBiz Upgrade?

The short answer to this question is YES.

Assuming flights of the same distance, the price of a ScootBiz seat is about one third that of a premium economy seat on a full-fare carrier
You only get charged if you win your bid and not when you place it
You get to experience premium economy levels of comfort on your flight (so why not?)

And like I mentioned earlier, you should definitely consider bidding for this upgrade for longer flights (minimum 2 to 3 hours) because speaking from personal experience, the comfort and level of service are really much better than economy class.

Note: ScootBiz is only available on the 787 Dreamliner series of Scoot flights

How To Successfully Bid For ScootBiz Seats

Book a regular Economy seat for your Scoot flight at least 1 month in advance
Pray that the ScootBiz seats on your flight don’t get filled
Look out for a Scoot email one day before your flight titled – “Bid for ScootBiz for your booking ABCDEF”
Bid a maximum 40% above the minimum bid for red-eye flights (because many people will be trying to push for a more comfortable seat to sleep in it and if anything above 40% would be the normal ScootBiz price)
Bid the minimum bid for day flights (because less people would worry about the comfort as they’re most likely watching Netflix or videos on their phone, instead of sleeping)

The Benefits Of Sitting At ScootBiz (Which I Really Love)

Benefit	My Review
Priority Check-in and Boarding	I especially love this, because when there’s a huge crowd and you board first and alight first, no need to fight anyone
Comfortable Business Class Leather Seat with twice the legroom of standard seat	This is real, and wow, such comfort is really appreciated
20kg Check-in baggage allowance for every passenger	Really useful for buying stuff, however you cannot plan ahead
15kg (two bags) of carry-on baggage	Not much use here because you already plan to bring up carry on luggage
Free meal, drink and snack	This is really basic but the food set comes with a drink, alcoholic or not
Inflight Entertainment	ScootTV which is bit of a hassle to set up by the way, will share more below

Other Good Things Which They Do Not Mention

Better service: the attendant was really helpful and nice; even took a picture for us using my phone and asked about my day
Toilet access: the ones in the front of the plane are used by far fewer people so you don’t have to worry about waiting in line for a toilet
Dark zone: they dim all the lights for the whole zone (to allow passengers to sleep better) as compared to the Economy section (which remains relatively bright throughout the flight)

Bad Things Which They Also Do Not Mention

Old seats: the seats are a little older than normal (I think in general the 787 Dreamliner Scoot fleet is on the older side)
ScootTV: ScootTV is not that amazing and it’s also a hassle to set up. I gave up after the Flash player stopped working, plus I did not have the ScootTV app
Expensive blankets: blankets are available for $15 each, which I totally LOL-ed at. I had initially convinced my fiancée that there was going to be a blanket but turned out not to be the case

Try ScootBiz If You’ve Got Cash To Spare

I love ScootBiz largely because you get a larger seat and you get to board and disembark earlier than the rest of the passengers.

The big question here is: will I do it again?

I vote: YES.

But I will always only book Economy seats and hope that the ScootBiz bidding happens, so that I can bid for a discounted ScootBiz seat. It’s nice to enjoy a little luxury even when flying via a budget airline.

A Sneak Peek At ScootBiz

Comfortable Business Class Leather Seats (With Twice The Legroom Of A Standard Seat)

This is the best part about a ScootBiz seat, and pretty much the reason why you’re paying a premium.

The leg rests in ScootBiz are extendable and you get to recline back, up to 8 inches – which is on par with most full-fare airline’s premium economy class seats.