A messy start to our Thai adventure at Gatwick Airport…

For clarity, this flight was paid for and sponsored by Scoot to celebrate the launch of their flights from London Gatwick to Singapore via Bangkok. Scoot have not received copy approval or editing rights from CallumElsdon.com. They will see it at the exact same time you are reading it. Find out more on my sponsorship policy here.

A strange check in experience…

After arriving at London Gatwick Airport, we arrived to almost zero information around the space besides a sign stating the Bag Drop and Check In Zone for Scoot. This was pretty surprising considering Scoot was a new airline for the airport.

This was Scoot's very first flight departing from London to Singapore via Bangkok - and it began extremely messy. Check-in opened three hours prior to the flight departure, which is normal for longer haul travel, but the ground staff, operated by Menzies, simply had not been informed of the correct document checks and processes for Scoot.

Here's an example. As the flight is operating as a fifth freedom journey, read more here,  between London and Bangkok with them being able to carry passengers exclusively between London/Bangkok, Bangkok/Singapore or London/Singapore via Bangkok. The issue at check-in came with the counteracting requirements for the two destinations. Check in staff were asking passengers with a destination of Bangkok for Singapore-related health declarations and vice-versa. It was clear that the correct information had not been communicated from Scoot HQ to the local Menzies representative in London - and made for a stressful experience for passengers who thought they'd done everything correctly.

The queue moved extremely slowly. We were fourth in the queue, yet it took us forty minutes to get our documents checked, bags checked in and boarding passes issued. With a full flight, this meant it took a long time to get everybody check in. I'd like to think that these teething issues have or will be ironed out as Scoot bed their operations into Gatwick Airport - these issues are to be expected. Scoot should also really ensure that they can implement two improvements here:

• Digital document checks like Verifly so you can quickly upload documents online and have them checked there, rather than at the airport

• Enable mobile boarding passes which are currently not available on Gatwick-departing journeys - even on hand-baggage only fares

• The two together could really improve their processes across the board - whilst even saving money and time for check-in agents!

In response to these issues on the inaugural flight check-in process, Scoot provided this comment to CallumElsdon.com:

The health and safety of our customers remain our priority, and we ensure stringent checks are conducted amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in tandem with prevailing government measures, such as those implemented by the Thai authorities. In this instance, it includes the checking of the necessary hard copy documents for a seamless entry into Thailand. Scoot remains committed to working closely with the authorities to ensure that the latest and prevailing safety measures are adhered to in tandem with evolving regulations. We apologise if we have fallen short of our customers’ expectations, and we thank them for their patience as we continue to review our processes to support fuss-free travel experiences, without compromising on health and safety standards.

- Scoot representative, 29th December 2021

Advice for anybody travelling anywhere

Print. Print. Print. It may not be environmentally friendly or convenient, but travel is far more complex in this current era. There's a few reasons why I suggest this:

• First, some countries and airlines will only accept hard, paper copies of documents like PCR test certificates - even though you may only receive an electronic copy.

• Second, organising documents in a folder is easier than flipping between PDFs on different applications. It gets difficult to manage.

• Finally, and this is only a minor note, it is probably not a good idea to hand over your phone with germs on to another person - in order to help reduce the spread of infection.

Until airlines and governments properly make use of the potential of digital checks or, at least, making proper use of QR codes I urge you to print documents off in preparation for travel. Better to be safe than sorry.

Book with caution

Passengers on this service to Bangkok simply need to follow the entry requirements of the Thai government at the time of travelling. For those who are seeking to travel to Singapore, this flight is not part of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. VTL flights allow eligible passengers to travel to Singapore without quarantine. Since this flight is not designated as VTL by the Singaporean Government, means that you will:

• Need to have permission or be an accepted passenger into Singapore

• Booked quarantine packages in Singapore upon arrival

I recommend taking a read at the Mainly Miles website for more on VTL and quarantine exemption here if you need to go into Singapore.

A look at Gatwick Airport today

After the mess that was check-in, security was extremely swift and quick - even without Premium access. It's been years since I last travelled from London Gatwick Airport's North Terminal, since Heathrow is generally more convenient for me and has more long haul options, and the state of it is a shadow of it's former self. The impact of Covid-19 has been noticeable on the terminal. All flights are still being based solely at the North Terminal but the terminal was closer to a ghost town than a busy airport. This is likely to remain the state for a while whilst the South Terminal is likely to still be closed until British Airways launch their short haul Gatwick operations in March. We managed to get through security at 19h45 and by this point almost all the shops were closed - with all closed by 21h00. This would've made it difficult to grab food before the flight or buy drinks, which you might need on-board.

I was also shocked by the amount of shops that have closed for good at the airport as a result of Covid, lockdowns and the resulting reduction in demand. Although this is reflecting the wider trend in shop closures, the reduction is much greater than what I have seen at Heathrow where travel numbers seem to be growing much faster than Gatwick - with the opening of shops equally being greater at the rival airport. You should also note that if you have lounge access via a third party like Priority Pass, most of the lounges are currently closed around the departure time of the Scoot flight - with most not available after 19h30 in the evening.

Delays and crowded boarding gates  

Thanks to the aforementioned mess at check-in, the flight was delayed. First by 20 minutes, then forty and, in the end, by two hours before the plane took off. This was a little annoying but I felt more sorry for those who were to the back of the check-in queue at Gatwick who had to stand up for a long time to get the bags checked-in. Around 22h30 we were then called to the gate and, as the only flight left on this day, a swarm of Scoot passengers congregated and headed towards it. This led to a very cramped boarding gate which was clearly not designed to deal with a full Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane. There was simply not enough seating and little ventilation.

The issues didn't stop here, though, with almost zero process or control for passengers to board. People arrived at the gate and just began erratically queuing up, likely because there was not enough seating, which meant boarding took longer than it would otherwise have needed. Despite calls for Scoot Plus passengers, row numbers, young families - it was all to no avail and resulted in a messy, lengthy experience. Eventually, we just joined the queue and began our first experience on Scoot…

The full review of Scoot's on-board experience will be out soon! Follow us @celsdonblog on Twitter and Instagram, facebook.com/callumelsdonblog or subscribe to email alerts as soon as the article is published.