Sad news! Oman Air NOT to honor Delhi-Tehran low fare

Last week, January 25 and 26 to be precise, Oman air website showed an incredibly cheap return fare of INR 6000-7000 between Delhi and Tehran, Iran.

Hundreds of Indians took advantage of this and booked their trips to Iran, some as early as Feb while many in March/April. [My original post has more details here]

But early this week news broke out that Oman Air will NOT honor those cheap tickets. Muscat Daily and Mumbai Mirror broke the news to larger audience. Oman Air call centre also confirmed they would be contacting passengers soon to communicate their options. Thanks to Muscat based Kishore Cariappa for tip off.

Image from twitter (Irfalani Nayani), said to be an internal memo leaked to social media

This is unfortunate. Earlier this year Cathay Pacific was in the news for mistakenly selling Business Class seats for Economy prices for travel between Vietnam and US/Canada. Eventually airline announced that it will honor such tickets. [News on CNN]

Oman Air could have done the same by announcing they will honor these low fare tickets. Yes, while it is not at all economical to fly people from India to Iran and back for just Rs 6800, the move could have created lots of goodwill, free publicity and probably get Oman Air a whole new bunch of customers who would have otherwise never flown with them.  Even for Iran tourism it would have brought a whole new set of tourists who wouldn't have preferred traveling to Iran otherwise.

Not clear how many tickets were sold at that fare. Assuming a thousand people booked it within 2 days, Oman Air is looking at a loss of 1000 tickets * 30000 INR per ticket, which is 3 crore rupees. If the publicity they would get and the goodwill generated is deemed more valuable (compared to advertising/marketing cost involved), it makes sense to honor these tickets.

While this particular transaction may not be profitable, passengers may buy add-on services, they may book additional tickets for friends/family who would join them, at normal fares or prefer Oman Air in future over other airlines due to good experience- All these would mean more revenue in future.

Also to be noted that if not honored, more than 95% would simply take refund and WILL NOT pay 39k extra as Oman Air would expect. Because most of these passengers didn't have any compulsion to visit Iran- they booked only because the ticket was so cheap. Trip doesn't make economical sense if they have to spend 10x more now (like another 40-50k for return as per current standard fares) So the decision of NOT honoring is NOT likely to bring more money. Worse, disappointed passengers will not take Oman Air seriously during future sales/promotions as there will always be a fear that airline may not be honoring what it offered.

Visiting Iran creates complications while traveling to many other countries-particularly US- so many are reluctant to visit Iran. Super low fare could have helped overcome that fear and consider visiting Iran. If one has to pay 40-50k, there're hundreds of other destinations world wide that one can visit. Why bother going to Iran risking lots of repercussions for future travel?

Personally I would have been happy to visit Iran if fare is tempting. I don't have any interest in visiting Iran if I have to pay 30-40k for the ticket.

There is no official mention of this anywhere in Oman Air website or social media handles. I guess they don't want more people to know about this and would prefer to close each case privately by communicating with passengers one to one. I am told not all affected passengers have been spoken to yet and they can expect a communication over coming days.

Oman Air Email to passengers of Delhi-Iran flight

What is your take? Would you travel to Iran by paying 40-50k INR? Do you believe Oman Air stands to gain in terms of goodwill and publicity by honoring these tickets?

Brunei International Airport (BWN)- Quick report

I had a short visit to Brunei recently and went through country’s only airport. This post is  quick report on what to expect at Brunei airport, if you’re planning to visit or transit through.

Brunei airport is fairly small- with only about 8 departure gates.

Immigration: Took us about 30 minutes during arrival. This is because they had only 2 counters open for foreign passport. Those with ASEAN Passport or Brunei passport almost breezed through without any queue. So immigration time may vary depending on your nationality and nationality of other passengers in your flight, plus how many counters Brunei officials keep operational during your entry.

Baggage: I didn’t have check in bag, so no comments. However, I guess it will be a standard one given the airport is small and flights are few.

Airport transfer: Few taxis are available. Bus is available but not very frequent. I have written a separate post on Brunei Bus service details.

Departure: Only 8 gates, free wifi is available only for 1 hour- had to register and watch 30 seconds advertisement for free wifi to get activated. There was no OTP- not sure if you can register again n get another hour. Could connect on mobile but had issue connecting on laptop.

Very few power sockets to charge your stuff.

If you have powerbank, security would put it in a plastic bag and would tell you not to use it during the flight.

Free drinking water is available.

Shops, dining options are limited- better have your meals in city before coming to airport.

Seats without armrest are available, so sleeping is not difficult. Comfortable sofa like seats were also available in small number in some places.

Airport is not at all busy, so you may not see much planes coming or leaving.

Brunei Airport is the base for Royal Brunei airlines- who have about 40+ aircrafts and fly to a range of destinations including Dubai, Melbourne, Manila, Brisbane (from June 2019) and so on.

Similar- KLIA 1 vs KLIA 2 * 

Oman Air Mistake Fare(?)-Delhi-Tehran (Iran) return for INR 6800!

Update: Looks like Oman Air will NOT be honoring these super low fare tickets, blaming them as a technical glitch and offering full refund. Details here

---------------Original post ------------------------------------
Oman Air seem to have a mistake fare between Delhi and Tehran (Iran) via Muscat for April 2019.

Delhi-Tehran round trip tickets available for under INR 7000. Yes, onward and return together for less than INR 7000 for select dates in April 2019. Oman Air is NOT running any sales or promo right now, so this rate is extremely tempting and looks like some kind of error fare.

Tried various other cities, dates- no luck. This low fare is only between Delhi and Tehran and for April 2019. If you're in Delhi or can fly out of Delhi and would like to visit Iran, this might be your chance. Act now before it is gone. I will probably have to spend more money flying between Chennai-Delhi n return!

Thanks to Raghv Tripathi for the tip off. Head to www.omanair.com

Malindo Air Sale-Good deals available

Malindo is running a sale, for travel from now till mid-November 2019, with some tempting fares. Malindo is a full service airline (name derived from Malaysia and Indonesia) and connect various cities in India to various destinations in South East Asia and Australia. I have flown with them to Bali in 2017 and the experience has been good- read a detailed review and a comparison between AirAsia and Malindo here.

During their current sale, below are some of the ultra-low fares I could spot.

#	From-To	Lowest return fare seen
1	Chennai-Bali	17200 INR
2	Chennai-Cambodia (Pnom Penh)	15500 INR
3	Chennai- Taiwan (Taipei)	24000 INR
4	Chennai-Hanoi	15500 INR

I spotted these rates available mostly for June-July 2019 timings, but do try more combinations till you spot the lowest. Unfortunately Malindo won’t show fares on adjacent dates, so you need to try multiple times till you land lowest possible combination.

Above are good deals, given that Malindo is a full service airline and fare includes baggage and food.  Unless you can manage without bags n food on AirAsia to save a few thousand rupees more, you might wish to enjoy a more comfortable flight on Malindo.

Star air is now ready for take off by 25th Jan 2019- finally

Star Air will be the newest airline in India’s domestic airlines industry. I was tracking Star Air for over an year now- they had their website up n partially running and feelers of starting operations at any time soon, all through 2018.

Now the website is updated with flight schedule, fares and ready for booking. A few seats are already sold as well. 

Sanjay Ghodawat ‘s Star Air group gets a code “OG”. I guess they wanted SA but that was taken already.

Star Air is offering a combined model of LCC + Full Service- there is a low cost “Star Regular” fare which gets you only flight & 15 Kg baggage-seat selection, food would cost extra, whereas a slightly expensive Star Comfort package includes Meals, seat selection and Priority baggage. There is a 3^rd Star Flexi option which entitles you to change travel dates by paying only fare difference.

At present, Star Air pricing is 2x the bus fare for half the time. Bengaluru-Hubli KSRTC AC bus ticket costs about 800 INR and takes 7-8 hours. Bengaluru-Hubli star air flight ticket can be had for Rs 1299+225 convenience fee= Rs 1524. Add some cost to reach Bengaluru airport and for about 2000 Rs you can fly to Hubli, saving 8 hour road journey. Spicejet, Indigo, Air India already fly between Hubli and Bengaluru and Star Air will compete with them. But Hubli-Tirupati route is unique- there’s no competition at all. Star Air earlier had New Delhi as one of their possible destinations-that is removed for now as the aircraft will keep shuttling between Bengaluru-Hubli-Tirupati-Hubli-Bengaluru-Belagavi-Bengaluru.

Star Air's Detailed Schedule below

Star Air Schedule

Some useful information about Star Air flights

• Seat selection costs Rs 300 for standard seats, 600 for emergency row and first row extra leg room seats.
• Star Air flies an Embraer E145 aircraft that has some 18 rows in 2+1 configuration- roughly 47 odd seats. Wondering won’t the 2+1 seating make the aircraft tilt towards port side
• 15 kg baggage is free for all passenger, extra 5 Kg would cost about INR 1500
• Meal selection costs Rs 250, though details of menu is not available yet
• You can have your bag out on priority for extra 50 bucks.
• A 225 Rs convenience fee will be charged per flight.
• At present bookings are only being accepted between 25^th Jan and 30^th March.
• Star Air also seem to have rolled out a Loyalty program for their passengers.

Star Air lowest return fares

#	From-To	Lowest One way fare seen	Lowest return fare seen
1	Hubli-Tirupathi	2099+225 Conv fee=INR 2324	5200+450 conv fee= 5650 INR
2	Hubli-Bengaluru	1299+225=1524 INR	2900+450 = 3350 INR
3	Bengaluru-Belagavi	2299+225=2524 INR	4600+450= 5050 INR

Star Air Customer care number is +91 9970555111

Airline is headquartered in Bengaluru

Star air is not yet listed on MakeMyTrip or such OTAs, you’ve to book direct on their official website only. Best wishes to the new airline. As of now they have only 1 Aircraft- so should there be an issue, multiple flights have to be cancelled till aircraft is ready. Hopefully they grow well and fill the void created by now defunct Air Deccan

Air France Oh Lala Sale- India Europe return for 35-40k INR

Air France and KLM Royal Dutch are running a special promotion, under which you can fulfill your Europe trip for about 30-40k for most destinations.  Airfrance, along with partner KLM Royal Dutch and its many code share partners has a pretty strong network world wide, though they serve very few cities in India. (They code share with Jet Airways in India to extend their connectivity)

You’ve to book before 31^st Jan

Travel Date should be before 30^th Nov 2019

Available both on Airfrance website and KLM India website.

I have seen 30-35k return fares from India to Europe- but they were mainly to Paris. Beauty of this AFKLM sale is that you can fly to various far away destinations for similar price

You can visit various dream destinations in Europe- Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam, Helsinki and so on for a low price of 31-40k (depending on origin city and date). This is a reasonable price, considering Air France is a full service airline and typical price to destinations in Europe usually range from 50-60k.

More details here

Air France flies directly from Paris CDG only to Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. All other cities are served by partners like Jet Airways (and KLM/Joon in some cases. At times I feel this sale is planned to boost some revenue for Jet Airways- as most of the cheapest flights involve Jet Airways catering to half the trip. If you notice in below screenshot, direct flight between BLR and CDG is more expensive than one stop flight operated mainly by Jet Airways (BLR-AMS by Jet Airways, AMS-CDG by AF). Same on KLM website- Delhi to Copenhagen flight is cheaper for options that involve Jet Airways flying DEL-AMS vs options in which both flights are operated by KLM.

Note that Jet Airways is running its own 30% off on Europe flights deal.

Also no point flying just to Paris under this deal- lot cheaper to fly to a far away destination like Copenhagen or Stolkholm or Helsinki etc than just fly to Paris. These destinations are cheaper than direct flight to Paris for most dates.

Flights to US and Canada cost 60k onwards- not a significant saving

Things to watch out for:

• Some legs are operated by Jet Airways- Use your own discretion- no one knows what will happen to Jet Airway 3-6 months from now. You don’t want to be left with a canceled trip last minute. Air France will probably give a refund or try to reschedule you if that happens, but you will have to deal with all the inconvenience and change of plans. I've put a tweet to Air France and KLM seeking a clarification- will update if I get a reply. For cities from where AF/KLM has flights (DEL, BOM, BLR) rescheduling could be easy- other cities, not sure.
• Some legs are operated by Joon, Air France’s low cost subsidiary and various other code share partners. Beware of possibly reduced service levels and allowances on these airlines.
• When multiple airlines are involved, beware of baggage limitations- first airline where you check-in may not be aligned to primary airline and you may have to pay extra for luggage (read my Air France Premium Economy experience for details)

 Are you booking? Let me know

Vistara pricing error?-Premium economy cheaper than economy!

Vistara is running several sales and offers of late. Their service is good and prices are tempting- particularly during sale/offer.

They have very limited network from Chennai hence my options are limited, but if you're keen, do check and book.

One thing I noticed again n again with Vistara is that their Premium Economy is often priced lower than Economy. I've written about it one and a half years ago in this post- the same is seen recently also- Only this time the gap has grown wider. Premium Economy is cheaper than Economy by 500 to 800 rupees.

Why would Vistara do it? Is it a mistake?
Note that at times Economy Lite options are NOT given. If it was there it could have been more cheaper may be.

I don't know. Is it intentional and by design? May be only few economy seats are left while several Premium Economy seats are empty- May be Vistara is trying to push some passengers into buying Premium Economy so that remaining Economy seats could be sold for higher price last minute?

It could also be a deliberate ploy to get some economy passengers accustomed to Premium Economy- once they get hooked to Premium Economy product n services, may be next time they may book Premium Economy by paying extra over Economy.

Or it is just a genuine mistake? No idea

Read my Vistara Premium Economy experience here. If you ask me, it is certainly worth experiencing if pricing is reasonable. You get following extra benefits in Premium Economy, compared to Economy
- Priority boarding (after Business Class, before Economy)
-Slightly more spacious seats (Still 3+3 like economy but a bit more leg room and little more recline)
-Slightly better food than Economy
- If you get an upgrade voucher you can try upgrade to Business Class (from Economy you can only upgrade to Premium Economy)
- You can get off the plane quicker than Economy passenger
- Slightly better attention in cabin and possibly some empty seats around as premium cabins often have unsold empty seats compared to cattle class.

Above pricing of Rs 3500 for Chennai-Delhi very good for Premium Economy. (lowest I have seen in Economy is about Rs 2200, but that is hard to spot if you're particular about a date n time. Around 2700-3000 is pretty reasonable price for Economy, 3500 for Premium Economy is a good deal- because unless you plan well, a normal economy ticket itself may cost that much.

Similar- Lufthansa Premium Economy experience * 

End of Air Deccan version 2?

Air Deccan was the pioneer in low cost flying in India. Air Deccan version 1.0 came to and end when it was acquired by now dead Kingfisher Airlines.

After about a decade, by late 2017, Air Deccan came back to life, promising cheap flights between Mumbai- Nasik, Kolkhapur etc, taking advantage of union governments incentives under RCS (UDAN) scheme. I had written about Air Deccan's relaunch in this post.

But Air Deccan 2.0 never succeeded. Many flights were cancelled and service was irregular. Airline blames it on lack of infrastructure at Nasik Airport, lack of convenient timings at super busy Mumbai airport among other things.

They just had 18 seats to fill per flight on the super small Beechcraft 9100 D aircraft- not sure how successful they were in that- some news suggest they had 60%+ occupancy.  Air Deccan was never getting listed on sites like MakeMyTrip. Probably Air Deccan hoped to sell all seats from its website alone. But with frequent cancellations, drop in reliability meant customers won't trust to book, however low the price may be. By mid 2018, it looked like operations almost stopped.

September 2018- This news suggests Air Deccan threatening to shift base to Ahmadabad

December 2019- This news officially confirms Air Deccan suspending its flights- all of them

January 2019- This news  on Moneycontrol states Air Deccan's license is suspended.

Air Deccan had won several routes in North East- which they were planning to operate once Mumbai operation stabilizes. Now Air Deccan is no longer a contender for UDAN 3.0.

Its official website no longer shows scheduled flights- http://www.deccanair.com/- they seem to offer some charter planes and such on demand aviation services.

Will there be an Air Deccan 3.0? Will they re-emerge in India's aviation market in future? Let us hope so.

Air India Chennai Port Blair return for just Rs 5206!

I just spotted a super cheap return fare to Port Blair, Andaman on Air India from Chennai. If you have Andaman plans, book now.

Andaman as seen from window seat!

Rs 5206 for a return fare to Andaman is very cheap. Normal peak season fares are usually around 10000 and even during offer I was able to spot only around 7000 INR return fare. This 5206 Rs return fare is comparable to super low fare I had got on Spicejet years ago.

This low fare is available on Air India for various dates in June, July, Aug etc- try various date combinations that suit you best.

Similar fares are also available from Kolkata. Try your luck

Note that July-August is a possible rainy season in Andaman- but it is not likely to rain cats and dogs all day, every day- on a 5-7 days trip you may lose a day or two due to rain but will still be able to enjoy the trip on rest of the day. Have some indoor plans for rainy day and you should be good.

Check my other Andaman Posts for additional details
1. Plan trip to Andaman on budget without package

2. Netaji Subash Chandra Bose island, Andaman (formerly Ross Island)

3. Joggers' Park, Port Blair  - offers birds eye view of Port Blair airprot

4. Befriending pigeons at Port Blair

5. Review- Ross view hotel, Port Blair

6. Cellular Jail, Port Blair  Details, Show timings

AirAsia vs Scoot-Who is better LCC in Asia?

This post is due since long time- was in draft for several months, finally managed to complete and publish.

I had earlier compared full service airline Malindo Air with budget airline Air Asia. In this post, I am comparing Air Asia with its Singapore based rival, Scoot. This comparison is from an Indian passenger's perspective. I have flown multiple times on Air Asia so know their products n services fairly well, but have flown Scoot (when it was tiger air) only thrice, so my experience with Scoot is limited, but enough to do this comparison.

Air Asia X- now everyone can fly extra long!

Both AirAsia and Scoot are budget airlines, based in Asia and fly to a lot of destinations in South East Asia, Australia and few other destinations including US, Europe and Japan. At least two third of their destinations are common, meaning they both compete with each other to grab passengers headed for a destination. As a fare paying passenger which airline is better? Which one to choose? The decision often depends upon multiple factors- mainly ticket price, followed by secondary consideration such as convenient timings, cost of add-on services, facilities in the aircraft and at transit hub and general perception/reputation.

Though AirAsia and Scoot have similar operational models, there’re considerable differences when we dig a bit deeper. In this post, I am offering comparison on multiple grounds, to help you decide for yourself.

Comparison 1: General Aspects

#	Criteria	Air Asia	Scoot	Winner/Remarks
1	Frequency of sale/promos	Higher	Little less	AirAsia
2	Probability of finding lowest advertised fares	Higher	Much difficult	AirAsia
3	Ease of booking	Same	Same
4	Who charges less convenience fee	Very less for net banking	No net banking option	AirAsia
5	Ease of contacting support	Reasonable No Toll free	Reasonable Toll free	Scoot
6	Destinations covered	130+ across some 20 countries [Full list]	74+ across 20 countries [Full list]	AirAsia
7	Within India Operations	Yes	No	AirAsia
8	Hub	KLIA2, DMK	Changi	Scoot
9	Aircrafts	A320 and A330	737,  Dreamliner	Scoot
10	Reliability	Fair	Fair
11	Major accidents	1 full body loss, many minor incidents	No full body loss, less incidents	Scoot
12	Parent Company	-	Singapore Airline
13	Ease of getting visa for hub country	Easy (eNTRI, eVisa and one year multiple entry visa	Less easy- multiple entry visa/longer validity not guaranteed	AirAsia
14	Cities served in India	25+	11	AirAsia
15	Recent awards won	Skytrax multiple awards	Airline rating award	AirAsia
16	Partnership with	No codeshare outside AirAsia group	About 8 airlines	Scoot
17	Loyalty program	Available	Available (KrisFlyer)	Scoot

One main reason I like Air Asia is that when they advertise a promo sale, it is indeed possible to locate the advertised lowest fare on some days- usually towards the end dates of the promo period. So if they advertise a round trip ticket of say 8k INR, it is indeed possible to locate that fare and book.

Scoot on the other hand I find it very tough. They run lots of advertising campaigns, like promoting 5500 Rs ticket and so on. Like this one below.

But when I go to their website, search for various dates, I never find this lowest fare. There is no easy way of knowing from where to where this low fare is available, for what travel dates and so on. Without this info, it will be frustrating experience to search for multiple date combinations and still fail to locate advertised lowest fare. We are not fools to see the ad and then book at whatever high price Scoot shows on the website. The final price (including convenience fee) should be cheap enough (compared to competition and lower fares I have seen in past) to tempt me into booking. Scoot only loses advertisement money and increases frustration among prospective customers by not making it simple to spot and book low fares.

So far Scoot were showing all prices in USD, which would cost me additional expense in currency conversion, bank fees. Only recently Scoot has started accepting payment in INR. But unlike AirAsia, Scoot doesn’t accept net banking payment. Credit card payments attract heavy convenience fee. Thus overall I find Scoot a bit expensive and inconvenient compared to AirAsia. In AirAsia if I could find a ticket to Gold Coast for about 20700, the lowest I could find on Scoot is 24000+ (26k if I factor 2k convenience fee, currency conversion etc) that is easily 20% more expensive than Air Asia.

AirAsia shows price right inside date selector calendar, Scoot doesn't. They have a "See whole month" option though.

But Scoot connects via Changi, one of the best airports in the world. So transiting via Changi is much better than flying via KLIA2 that has bare minimum facilities. Plus Scoot’s fleet includes dreamliners, which are believed to be a bit better than A330. Scoot also has the support of its parent company Singapore Airline, so in case of a problem they could get some support (like Engineering/alternate flights etc)

While Scoot flies to Athens in Europe and lots of secondary cities in Australia (Hobart, Sunshine Coast etc) Scoot seem to be skipping many countries in South East Asia like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei, Srilanka and so on (where AirAsia has coverage). Also for some destinations like Seoul where AirAsia flies non stop, Scoot flies one stop (via Taiwan). Scoot's network coverage is about half that of AirAsia.

Now let us see who is cheaper, for various sectors and add-on services

Comparison 2: Who is cheaper?

#	Criteria	Air Asia	Scoot	Winner/Remarks
1	Chennai Bali Return, 3 months from now	INR 16776	INR 22342	AirAsia
2	20 kg baggage for Chennai-Bali trip	INR 4510	INR 6145	AirAsia
3	Cost of One meal	INR 192 onwards (higher price for AirAsia X, 4x on Honolulu)	INR 945 to 1155, but same price on all routes	AirAsia
4	Chennai-Gold Coast Return- 5 to 6 months from now (Economy)	28744 INR	INR 35736	AirAsia
5	Cost of 40 kg bag for Australia trip	15100 INR	16000 INR	AirAsia
6	Chennai- Gold Coast Business class return (Scoot Biz, AA Flatbed)	1.1 Lakhs INR	87000 INR (but not flatbed)	Not comparable due to difference in features
7	Cheapest Seat selection fee (for MAA-KUL or MAA-SIN)	INR 159 (can be skipped) to INR 749	INR 545 to 2625 (can be skipped)	AirAsia
8	Travel Insurance (MAA-DPS)	INR 364
9	Convenience fee	210 for net banking, 840 for Credit Cards	INR 2016 0	AirAsia Scoot, as it has removed convenience fee from Oct 2019
10	Payment in INR	Possible	Possible	for ex-India tickets
11	Does website pre-select some add on/expensive option and we’ve to de-select?	At times	At times
12	Inflight WiFi		INR 400+
13	Inflight magazine	Travel 3Sixty- Very good	Unable to comment
14	Lowest price I’ve ever seen for Chennai-Gold Coast	20700+ INR	26000+ INR	AirAsia
15	Web Check-in	14 days	3 days	AirAisa
16	In-flight entertainment	Rokki,(streaming) on select flights	Scoot TV on dreamliners
17	Possibility of upgrade	Low	Low
18	Comfort Kit		INR 900+
19	Priority Boarding	NA	INR 300	Scoot
20	Lounge Access	INR 1300 for 3 hours	INR 2000	AirAsia

As you can see AirAsia is usually cheaper in all aspects- fare, add-on services, mandatory convenience fee and so on. Unless you're very particular on date of travel, it is possible to wait for an AirAsia sale and fly for much cheaper fares- main reason I like AirAsia. As much as wish to try flying more on Scoot,higher fares and higher add-on fees are a big deterrent.

In terms of flying experience both have been decent. We shouldn’t expect to be treated like Emirates or SQ passengers. Both Air Asia and Scoot will fly us to our destination for lowest possible price. Everything else is chargeable- as you can see above, baggage, food etc are a bit cheaper on AirAsia compared to Scoot. In-flight service is decent by LCC standards- I don’t have any complaints.

In terms of reliability, AirAsia is does change flight timings and cancels them quite often- particularly when tickets are booked years in advance, very high chance that something will change. So far it hasn't caused extreme inconvenience- often gives me an option to take refund or reschedule free of cost on my otherwise non-refundable ticket. With Scoot all 3 of my flights were on time- haven't tracked more how friendly/flexible they are when a flight is rescheduled/cancelled.

I haven't had an opportunity to try Scoot's loyalty program or experience their customer support during a service disruption or having to avail refund. So no comments yet.

Don't have any major complaints on Air Asia, except their refund process is unnecessarily complicated and loyalty program is practically useless for me [Review]

Have you flown both Air Asia and Scoot recently? Which one do you prefer? Why? Let us know in comments.

In summary, over 37 points assessed, AirAsia seems to be better over 18 points, Scoot on 7 and remaining 12 undecided/similar.

#	Airline	Pros	Cons
1	AirAsia	Lower fares than competition Better network, timings	Hub Airport not as good as Changi
2	Scoot	Better Aircrafts Better hub airport	Can’t pay by netbanking, credit card convenience fee very high Add-ons are relatively expensive Lowest fares hard to find

My Wish-list for Scoot:

• When you advertise a low fare, make it easy to find (on what dates etc)
• Add-on services, convenience fee much higher than competition- possible to revive? (update: this has been removed effective October 2019)
• Try to match AirAsia's fares, if not cheaper

My Wish-list for AirAsia

• Make refund process easier
• Give some loyalty points on Promo fares as well or give some useful benefits for Gold/Platinum/Black members (such as lounge access, priority boarding, free upgrade etc)

Disclaimer: All information as taken from respective airline websites at the time of preparing this post. Pricing information is very dynamic- please check for yourself for date, origin and destination you have in mind and decide.

Similar: KLIA 1 vs KLIA 2 * AirAsia flight cancelled after boarding- experience * AirAsia Big sale- 10 things to know *  AirAsia long haul flight to Auckland experience *