A woman in Singapore has accused Scoot of barring five family members from checking in for their flights first because the airline requires passengers who made their bookings together to check in together, but the woman's daughter's passport had less than six months' validity.

What happened

Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, the 39-year-old, surnamed Lin, said she and her husband had initially purchased eight tickets to bring her year-old toddler, six-year-old daughter, elderly parents in their 60s, her 62-year-old aunt, and her 85-year-old wheelchair-bound grandmother on a trip to Macau on Jun. 11.

Their flight, TR904, was scheduled to take off at 1:50pm and land in Macau at 6:05pm.

However, when the family arrived at the check-in counter at the airport on the morning of Jun. 11, a Scoot ground staff said they could not proceed to check in and returned the family their passports.

The reason cited was that Lin's daughter's passport had a validity of less than six months.

"We then suggested to the ground staff that perhaps he could help the other five family members to check in first while my husband and I bring our daughter to the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) to solve the passport issue. We would just purchase the next flight afterwards," recounted Lin.

In response, the ground staff allegedly shot down the suggestion, claiming that everyone in the family would need to check in together because Lin made their bookings in one go.

Family forced to buy new tickets

On her way to ICA, Lin contacted Scoot via Facebook and called its hotline to ask about the check-in rules, and the officer who handled her queries confirmed that the rest of the family could board the aircraft first, reported Shin Min.

However, Lin's mother said the ground staff repeatedly declined to help them check in, and by around 12pm, he claimed that the boarding gate had already closed.

By the time Lin received her daughter's new passport and arrived at the airport with her husband at around 1:30pm, it was already too late.

Lin claimed the ground staff also refused to extend any flexibility to assist her, citing that there would be too much paperwork involved and the process would be too troublesome.

Spent another S$2,100 & stayed at a hotel to catch new flight

In the end, Lin said her family was forced to purchase a new set of tickets to Hong Kong, which would depart on Jun. 13 at 6am, and travel to Macau on a ferry afterwards.

"As there were only business class tickets left, we spent around S$2,100 on the one-way tickets to Hong Kong. Fortunately, our return tickets were not affected. However, as we were travelling with elderly and young children, we had to spend a night at a hotel near the airport and booked two rooms," said Lin.

After she received a reply from Scoot on Facebook on Jun. 16, which likewise confirmed that the other five family members could check in first, Lin decided to publicise her experience on her social media page.

She said she hoped Scoot could provide her with a reasonable explanation and compensate the family for the extra money they had to fork out because of Scoot's mistake.

Response from Scoot

In response to Mothership's queries, Scoot said it is sorry to know about Lin and her family's experience on Jun. 12.

"We understand that Lin and her family members were scheduled to depart Singapore for Macau on TR904 at 1:50pm. However, Lin and two other family members had to step away to resolve a passport validity issue and did not return before the check-in counter closed at 12:55pm. The remaining five family members were also not able to check in timely for their flight," the statement read.

The airline added that its staff assisted Lin and her family members in securing the booking of their return flight from Macau to Singapore on Jun. 17 after she decided to purchase new one-way flight tickets to Hong Kong on Jun. 13.

According to Scoot, Lin's return tickets would have been cancelled as per its conditions of carriage if she did not contact its call centre within 48 hours of departure time of the flight that had been missed.

Specifically, the statement clarified that for Scoot bookings with multiple passengers, the airline does not require all passengers to be checked in together.

Its check-in counters will also open up to three hours before scheduled departure and close 60 minutes before scheduled departures.

At the end of the statement, Scoot said it has since reached out to Lin to offer further assistance and extend a resolution out of goodwill.

Top images via Shin Min Daily News & FlyScoot/Facebook