Scoot apologises after KL-bound flight leaves S'pore 1.5 hours ahead of schedule

Have your parents ever rushed you to the airport even though your flight is a couple of hours away? Turns out they may have a point.

On Nov. 1, 2024, a Scoot flight bound for Kuala Lumpur left Changi Airport almost 1.5 hours before its scheduled departure time.

The flight, TR456, was supposed to depart at 4:50am but took off at around 3:40am.

As a result, more than one passenger was left stranded at the airport.

Boarding gate 'empty': affected passenger

Speaking to Stomp, an affected passenger shared that he was sent into a panic on Nov. 1, 2024 when he arrived at the boarding gate at Terminal 1 and saw no one there.

This is because earlier that day, he had checked the flight's departure time via a flight tracking app "constantly", and the time had never changed.

In response, the passenger ran towards the nearest gate that was open to seek help and was told to visit a counter at Terminal 3, he recounted.

Missed connecting flight

The passenger told Stomp that at the counter, a Scoot ground staff apologised about the flight's early departure but shared that he also "did not know how it happened".

The employee then noted down his name, telephone number, and email address before informing him that the airline would offer a S$150 compensation, the passenger recounted.

Later on, the passenger was also transferred to a Singapore Airlines flight, SQ104, which was said to have departed a few hours later.

However, it was already too late for him to catch his connecting flight, so he was forced to buy three additional plane tickets to complete his trip, the passenger lamented.

Sought compensation from Scoot

Given the additional costs he had to bear because of TR456's early departure, the passenger asked Scoot to compensate for the four plane tickets he had bought, according to Stomp.

However, although he made several phone calls to Scoot and spent hours explaining his ordeal, his request was allegedly rejected by the airline.

According to the passenger, Scoot apparently told him that it would compensate him for the first leg of his trip by offering him a S$150 Scoot voucher.

Although it was different from the compensation offered at the counter, the passenger said the offer was "useless" because he did not foresee himself taking Scoot after what had happened.

Nevertheless, the passenger claimed he had yet to receive the voucher promised by the airline even though a month had passed since the incident.

Flight retimed 'due to operational reasons': Scoot

In response to Mothership's queries, Scoot said it is aware of the passenger's comment on his experience with TR456 on Nov. 1.

"Our customer service team has since contacted the customer and assisted him accordingly," added the airline.

According to Scoot, the flight was re-timed to depart from Singapore at 3:21am, rather than 4:50am, "due to operational reasons".

The airline did not state whether it had informed the passengers about the early departure ahead of time or elaborate on what these operational reasons were.

"Affected customers were re-accommodated onto Singapore Airlines flight SQ104, which departed Singapore for Kuala Lumpur at 7:04am on Nov. 1," said Scoot.

Without specifying the number of affected passengers, the airline said it apologises for the disruption and inconvenience caused to them.

Similar incident in 2023

This was not the first instance where a Scoot flight took off earlier than its scheduled departure time in recent years.

In January 2023, a Singapore-bound flight from the northwestern Indian city of Amritsar departed more than four hours early, leaving 29 passengers behind.

At the time, a Scoot spokesperson said the early departure was due to "inclement weather conditions".

Top image via Scoot