Not sure how long will this last.

As if Scoot has not enough problems with the evolving travel bans, its next line of defence – the call centre – will be hung up from today (17 Mar 2020).

Scoot announced early this morning that their call centre in the Philippines will be closed from 17 March 2020 due to a national lockdown.

What will not be available

The call centre in Philippines provides customer support in the following languages:

• English
• Japanese
• Korean
• Bahasa Melayu
• Bahasa Indonesia
• Vietnamese
• Thai
• Tamil 

If you can only speak those languages, your only options are to self-serve on Scoot’s website (see more below), or wait until they re-open. Alternatively…

What’s still available

If you can speak either Chinese or Cantonese, their call centre will remain open. Scoot also said they have ‘reduced capabilities for handling English calls’, so you can also try.

So what are my options?

As airlines globally continue to deal with the daily evolving situation and coping with a huge backload of cancellations and re-accommodations, many airlines – including Scoot – are trying to work out automatic or self-service options.

If you have a booking with Scoot, this is what you can do:

Date changes, refund in the form of credit voucher – Self Service

For those who just want to do a date change, or request for a refund in the form of a credit voucher, it’s best not to call and simply self-service online.

If you need to make a date change, Scoot offers a free one-time date change that can be done online via the Manage My Booking function.

Free date changes apply to all bookings made between 10 Mar and 14 May 2020. Note that date changes must be made at least 4 hours before your original flight’s departure time or by 31 May 2020, whichever is earlier. You can move the date of your first flight latest to depart by 27 Mar 2021. Fare difference will apply (i.e. a top-up of fare if your new booking is more expensive than your original booking, but no refund if your new fare is cheaper).

If you want to do a refund in the form of credit voucher, Scoot said it will launch a self-service refund online portal by 19 Mar 2020, which allows eligible customers to obtain the full value of their booking in the form of a credit voucher.

This applies to bookings made on or before 15 Mar 2020, for travel up to 31 May 2020. Vouchers are valid for 12 months, and can be applied to future bookings.

Note that a cash refund will be hard to get, unless your ticket was booked to a destination that was previously cancelled by Scoot pre-emptively.

If you want a destination change – call

Unfortunately that’s the limitation of Scoot’s website – you won’t be able to do a destination change through Manage My Booking. You will have to call in to make the change and top-up any fare difference.

Above all, if your flight is departing in the next 48 hours and you need to change/cancel, but you can’t seem to do it only, call.

Final thoughts

In this time of confusion and daily evolving situation, it’s best to hold off any action until your travel date is nearing.

Having said that, all of the above applies only to passengers holding tickets departing by 31 May 2020. Needless to say, if you are travelling after May, it’s better to just wait off first. Airlines will certainly extend their policies if things are still in the marshes at that time.