Scoot reinstates credit and debit card processing fees for Singapore flights

Remember when Scoot eliminated payment processing fees? Neither does Scoot, apparently. 

Back in September 2024, Scoot reintroduced these junk fees five years after congratulating itself for eliminating them worldwide. Payment processing fees were initially limited to itineraries originating from Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. However, my sources indicated that Scoot always intended to expand them to Singapore and the rest of its network— it was just a question of when.

Well, “when” has finally arrived, as Singapore residents booking Scoot tickets with a credit or debit card must now pay an additional processing fee of up to 2.26%. 

The silver lining? For now, you can avoid this by paying through Google Pay or PayPal. Unfortunately, I understand that this exemption is only temporary, and Scoot’s payment processing fees will eventually expand to cover these channels as well.

Scoot reintroduces payment processing fees

Effective immediately, customers booking Scoot flights originating from Singapore are subject to a 1.4% to 2.26% processing fee for the following payment methods.

This fee will be calculated and added at the final stage of booking, after you’ve entered your credit card number. 

Google Pay and PayPal are not subject to this fee— yet. However, my understanding is that this is only a temporary reprieve, and fees will be added to these methods in the future. 

Eventually, the plan is that the only fee-free payment options will be:

• Bookings paid entirely with Scoot vouchers
• Bookings paid entirely with KrisFlyer miles
• PayNow

It’s no secret that Scoot has always been trying to nudge passengers towards these methods, given the lower costs they incur. For example, even before this change Scoot was already labelling PayNow as a “popular choice”, whatever that means.

All payment processing fees are non-refundable, but in any case Scoot fares are almost always non-refundable except in situations of medical emergencies, bereavement, or a schedule change of more than two hours. It’s unclear what happens to payment processing fees in those scenarios.

If you have a KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card and want to enjoy the additional benefits like an extra 5kg baggage allowance, standard seat selection and priority check-in and boarding, do remember that you must book your tickets through this special portal. It is not possible to select Google Pay or PayPal options here, so you will have to incur the 2.26% admin fee regardless. 

Other countries with payment processing fees

Singapore joins Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand as the countries for which Scoot charges a payment processing fee. 

American Express, JCB and UnionPay fees are fixed at 1.93%, 1.81% and 1.4% respectively, regardless of point of departure. Visa and Mastercard fees vary depending on country.

Why reintroduce payment processing fees?

Let’s turn the clocks back to September 2019, when Scoot removed its payment processing fees worldwide. I distinctly remember reading a press release about this, but even though it still shows up on Google…

…Scoot has attempted to scrub it from existence.

Nice try, but the internet never forgets.

The evolution of payment systems over the years, driven by technological improvements, has helped to significantly defray the associated costs required to support and maintain the payment infrastructure.

…

Mr Lee Lik Hsin, Scoot’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “When Scoot first started, we offered a limited range of payment methods at a higher implementation and maintenance cost. As we expanded globally and heard our customers’ feedback, we took advantage of advances in payment technology to implement many more payment methods to improve our customers’ experience.

In order to pass on the savings to our customers as our costs came down, we have since March 2018 progressively removed payment processing fees in selected markets. Now, we are ready to do away with it globally. We hope this gives our customers better value and more reasons to escape the ordinary with us.”

-Scoot Press Release

So, what are we to make of all this? Has there been some sort of global technological regression that necessitates the reintroduction of processing fees? Have payment systems deteriorated to an extent that the only way to escape the ordinary now is by paying a surcharge?

Well, no. Scoot simply saw that competitors like Air Asia and Jetstar didn’t follow suit (though AirAsia no longer has processing fees for flights starting and ending in Malaysia), and has decided it might as well improve its margins. 

The only good news I can see here is that Scoot has not reverted to its previous system of imposing a flat fee per passenger, per flight. That, quite frankly, was extortive and a clear money grab, since it had little to do with the actual cost of processing payments.

Of course, I’m under no illusions that payment processing fees were always there, just baked into the fare. But so long as they were, Scoot had to adjust its fares to ensure the overall price remained competitive, or lose out on business from OTA search results. As you can imagine, the LCC market is extremely price-sensitive. 

By charging payment processing fees separately, Scoot is able to show a lower price upfront during the all-important search stage, before increasing it later in the booking process (a similar analogy would be resort fees charged by hotels). It’s basically a kind of drip pricing, which makes prices less transparent to the consumer.

Should you still use a credit card with Scoot?

With the reintroduction of payment processing fees, you’re basically paying for the privilege of earning credit card miles. Whether or not that makes sense boils down to how many miles you earn, and how much you value a mile.

Here’s the cards which earn the most miles for Scoot tickets.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Travel as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month. Must choose Travel as bonus category Review
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.5K per c. month Review
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	3 mpd	No cap Review
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	2.8 mpd	Min. retail spend of S$800 per c. month, capped at S$10K of air tickets per c. month Review

Assuming a 4 mpd card and a valuation of 1.5 cents per mile, a surcharge of 2.26% can still be justified. It offsets the value of the miles somewhat, but you should still come out ahead. 

In any case, rewards are not the only benefit of paying with a credit card. I can think of at least three other reasons:

• Paying with a credit card has cashflow benefits, since you have up to 55 interest-free days to pay (versus PayNow which deducts money instantly from your bank account)
• Paying with a credit card gives you chargeback protection, in case something goes wrong with your trip and you want to raise a dispute (just witness how slow airlines were to offer refunds for cancelled flights during COVID-19)
• Paying with a credit card can give you complimentary travel insurance 

Since Google Pay and PayPal are exempt from payment processing fees at the moment, your best bet would be to pair these with one of the cards in the table above. You’ll still earn the same rewards as if you used a “naked” card.

Conclusion

Scoot has added credit and debit card processing fees for flights departing from Singapore, after previously reintroducing them to Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.

This fee will add up to 2.26% to the cost of your trip, which is annoying to say the least, as no one likes to see their payment jump at the final step. However, you can circumvent it — for now — by choosing Google Pay or PayPal as your mode of payment.

Scoot will eventually close this “loophole” though, and after making so much fanfare for removing payment processing fees, it’s disappointing to see them return.

What do you make of Scoot reintroducing payment processing fees?

(HT: Louis)