Cheaper fares for Scoot customers as airline scraps payment processing fees

SINGAPORE — Scoot passengers will no longer have to pay payment processing fees when they book flights through the budget airline's online system, Scoot announced on Monday (Sept 23).

Effective immediately, payment processing fees will be scrapped for bookings made globally via Scoot's direct channels, "offering customers even greater value", it said.

Singapore customers were previously charged S$10 per person, per flight for payment made through selected credit cards and PayPal.

As an example, a passenger on a round trip from Singapore to Narita airport in Japan via a connecting flight in Taipei would previously have had to pay S$20 extra in fees if he paid with a credit card or PayPal. A family of four on the same trip would have had to pay S$80.

Passengers who paid through Apple Pay and Google Pay were charged S$10 per passenger, per one-way trip, and those who used PayNow were charged S$4 per transaction.

The fee for AXS payment fees, which was previously S$6, was scrapped last month.

"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," Scoot said.

“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,” added Scoot chief executive officer (CEO) Lee Lik Hsin.

Scoot, the low-cost arm of the Singapore Airlines Group, currently offers a range of payment options across its network of 67 cities in 17 countries and territories.

This includes global payment methods such as Apple Pay, credit cards, Google Pay and PayPal, and local payment methods such as AXS and PayNow for customers in Singapore, POLi for customers in Australia, as well as WeChat Pay and Alipay for customers in China.

Customers in the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam can also make payments using DragonPay, Konbini and Momo, respectively.

Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia announced in July it would scrap processing fees for credit cards and online banking payments from October to make airfares more affordable.

Jetstar currently charges S$10 per passenger per flight for payment via credit card, UnionPay, Alipay and WeChat Pay. Passengers who opt to settle their airfares at 7-Eleven and SingPost are charged S$6 per person, while those who pay by eNets are charged S$9.

There is no charge for bookings made in Singapore dollars using a Jetstar Mastercard or Jetstar Platinum Mastercard. CNA  

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