Tiger, Virgin's embarrassing sibling. Underdressed, and late to the party. When asking a Virgin staff member about Tiger, he looked sad, and all but disowned them. And, look, I get it. I was not going to stray, but, in trying to budget better, I did. I consoled myself that this Singaporean airline are owned by Virgin, and that sometimes Tigers growl. It's what they do. It's the price we pay for housecats. Or something.
Here's what I learned:
SEATING
Very dirty cloth seats, bring a cover.
Seating is tight. My suggested height limit for just fitting is 168cm (5' 6"). If you are over this, either buy extra room (if they sell it) or fly another airline, else be supremely uncomfortable.
Seating that you see in the online booking process doesn't reflect how many people are on the flight. You could think you are flying on a near empty flight, but you are only seeing allocated seating. Don't bother with the extra $7 for seating allocation.
ARRIVE EARLY
Staff will help (if you arrive early). Arrive 2 hours early (especially in Sydney). This isn't so much related to Tiger, it's Sydney Airport; where security will verbally invite you to unpack your things, then shut down and tell you to move to line 20m over before screening them. (It didn't love look like an emergency, but who knows.) It's also a bit of a wander to the gates. The food court is after security, so you'll probably want to do that, instead of Tiger food.
PRICES, FLEXIBILITY, & BACK UP PLANS
They increase fares by at least 10% on the prior day to the flight.
Have a back up plan or insurance in case your flight is cancelled. I had neither, but looking at other reviews, perhaps I got lucky.
Everything that isn't stock-standard & by the book in Tiger has fees. Do everything online and do it once. If you need to make changes, you'll pay, but do those online too.
Don't fly Tiger if you have time constraints, or something important on. I had time to fill, and a delayed flight benefited me, so I didn't notice if we were late. We were taxiing around the Sydney airport for what seemed like forever prior to take off. Likely to be more Sydney Airport related than Tiger, but when you've got all the time in the world, nobody cares.
LUGGAGE
In trying to understand their luggage limits, some of the managing call centre staff were belligerent. Their policies are impossible to understand, since the check-in luggage dimensions are not specified. In case you don't want to be spoken to condescendingly for a few hours, here's the deal with luggage:
You can take a paid, checked in 30kg of whatever you want, (except sporting equipment) in one or more bags. Make sure that no individual bag exceeds the dimensions of Checked In Sporting Equipment (as of April 2018, 190cm x 60cm x 80cm).* For over 30kg, you need to break weight over multiple bags. Supposedly they have an x-ray checking what's in your bag, but I saw no such thing.
* Silly me, why didn't I think to look in checked in sporting equipment for that which is explicitly NOT sporting equipment. Sigh.
Don't try to take Sporting Equipment as luggage. They'll slug you. It can be booked for 35 as part of the booking process. There is a 20kg limit applied to Sporting Equipment.
Make sure your bags aren't overweight before you get to check in (use Virgin's scales and packing table at Sydney airport). If they are, reconfigure.
Having one of those little hanging hand weighing luggage scales is great for knowing how much objects and bags are. Knowing how much things weigh allowed me to wear 2kg of things, and stress less before the airport. You can usually find a 40kg+ one for 5-20 (online/Target).
Make sure your carry-on is to dimension. I called the manufacturer of my 50L backpack and found it was 4cm over, so I threw it in my main bag.
Weigh all items at check-in, including carry on. They usually notice this and don't bother reweighing at boarding (though sometimes they do). The carry-on limit of 7kg is very strict. All items, including those you're carrying in your hands, will be weighed. That said, be sure to take water with you as the online bottles are tiny.
Always purchase your luggage when you book. You could end up paying 10x more at the airport. If you're not sure you will be able to fit it in, always buy more rather than less. It's only about 35 extra for 30kg.
Check current baggage requirements as they might have changed since this review.
And lastly, if it's over-weight tuck it in your pants or drink it (leave your boob tubes at home). This is Tiger, not Vogue.
DRINK UP
Their wine is full strength, and, after dealing with baggage requirements, you might need it. I did. 11 will get you some plastic-bottled wine with cheese and crackers. Pretty standard. Except for the napkin they tie around the bottleneck in real time, with all the class of a five star restaurant. Hilarious in context.
Still, I arrived. The flying seemed pretty good, smooth landing. Shout out to the Tiger pilots. read more