Travel: Tiger Air Review (SIN to MLE)

This is a boring entry. Sorry. I wanted to document my thoughts on our budget-airline flight from Singapore to the Maldives.


Tiger Air Review

We booked fairly inexpensive flights from Singapore to Male on Tiger Air (about $190 USD each, one way). This is apparently a pretty recent addition to their routes.

Overall, the experience was good, but I was seriously annoyed that they even charged for water, especially considering:

(a) there was nowhere to buy any bottled beverages at our gate (the security was at our gate, so I couldn't bring any drinks in even if I had left the area to buy one), and

(b) they have the audacity to tell you NOT to bring your own food or drink onto the flight on their menu (!!!)

I initially refused to purchase a bottle of water, as a matter of principle, but after three hours, the dry cabin air made me break down. I purchased a bottle of ice tea, as it was the same price as water. LOGIC!


The flight crew was very young, but genuinely friendly (although, I may just be too accustomed to surly United employees). Our main flight attendant was nice to me, even though I had such a strong, negative reaction to her when she told me water cost (lol). She was even kind enough to offer to swap a bill for my change-purse full of loose SGD coins (very considerate of her!)

Our only other gripe was the seat pitch, which wasn't a problem for me, but Cory had a very uncomfortable flight:

We pre-paid to check our two bags, which ended up being useful because they had very restrictive carry-on policies (we would have had to check them anyways because they were over 10kg). United doesn't seem to have a limit for carry-on luggage. I was warned ahead of time that Tiger Air weighs all bags upon boarding, but this didn't actually happen on our flight.

Bottom Line: For the price, I would definitely fly again with Tiger Air (for a short flight, anyways). It's probably worth paying for some extra legroom, too, next time!