![[MM] Muscat Mutterings](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcYv3HG_Duxd4tqtiBqZGJ4_0k36kWKr0L3KasCNj0StaK0_1TvXIBstxtBeoHHFJauQ-WQvhR0xUxDNptbSCoiqd0FEzHDu9J-eu-P1YVcsysxRh586KE1OyTWUZE5mvS2_L-fuKw8j_L/s1600/MM_Logo.png){kind=logo}
 |
| No room to swing a cat, only punches. |
Ha ha! Its almost a shame a handbag wasn't involved.
Having done the "long flight back" to Muscat more than a few times, I'm aware that some people might not be elated about coming back from a holiday to face work once more.... but this is quite funny. I wonder who the two were?
Anyway... we'll probably never know.
Meanwhile, I've had the absolute misfortune to take a flight on Oman Air recently in one of their new planes with the new Economy class layout - in a window seat I was unable to either sit up straight, nor sit comfortably without pressure on my knees from the row in front. Thankfully I was only flying from Dubai, and I was in genuine pain by the time I got off that flight. I'd lose my mind if I was in that seat on a long haul flight.
Perhaps WY should re-think it's economy section and sacrifice a row of seats or something.
le fin.
Fight on Oman Air flight 102 from London to Muscat
Reviewed by Sythe
on
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Rating:
Reviewed by Sythe
on
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Rating:
I believe with the change of CEO last year - the airlines strategy changed from quality to quantity...more flights, more passengers, lower quality food and beverages...
ReplyDeleteincreased profits...
Sad really, as we know quality always wins...squashing passengers in may only work on certain routes.
I no longer use them - and now use Etihad and Thai air...
Totally agree! The service from Oman Air has over the last 5 years gone downhill, from seating, food to service! Bring back quality Oman Air was renouned for!
ReplyDeleteSythe, let's criticise Oman Air where justified, but not unfairly. The Dubai-Muscat seat you mention was presumably a short-haul 737 layout, so you have to compare it with something similar, like a short haul flight in Europe. Try a BA flight from London to Amsterdam and see whether you think the seats are better - they definitely aren't. You would not usually be flying in that Oman Air seat on a long-haul route.
ReplyDeleteThe long-haul Oman Air routes use fairly new A330s, and the economy leg room in these is definitely as good as, or better than, BA, KLM, Swiss etc. And the Oman Air flights are non-stop, so you typically spend two hours less in these seats.
Where criticism IS justified is in Oman Air's pricing for long-haul routes. They seem to be more interested in transit /package passengers from Europe, through Muscat, to Asia, than those of us originating in Muscat. So young backpackers going to Thailand get some of the best deals out there, and we often end up having to pay 50-100% more for the advantage of Oman Air's timings than we would on a European airline or other regional carrier.
I guess this is Oman Air's market strategy, but it means that they are losing a potentially excellent local and loyal customer base, to the benefit of other Gulf carriers. Qatar are particularly competitive on the Muscat-LHR route at the moment, and will kill what remains of Oman Air's local long-haul market.
Adnan
Just had a 3 hours trip to India last week,while the entertainment system us much better than before ,the seats were terrible and very less leg space and uncomfortable. Had a miserableexperience . I prefer Emirates anytime
ReplyDeleteAdnan- I'm sure you know that tourism is going to replace oil as Oman's bead and butter and before you know it, it will be funding the infrastructure projects here in Oman. That is why it is so important to count these 1'000s of transit passengers in Oman's tourist tally.
ReplyDeleteWe can all agree that the Miniatry of Tourism are not utter white elephants that contribute nothing and probably do more harm than good.
Oman Air is just another example of short sightedness in the long term future of the country.
To the other poster talking about short haul leg room, I find that smaller planes in Europe have much more space, akin to the Embraer that they used to run to Dubai.
I also had someone in front of me verbally threaten me when he slammed his seat back and a screamed out in pain as I already had limited space. Fuck the idiots who think it is their right to take my seat space.
Oman Air has its work cut out for it if it plans to stay competitive with other carriers in the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteWayne Pearce used to have raging arguments with "managers" about scrimping on costs, and he did the best thing he could possibly do and removed himself from what is impending disaster.
The new guy appears to be a bit more of a yes-man and I can imagine that it must be quite easy for a low-cost carrier CEO moving into the big time to keep their mouth shut for what I expect is around RO20,000 a month (which is apparently what the other guys were getting).
The downside about Omanizing your cabin crew males is that the majority know that getting fired is simply too much trouble for the airline to go through, so all they have to do is show-up for work, and it's free trips to Europe yanni.
The last guy I saw getting ready to board the return trip from German a few months ago had clearly not seen his bed the night before. (Unless dishevelled with red eyes and stinking of stale tobacco is some people's baseline appearance).
I couldn't help but mention it to him, as I walked through operations on the way out to my own flight and was given the usual "Who are you?" attitude.
Oman Air will rumble on though, like everything in Oman. It is what it is.
Not being able to use an HSBC credit card is irritating and expensive. I recently booked flights on line and as you experienced could not pay with my HSBC card. I therefore had to use another card (I was not in Oman at the time and could not go to the airport) which is from a UK bank and on my credit card I have been charged a £60 (40 rial) fee for a foreign transaction... I should have realised this issue and rebooked on the UK Oman air website, but in the panic that the site would not take my HSBC card, I just reached for the next one in my wallet.
ReplyDeleteAnd as if by magic….
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesofoman.com/News/50983/Article-Oman-Airs-economy-class-seats-ranked-fourth-best-in-world
that is hilarious... so are some of the comments.
ReplyDeleteStill better than a lot of Canadian and US airlines economy (delta---omigod worst flight ever and I am experienced on air canada). But compared to other Gulf lines, Oman Air is late, expensive, and if, also overcrowded, why bother? Serriously
I never do a mistake of booking into omanair nor stoop to look into oman with by bad experience in one of omanair flight from jeddah en-route muscat, the connecting flight took off before we could land there, treated badly in airport and after a fight with ground staff, managed to get a hotel stay after 4 hours. to spend a night and then took off with poor quality of flight service and what else bad things I could tell. Having stayed in Oman for 14 yrs and even the slightest idea of visiting back Oman had vanished even from my wild dreams.
ReplyDeleteAppreciatee your blog post
ReplyDelete