Oman, Oh man it dosn't get much worse than this...
A severe warning about the Oman Air Business class offering.
I flew on a return flight BKK -LHR in J class this weekend and had the worst experience I have had with any airline in any class in 30 years of flying. Our outward flights had gone very well and I was rather impressed with the service.How different things were to be on our return. Things started well in Bkk with a call to our hotel to confirm limo pickup which in turn turned up in a timely manner. All Thai Oman personal at BKK were excellent and the lounge offering very good. We looked set for another good journey but sometimes things don't turn out as you expect them to. I couldn't help notice that the in flight service on the bkk-mct leg was not up to the standard I had experienced on my Oman flights some months earlier. The flight attendants seemed a tad uninterested and empty glasses,bottles etc stayed at ones side until about 1 hour before landing. The food was only what I can describe as average. No pyjamas on offer this time.No toy bag for my daughter .Still no big deal I thought after our 16 hour transit through Oman things could only get better...but how wrong I was to be. On our arrival at Muscat we reported at the Oman transfer desk at midnight local time(what would have been 3 AM Thai time) along with about 150 people from other flights. What followed can only be described as chaos .After queuing ,filling in transit visa forms I eventually received a voucher with ''Golden Tulip'' hotel ''lovingly'' referred to on these forums as the ''Golden Toilet'' and for good reason as I was unfortunately going to find out. With voucher in hand we were told to ''sit down and wait''...nothing more nothing less...no special treatment for the paying business class passenger here. A further wait of approximate 1 hour then ensued with my very tired 4 year old. I had to ask other Oman personal at the First/ Business counter what was going to happen next but true to form they in turn had to go back to the chaos at the transfer desk to ask themselves. Well eventually after what seemed like forever a lady shouted out ''Golden Tulip'' and about 20 or so people were herded down the stairs to immigration. Once through immigration there was no sign of any Oman Air representative so I just made my way out and tryed to guess the mini bus that would take us to our transit hotel. We finally found the right bus and arrived at the Golden Tulip about 10 minutes later to be greeted by further chaos at the front desk .I went to check in and was told to go and sit down...that was it....a further 15 minutes passed with no one paying any attention to us so up I got and for the first time lost my rag (if only a little for the sake of my daughter). I demanded to know what was happening as I was clueless and they seemed even more clueless. Getting a little upset finally seemed to prompt these people into action mode and we got the key to our room shortly after. It had taken over two hours since landing with hand luggage to get to a hotel 5 minutes from the airport. The room lived up to the expectations of the now legendary ''Golden Toilet''. Now this hotel has refurbished rooms (as I was to find out later) and is actually fully owned by Oman Air but Oman Air choose to put their premium passengers(at least one's with infants) in their un renovated rooms. It is fair to say that the disgusting carpet in our room was vastly inferior to the old carpet I have in my garage collecting my cars oil leaks. The in room safe was locked and the balcony doors as I found out after waking were unlocked with cigarette butt ends over the outside terrace....that just about sums up this hotel ...the rest I will leave to your imagination. After finally getting to sleep about 4.30 am we were woken around 9 am by a mistake call from a rude sounding woman in reception and that effectively ended any further sleep for myself. On contacting the hotel reception about our transfer back to the airport I was told that since we already had boarding cards for our flights then an hour before departure would be ample. About one and a quarter hours before our departure we went to checkout on a fully paid stay. That checkout took over 20 minutes with no other guests present. Time for another outburst I'm afraid. I wanted to know why they were delaying things and told them in no uncertain terms what I thought of their Golden Toilet. I had a flight to catch at 16:20 ...''16:20??'' said the woman at reception...''I thought your flight was at 18:00''. Anyway we finally arrived at the business lounge with about 40 minutes to spare,still plenty of time for boarding with our hand luggage and with our hold luggage already transferred from the bkk-mct flight. This is when the major bombshell dropped. On handing my 16:20 boarding passes over the Oman receptionists said ''but Sir your flight departed early at 15:00''. ''WHAT???? ''....yes I do believe that was my first response. Now only two days earlier our flight had been moved from 14:00 to 16:20 and was still 16:20 when we arrived at MCT the previous night. ''How could you have changed our flight to an earlier time on the day of departure and not of informed and transferred us in good time while we were staying with boarding passes in hand under your roof?'' I asked.....Now I asked this question to numerous Oman Air personal following this and I can reliably inform you that Oman Airs training of it's employee's has been successful in universally making each and everyone of them give the same reply which is ''sorry'' a shrug of the shoulders and a very meek bemused look on their faces. Following this the situation even (if that is possible) became slightly amusing with somebody telling us that our flight that left at 15:00 was now back on the tarmac due to a technical problem. There now might be an opportunity with the captains permission to get on the flight after all. My optimism rose,great I thought...all will be forgiven...the waiting,the toilet, the communication and even that carpet if you can play the ''get out of jail free'' card and get us on that plane. So off we went in a hurry to a far off gate with my poor young one complaining about feeling tired. At the gate we wait for about 30 minutes while the ground staff make calls to the captain explaining that it is not the passengers fault ...but it is all to no avail as the good Captain Terrible does not want to play monopoly today. I decide to ask the ground staff what the technical issue had been and get the reply ''a seat that was not working properly sir''. Now I had to smile at this one ...an aircraft that had been turned around because of a wonky seat. ''But assuming this is a business seat'' I said , ''couldn't the passenger just move to one of our free seats?''. Yes you guessed it I got the shrug of the shoulders and the now familar bemused look. So that was that,another long walk ensued back to the business lounge where I was given three options, 1-take the same flight tomorrow,2 -fly British Airways at midnight, 3 fly Gulf air via Bahrain later that day. By now I wanted out so took what I assumed ,due to not being informed otherwise, was a direct flight with BA .However after what had already happened I was stupid to assume anything with Oman Air but my stress levels were very high by this time and my in built damage limitation system was obviously malfunctioning due to overload. Off we went again to the tune of my daughter ''daddy why are those people doing this to us'' ,more paper work for the Golden T,more visa forms and back to my now favourite hotel in the world. Much quicker this time by private transfer and on arrival we were allocated one of the renovated rooms which are just about what you would expect from a reasonable 4 star. So now you all know what is required of you to get a renovated room! A few hours later back to the airport again during a very busy period, we had to collect tickets from the Oman Air office and then check in as per normal. We then had the pleasure of using a vastly inferior BA shared lounge which is where the second bomb shell struck as I looked at the flight monitors and discovered for the first time that our BA flight flew to AUH and then spent an hour on the ground waiting for passengers to board before departing LHR. So the plane left for AUH and my daughter fell asleep for a full 20 minutes before having to be woken for landing. She was very tearful by now...(can you feel the stress)...a few grumpy looks from some of the passengers but please remember that the next time a child crys on your business flight it might not be because of a bad parent but more a case of a bad airline. The Club World seats on BA were no where near the standard of the latest Oman business seat offering and to be honest with the exception of the lie flat seats the whole offering felt like a premium sort of economy class. However the flight personal treated us like royalty and at least seemed to have some empathy with the nightmare that Oman had put us through..empathy is something that is sadly lacking with Oman Airways. No offers of compensation,no explanation for basically at the end of the day was their total negilence with our flights. Just a ''sorry and we hope to see you again on Oman Air''.... Anyway my daughter slept the entire time from AUH-LHR so that was indeed a blessing. We landed at Heathrow terminal 5 at 06:45 am and thankfully despite the large Easter holiday crowds passed through immigration very quickly. Our bags that had been unloaded from our Oman flight were waiting for us on the BA luggage belt. Oman had at least arranged for our limo to pick us up from terminal 5. Great I thought our Oman Air Nightmare is finally over and drifted into sleep on the back seat of our limo only to wake up later about an hour later to ask the driver ''what road is this,it doesn't look like the M4''.....the Oman Air Chauffer service was taking us to Oxford instead of our destination of Bristol..... Oh Man!, Oh Man!, OH Man !....Believe me it really dosn't get much worse than this...maybe I'll book economy next time.. Footnote I will naturally be making a complaint about the unacceptable service we received and will post Oman Airs customer service response as and when I receive it. |
You could make a movie about this adventure.
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Originally Posted by Fims
(Post 18366579)
You could make a movie about this adventure.
You could get EK / QR to co produce But that seriously is a nightmare for any solo traveller. Can't imagine having an infant along as well! |
wow,......I'm truly speechless. I truly feel for you. Me and my friend were planning to go for Oman Air to Europe. Now, you have convinced me otherwise.
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Originally Posted by lunardream
(Post 18371461)
wow,......I'm truly speechless. I truly feel for you. Me and my friend were planning to go for Oman Air to Europe. Now, you have convinced me otherwise.
Everything in my report is factual although I have tried to use a little humour in places to brighten up a tragic tale. Interestingly a similar incident ( although not in the same league as this one-travelling solo with no infant in tow) happened to me a few years ago when flying in Biz/ First with Gulf. I was staying in a transit hotel in AUH and had already been issued my onward boarding cards AUH-BAH-BKK the previous day.No problems with my hotel and the transfers by private limo were timely.There was a late cancellation of my biz flight with GF from AUH-BAH due to low numbers but I was put on an Etihad flight and upgraded to First to make my connection. However on reaching BAH and reporting to the transfer desk my FC seat to BKK had been given to somebody else. Due to my flight cancellation/change from AUH-BAH which had caused a very tight connection to BKK it would appear communication had somehow broken down. What a difference in the reaction of the ground staff however.They immediately offered compensation there and then. A paid nights stay at a good 5 star hotel with board,fly for free in first the next day.Allow me to change my existing FC BKK-BAH flight to a later date and 500 Euro's cash compensation to cover inconvenience and lost hotel bookings etc. It sure did beat Oman Air's ''we are sorry please fly with us again sir'' ! |
Sorry to hear of your shocking story. I would drop a line to their CEO, if nothing else to prompt a review of training/procedures in such circumstances. Do let us know of any further responses from Oman Air.
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Well Oman Air have at least got back to me pretty quickly and are investigating my complaint so that is good news.
I will post any updates as and when. Dear Mr. Chokdee, Thank you for your feedback sent on 11th Apr. ’12, regarding your experience on Oman Air. We sincerely regret to note the inconvenience you and your daughter encountered in Muscat. Your experience and observation had our utmost concern and we have initiated an immediate internal review to investigate the matter. Mr. Chokdee, we value our premium customers as well as their feedback, both are equally important to us. We appreciate your kind understanding and patience while we evaluate our services. We intend to revert to you once all the relevant information with regards to your experiences have been obtained to enable us to respond to you conclusively. Thank you once again and assuring you of concern and care at all times. Thanks & Best Regards, Oman Air, Customer Relations |
Well, at least it is not a standardised blandola response - yet. Fingers crossed.
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Originally Posted by chokdee
(Post 18379597)
Well Oman Air have at least got back to me pretty quickly and are investigating my complaint so that is good news.
I will post any updates as and when. Dear Mr. Chokdee, Thank you for your feedback sent on 11th Apr. ’12, regarding your experience on Oman Air. We sincerely regret to note the inconvenience you and your daughter encountered in Muscat. Your experience and observation had our utmost concern and we have initiated an immediate internal review to investigate the matter. Mr. Chokdee, we value our premium customers as well as their feedback, both are equally important to us. We appreciate your kind understanding and patience while we evaluate our services. We intend to revert to you once all the relevant information with regards to your experiences have been obtained to enable us to respond to you conclusively. Thank you once again and assuring you of concern and care at all times. Thanks & Best Regards, Oman Air, Customer Relations |
Originally Posted by lunardream
(Post 18390553)
I didn't digest this response since I have little faith in after-sale services in the Gulf region. BTW, while on topic, you shocked me with your story about the GF experience. did this really happen? hmm, interesting because I haven't seen anyone experiencing such a good response and generous compensation. BTW, can you tell me which hotel they provided for? was it Golden Toilet in Manama or Movenpick across the airport?
I seem to remember staying at the Gulf Hotel ( I stayed there once while flying with GF) but if it was not there then it would have been the Movenpick where Gulf have kindly put me up on a number of occasions. In Muscat Gulf have placed me in the Radisson and also on one occasion in the Hotel Holiday which was situated in the middle of an industrial estate and is another strong contender for Gold at the annual '' Muscat Golden Toilet awards''.:D |
Originally Posted by NoY
(Post 18379754)
Well, at least it is not a standardised blandola response - yet. Fingers crossed.
In all seriousness, what OP has experienced is appalling. I sincerely hope you get the resolution that you deserve. |
Originally Posted by carrotjuice
(Post 18394220)
I was half expecting them to send a postcard with a photo of an FA shrugging her shoulders, below a caption "Sorry" and wearing the typical bemused look. ;)
In all seriousness, what OP has experienced is appalling. I sincerely hope you get the resolution that you deserve. |
I stayed at that Golden Tulip dump a few years ago and checked out immediately and had Gulf Air rebook me in a better hotel! They agreed at the time it was digusting and apologised that as a n F pax I was put up there. Oman Air at the time handled the disruption causing me to stay at that hole of a hotel. Now I know why-they own it!
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Originally Posted by chokdee
(Post 18365060)
By now I wanted out so took what I assumed ,due to not being informed otherwise, was a direct flight with BA.
... I looked at the flight monitors and discovered for the first time that our BA flight flew to AUH and then spent an hour on the ground waiting for passengers to board before departing LHR. |
Originally Posted by themicah
(Post 18411594)
Technically, that is a direct flight since it has the same flight number on both legs.
On this subject I'm feeling rather bad now about my angry words recently with one of Bangkok's own....next time I take a tuk tuk to the Grand Palace in Bkk and he unexpectedly stops at the tailors and the jewellers on the way thus extending my journey by a couple of hours or so I'll surely remember to go easy on him as I now know that technically he was going direct since he never changed tuk tuk.....:) OK joking aside for the purist's out there please substitute the words ''non stop'' flight for the word ''direct' in my original post. I hope this clarify's any misunderstanding. However one describes the flight it takes nothing away from the fact that following their total incompetency with our booking Oman Air should have at least informed me of the stopover.No morals on their part I'm afraid ...not even with an exhausted 4 year old in tow. |
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