themicah

Personally I think the airlines should retire "direct" flights altogether. But until then I'll remain a terminological pedant.

I recall one "direct" flight I took from EWR to PEK (or maybe PVG? it was one or the other...) that involved three different equipment types, necessitating plane changes in both DTW and NRT. The only thing "direct" about it was that I got fewer miles than if I'd taken connecting flights and wasn't eligible for an elite upgrade on the EWR-DTW segment since it wasn't considered a domestic flight.

chokdee

Well it is fast appproaching 4 weeks since my orginal contact with Oman and other than an acknowledgement email I have heard nothing further.

I realise nothing is set in stone regarding this but does anybody have an idea of what might be regarded as a reasonable time period to deal with a complaint ?

Should I be chasing anybody up at this stage or maybe wait another couple of weeks or so?


Many thanks.

dunk

I recall waiting for several weeks the only time I contacted them. The reply was meaningless boilerplate.

FWIW it was a relatively minor issue compared to yours. At MCT they kept the aircraft on the ground for 45 mins with the doors open, awaiting connecting passengers from a delayed service. Cabin became very hot and I missed my connecting train in London. No explanation or apologies from the crew.

chokdee

Thanks for that dunk.

I guess I will wait another week or so and then escalate if no news.

aphro

Yes you could try the social media person who is on flyertalk.
[email protected]
Contact them to see if they can find out the status of your report. I have previously had extremely variable support from Oman Air customer service - varying from extremely fast reply and very helpful & polite, to no reply at all to repeated inquiries until I went higher up the chain (unfortunately I have misplaced the high up email address that I'd acquired somewhere along the way, sorry!)

EFATO

holy cow. as a frequent visitor to MCT, i must say the "laid back" attitudes seem rather familiar - last time I was there I had to wait 45 mins to clear immigration because the time prior the departing border officer mistakingly cancelled my multiple entry visa. All part of the Oman experience at times, unfortunately.

Your experience aside, though, Oman Air is a fabulous airline with perhaps the world's best business class product. I fly them whenever I can between CMB and MCT and I've always found them to be wonderful.

Re. the "Golden Toilet" - well called! I have stayed in that kip too many a time; I am not aware of any renovated rooms being complete, the last time I showed up there the receptionist actually asked me if I knew when they would be starting renovations, as she wrongly imagined I might have some connections to Oman Air renovating higher-ups

Good luck getting a response, keep us posted,

EFATO

chokdee

Well after waiting for a reply for the best part of 10 weeks my patience has finally ran out with Oman and I have sent a ''reminder''.


Fingers crossed but not holding my breath as recommended by my good doctor I will post here when that reply is forthcoming.

chokdee

After waiting for over 3 months for a reply from Oman Air I have
finally given up on the customer service by email route which seems to
be as bad as the customer service I received on the ground when in
Oman. Apart from the orginal ''we take our customers complaints seriously''
email I have heard nothing since despite asking them for an update a number of weeks ago .

I get the distinct impression that they think if they do nothing for
long enough then I will let the problem go away.....they are wrong of
course. I tried ringing them in Oman today with no answer,maybe to
late,so I will try again tomorrow.

I will probably write a good old fashioned complaint letter now to a
person as high up the chain as I able to get address information on.
Anyone with any names or contact info please??

I see they appointed a new Chief Executive in January,a Mr Wayne Pearce
,so I may also take a stab in the dark by forwarding an email under the
usual Oman Air format to him.

I would be grateful if anyone else has any other practical
advice....giving up not being one of them please !

''Ah Oman,oman it really dosn't get much worse than this...''...unless
with a little help from Oman Air Customer Service it does of course

mattyb2233

Heck I was hoping for them to get to the bottom of this...

IAN-UK

You were put up in a grim hotel, then missed your onward flight because of a mistake by the airline, who then put you on a BA service that had a stop on the way back to London.

A long way from the best of journeys, but I'm not clear what you want now from Oman Air. You've had their "sort-of" apology; summary executions on the apron are probably out; so I imagine cash, a wadge of Sinbad miles or tickets are on your agenda.

I suggest you make it plain to Oman Air just what your expectations are otherwise the one-sided communications could rattle along for eternity. You could raise the spectre of EU regulations: I doubt your circumstances fit any of the templates for compensation, but these at least give a ballpark for the amount you might claim.

lunardream

believe me, they already let go of it.......I may have to suggest that you do the same and let it go

chokdee

Ian,

Thank you for your suggestions, I take on board a lot of what you are saying.

I made it clear in my follow up contact to Oman that I wanted full compensation(in whatever form that might be) for the Mct-Lhr part of our journey.

However knowing what most airlines are like I doubt very much that I will get much more than a fob off letter but on principle I will not just let this go as lunardream seems to suggest.

If nobody ever complained then how would things improve for the rest of us? Quite frankly if I get no compensation ,however wrong imo that would be, so be it. However I strongly feel that Oman should be accountable for their actions and should at least provide me with a explanation of what went wrong on that day and what they have put in place to ensure that future travellers do not suffer the same fate.

I do not believe anybody can fully appreciate how bad things were during that 24 hour period unless the exact same thing happened to them. I paid a lot of hard earned cash for that experience and my 4 year old daughter also got a ticket to the show for good measure.

Oman Air in their initial and only contact said the following;-

'' 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.''

At the bare minimum I would expect them to at least have the courtesy to ''revert back to me conclusively'' or in the meantime, bearing in mind this has been ongoing for 3 months +, give me an update with regard to their ongoing ''investigation''.

IAN-UK

I understand you feel feel agrieved - and rightly so. But you really need to work towards closure (as they say), and then kiss the incident goodbye. To do that you should determine what is your core complaint and what would be a satisfactory outcome, and work towards this.


Try to get some advice from AUC (Air Transport Users Council) on any specific entitlement to compensation you might have a right to under EC regulations. Essentially this would involve the delay to your journey back to the UK caused by Oman Air's early departure, and the carrier's failure to advise you of this schedule change although they clearly knew how and where to contact you.

You could enquire of AUC if Oman's civil aviation administration has a department of consumer affairs who could advise you.

Perhaps better if you don't cloud the issue with the subjective judgements on the hotel and the quality of the replacement air service provided. This latter criticism (of the BA cabin lay-out and service via Abu Dhabi) could be seen as mean-spirited and certainly dilutes the force of your major complaint.

chokdee

Many thanks again Ian,

You have provided some great advice and leads to work with there.

Its very much appreciated.

NoY

Did the OP ever get a suitable response from WY?