Oman Air - Poor Handling of Schedule Change
 

This is the first major issue I have had with WY, so I'm rather surprised at how they are handling it. Probably worse than the other ME carriers IME.

I have a business class booking CGK_LHR, MXP-CGK, departing Jakarta in the next few days. I just happened to be checking seat assignments using EF when an error popped up on one of the flights.

So after a bit of investigation I discovered that the MXP-MCT flight was rescheduled to depart approx 12 hours later than on my itinerary, and would clearly misconnect with the MCT-CGK flight, the next one of which not for couple of days. On checking the WY website, there was no flag against my booking that there was now a misconnect, and everything apparently seemed fine in the eyes of Oman Air.

So then I rang the WY call centre and explained the problem and was told it would have to be referred to another area for investigation and identification of new suitable flights. Well, I'm still waiting for some kind of response, and at the moment, I have no idea how I am going to get back to Jakarta in a timely manner. As you might appreciate, it could cost me quite a bit in new hotel and transportation arrangements, to fit in with whatever WY come up with at some future point in time.

I've never come across such a slovenly approach to resolving schedule changes / misconnects in my whole life, not even with QR. Very disappointing, I now really regret making this booking won't be booking WY again (FWIW).

Meh. In this day and age, the reality is that one has to pay attention to one's own PRN's and e-tickets through online checks. If you count on any carrier to keep you up-to-date, you are standing on form.

Don't ever ask a carrier for your options. Do the research yourself and then call in with the options in order of preference. You will find it much easier to simply call back, advise that there has been a change and you would like to rebook and ask whether it would be helpful if you advised of what you want.

I guess you were booked on morning flight WY142 to MCT that in this low season period is reduced trice a week and moved to the night flight WY144 that is daily, where you have 19+ hours layover to connect for CGK. Probably you were booked since long and they did not contact you after changing schedule. If they are willing to rebook you on other carriers there are many shorter options from MXP to CGK, TG, CX, SQ, EY, QR, EK many of them leave MXP in the morning.
Unless you accept their reschedule and the STPC in Muscat, but they should also offer you the hotel in Milan, but I understand that a 48 hours trip is not the best...
Try also to contact them on their twitter channel, they are normally very quick in responding. Good luck.

I will have my first WY J trip with same itinerary (to MXP return) with my family in few weeks, hopefully everything will go smooth.

Well, after numerous phone calls and Facebook messages, the only thing I ended up with was leaving MXP a day earlier and having a 19 hour layover at MCT. I did some research and suggested several alternatives (even with WY R class availability), but they were totally inflexible. WY wouldn't even countenance MCT-KUL (WY) with a WY codeshare on MH from KUL to CGK, which would have given me a 3 hour transit at MCT.

The agents at the Indian? call centre were truly unhelpful and completely without any authority to do anything without referring to Muscat for approval

Hopefully I will get the STPC hotel at MCT, but in any case I truly will not book WY again. The whole exercise was just so exasperating, and one wonders how they would perform in a real-time misconnect situation.

What I would have recommended you to do is call the reservations MXP number or visit the city office. They would be much better equipped to handle your booking rather than the call centre, from personal knowledge the call centre is very limited in their ability to change things and it is much easier to get things done contacting the local office.

For bookings I have had that used Amadeus/CheckMyTrip I always received an email informing me of the slightest change to the schedule. Even as little as 5 minutes. Given that all such emails are computer-generated I dont really see why all airlines cant do it.

Well, that wasn't the end of the story.

While in Europe I received an email with a new itinerary from WY, changing MXP-MCT to LHR-MCT, as I had previously suggested via Facebook message, and which was completely ignored by the call centre.

Even though it was very late in arriving, it seems to show that bypassing the call centre, if at all possible, is the way to go.

The WY call centre seems very similar to the QR call centre IME (ie quite hopeless). I wonder if it is the same one?

But wait, there's more.... I just received an email advising that WY142 MXP-MCT later this week has been cancelled and I should contact WY.

Seems very strange since WY last week changed my flight to LHR-MCT and reissued the ticket.

Does the left hand know what the right hand's doing?

WY 142 is the morning flight that they cancelled for the whole month of Ramadan due to seasonal low traffic I guess.
Yes, It seems that their system is not that much prompt in updating passengers. Luckily nothing will happen with my trip as I'm booked on the night flight.