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I'm not normally a trip reporter, so apologies in advance if this isn't wonderfully well written!

WY's new F has intrigued me since it was launched last year. I was keen to test WY's reputation as a premium rival to QR/EK and also to see if they could be a viable replacement. With that in mind, I decided on a last minute trip in WY F over Easter, flying LHR-MCT-KUL-MCT-LHR. Given there's so little information about the WY F product online currently I figured I owe FT a thorough review, so here goes.

LHR Ground Experience

I arrived at LHR check-in at around 18.00 for the 20.50 departure to find check in already in full swing. There are separate F and J check in desks at LHR and as there was only one couple ahead of me at F check in who I think had been called across from the J queue, I was being checked in within a couple of minutes. The process was quick and painless, but at this point I was made aware that WY102 was already running almost an hour late due to the inbound WY101 also running behind (both of these seem to be a common occurrence!). This would give me only 30 minutes to make my connection at MCT. The only trip report I could find online for this flight (from The Design Air) suggested there might be an escort through security to the lounge. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened and I was handed my boarding passes / lounge invite and sent on my way. T4 is blissfully quiet at this time, so I was through premium security and on my way to the lounge in a couple of minutes anyway.

WY use the Gulf Air lounge at LHR, which is one of the least reviewed lounges at LHR. It's actually really very nice, not to the level of QR's T4 lounge but probably close to what the likes of EK and EY offer at LHR. The decor is a bit dated and the music is retro (I think ABBA featured twice!), but there is a fully stocked manned bar with table service, spectacular views of the runway, a tasty Middle Eastern buffet selection, decent champagne and plenty of power outlets. It was very quiet when I arrived, but filled up as the flight time for both the WY and GF evening departures approached.

The Gulf Air lounge


Whilst I was in the lounge, the delay to the inbound increased and WY102 was pushed back further, reducing my theoretical connection at MCT to just 10 minutes (surely this is below the MCT for MCT ). I went to speak to the Gulf Air staff at the reception desk who are very nice, but they advised there was nothing they could do as there are no Oman Air staff airside to call until close to departure time so I'd just have to speak to them later. Oh well, back to the lounge for some dinner then.

The cold buffet (there are separate hot buffet and pudding sections)


WY's boarding passes amusingly advise a boarding time 75 minutes(!) before departure, so this came and went, as did the 20.50 departure time. Finally at around 21.30 there was an announcement in the lounge that boarding for WY102 had commenced. Again, the online review suggested F passengers would be given an escort from the lounge, but nothing of the sort happened so I started to make my way to the gate at the far end of T4. I am a very quick walker and so arrived before basically everyone else arrived from the lounge, but boarding was already in full swing and showing 'Final Call', with all economy passengers boarding. This was definitely one of the low points of the whole experience. WY board through a single air bridge at the second set of doors, I'm not sure if F in theory is escorted to the front but it didn't happen for me, so rather than trying to push through the crowd I spent probably 20-25 minutes queuing on the air bridge behind all the Y passengers to get on the plane. Just as I was at the door another passenger was escorted past by different ground staff to the ones who served me shouting 'Important passenger coming through, first class!' which obviously didn't impress me. Not a first class start to the experience at all.

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WY102 (20.50 departure) - 17th April

On boarding, I presented my boarding pass and was pointed forward through business class to 2K, no walking passengers to the seat here, but I wasn't really expecting that by now. On arriving in the cabin and finding my seat, my mood definitely lightened a bit. First thought - wow. The decor is subtle with beautiful finishes. Stunning, possibly the most attractive F cabin I've ever sat in.

2K on boarding


After 5 minutes or so the Cabin Service Manager came by to ask if everything was OK so far and I was presented with a very nice Amouage leather amenity kit and a pair of WY pajamas. I normally avoid complaining but I raised the slightly terrible boarding experience at this point and he didn't really know how to respond, so rather than apologizing he just told me about how much the crew had also been kept in the dark about when the flight would leave, which didn't really address my point and was the first sign the service on this flight might not be what I was expecting. I was asked whether I'd like a pre-departure drink and chose the champagne, which is Laurent Perrier Brut on the ground (the same as in J). It was served in WY's beautiful new glasses alongside a small bowl of smoked nuts and a 'hot towel' which was actually room temperature. F passengers are also given a WiFi code voucher valid for three hours which is actually quite fast.

Pre-departure drink


There are no overhead bins in the cabin and the ottoman compartment is full of bedding at each seat, so hand baggage has to be stored in the wardrobe at the front by the crew. I'll try to cover the seat itself in a bit more detail in the return WY103 review.

Boarding complete, myself in 2K and two other F passengers on the other side of the cabin. The crew came around with Arabic coffee and dates shortly afterwards. We left the stand at around 22.00 and a short Arabic-only safety video was played. One of the other crew members serving the cabin then came to take my menu order. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed it was hidden in the leather binder in the shelf by my seat as nothing about the seat had been explained to me on boarding, so when I asked for the menu to be able to choose she looked a bit confused and just pointed to where it was.

Menu page 1


Menu page 2


Menu page 3


Menu page 4


I believe this flight previously served a full dinner after takeoff then a full breakfast before landing, but as can be seen above it's now been cut back to a full dinner then 'refreshments' before landing. I ordered the caviar, the gravlax and the 'Osso Bucco' (sic - you'll see from the menu above that spelling mistakes seem to be a bit of a WY specialty!). The concept is dine on demand, but I wasn't asked when I would like to dine and was happy to eat straight after departure anyway having been waiting for the flight for a good 4 hours.

We lost our take off slot, but soon secured another one and were then in the air fairly quickly for LHR. On takeoff, the suite doors around the cabin weren't secured properly and about half of them closed from the motion (this seems to be a thing in cabins with manually operated suite doors).

After departure, the F champagne choices are Grand Sičcle (as in BA F) or the standard Laurent Perrier in J, there isn't a rose champagne. The more general wine list is a decent selection in the Ł30-60 range but this isn't QR F where you'll find Ducru-Beaucaillou or EK F where you'll find Haut-Brion. On that basis, I opted for the LPGS. I believe for a brief period after the launch of the new F service WY served both LPGS and Cristal in F, but this has obviously been cut back now.

An amuse bouche and a glass of champagne was served reasonably promptly after take off, then there was a bit of a wait before my table was set for the caviar service.

I asked for the central divider to be put up so that I could have some more privacy. Unfortunately, this is when it became apparent that part of the service problem was perhaps a language barrier. I couldn't make the CSM understand what I was asking for and had to resort to pointing at the central divider and upwards. Once he'd cottoned on to what I was asking he tried to raise it but didn't know how to, so had to ask another member of crew to come and help. Oh dear.

As with the cabin and glassware, the new plates WY use in 787 F are stunning, probably the most beautiful of any airline I've flown. The gold design is inspired by the Omani mountains and also works perfectly with the rest of the cabin. The crew were a bit confused by my request for a shot of vodka with the caviar service (a habit I've picked up from flights in QR F with Eastern European crew members!) but ended up bringing me rather a large Grey Goose as can been seen below.

Caviar service


I'm a bit of a caviar fan and WY serve beluga caviar, the only airline I'm aware of that do this (most aren't even willing to pay for ossetra) and it's good quality, too. Disappointingly, they then go and ruin it by serving it with a single metal tea spoon. The melba toast was also not crispy at all, which was disappointing. Still, I'm complaining about a caviar service here, so need to maintain some perspective .

Beluga caviar


Next up was the gravlax and scallops. At least, that's what was described on the menu. What was presented was the below, a piece of cured fish and some poached salmon. I questioned the CSM as he put the dish down whether this was the correct dish, but he said yes and came back with the meal sheet photos to show this is what should have been served. Very odd. Yes, he did also put the cutlery down the wrong way around. I ate much less of this one.

'Gravlax and scallops'


Finally, the osso buco. Despite the light load the CSM seemed to be struggling and tried to bring this without having cleared away my previous course. This was much tastier than the previous dish, but was disappointingly lukewarm - would have been a great dish if it were hot. Yes, the cutlery is the wrong way again!

Osso buco


Nothing on the refreshments menu appealed, so I figured I might as well just have pudding now then sleep through until landing. I ordered the plum tart which was extremely tasty, if slightly less elegantly presented than previous courses.

Plum tart


I also ordered a pot of mint tea before bed which was served in another beautiful set of porcelain.

Mint tea


I asked for my bed to be made up and basically slept for the rest of the flight. The bedding is very comfortable but is not the best F bedding I've experienced, it's basically a padded mattress and a blanket similar to what you'd get in QR J rather than a proper CX-style duvet or JL-style mattress. However, the seat makes a comfortable, sizable and very private bed. I should also say the pillows are really excellent with a high thread count and helped to make the experience. The doors are manually operated and provide superb privacy, being actually quite high. Each F seat also has a little individual air vent which is great for keeping cool.

Time for bed


Privacy level when sleeping


Seriously, how beautiful is the below cabin?

WY F cabin at night


Before too long we were landing in MCT. Oman is a bit different than other Gulf countries, it's mountainous and actually has greenery, for a start. Some nice views on landing.

Views on landing at MCT


Soon we were on the ground taxing to a stand and that was that, my first WY F flight over. Flying QR quite a lot, I was slightly surprised there was no interaction from the crew in the morning beyond them silently dropping another (only slightly warm) hot towel by my seat. No one came around to thank me at the end of the flight and no one asked how my flight was, so they didn't get any feedback on the easy improvements they could have made to a lot of parts of the flight. Did I perhaps scare the CSM by sharing my thoughts on boarding at the start of the flight? No idea.

For such a small airport, taxing at MCT takes surprisingly long! We'd made up a bit of time, so we pulled up to the stand around 20 minutes before my KUL flight was due to depart. Once seat-belt signs were off the crew passed through F without saying anything and closed the curtains at the front of the second J cabin. One air bridge was attached at the second set of doors and F got off the plane slightly after the first J cabin had emptied out.

Cabin on disembarking at MCT


For me, F is fundamentally all about consistency and service, so this flight was a bit of a failure in that regard. In service terms it was probably below QR J on average and well below what I'd expect in F. Frankly, as beautiful as the hard product was if that had been the only WY F flight I'd booked, I might well have walked off that flight and not got back on another WY plane. Fortunately, it wasn't...

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MCT Ground Experience

On walking out of the airbridge I noticed there was someone with a board with my name and the names of two J passengers who were connecting to KUL as well. Maybe I'm going to make this connection after all! Once they had appeared, we all got in a buggy and zipped through MCT to the central security point.

Buggy ride to security at MCT


We were escorted to the front and were all through security in a couple of minutes. I assumed we were heading for the gate given boarding should be over already, but at this point our escort asked us to follow her to the lift by the security point and we headed up to the fifth floor where the WY lounge is located instead. The entrance is quite impressive, a lot of design effort has clearly gone into the entirety of MCT.

WY MCT lounge entrance


Our guide walked us to the reception desk and told them we were on the KUL flight, which it turned out was also slightly delayed. She also pointed out I was in F as I handed my boarding pass over to be scanned and the attendant behind the desk jumped up smiling and asked me to follow her. There are two sides to the WY lounge, an F side which is for F class passengers on WY only and a J side which is used by WY J passengers and WY Gold status holders. F is through a door unlocked by the reception to the right.

I was aware I was the only F passenger on the KUL flight and given how few F flights WY has that would likely mean I was also the only passenger in the lounge at this time of morning, but I hadn't quite clocked just how big the space I would have to myself was - there is probably seating for at least 100. I was walked through the lounge with a quick tour, and deposited in a seat. I was also told I would be collected for boarding and that WY boards F passengers last, so I should just relax in the lounge - that works for me!

There are several different seating areas, a formal dining area and also a manned bar. The theme is basically bling-overload that puts EK to shame, with plenty of gold detailing everywhere. It is almost exactly the opposite to the understated theme WY have gone for in the new 789 F cabin but is really quite impressive to look at in person and the detailing is beautiful.

Two further members of staff turned up shortly after I arrived to operate the lounge I had to myself (I think from the J lounge next door).

WY F lounge dining and seating area


WY F lounge seating area


WY F lounge bar


WY F lounge men's bathroom


I was asked if I'd like a drink and took an orange juice and a glass of champagne. The champagne on offer is standard Lanson which feels oddly matched with the rest of the lounge, the Laurent Perrier they serve onboard in J is better! The orange juice was freshly squeezed and of good quality. An extremely large plate of snacks was served alongside the drinks.

WY F lounge snacks


An offer was made to call the chef for me and having skipped eating before landing I realized I was actually quite hungry, so I agreed I'd like to eat some breakfast. He arrived in a couple of minutes and after a quick chat, it seemed he was trying to steer me towards having eggs in some form given I was relatively short of time, so I agreed I'd take some poached eggs with whatever they had. The idea of chilling out in this ridiculous lounge and having a made-to-order breakfast when I'd expected to spend this time running through MCT was enough! After about 10 minutes, my breakfast arrived.

WY lounge poached eggs


I ate relatively quick and moved back to where I was sat previously. Not long afterwards, a fourth member of staff arrived and introduced himself, advising me he would be taking me to the next flight once they were ready. He disappeared and I had about 10 minutes after this in the lounge before he reappeared and said it was time to board. I said goodbye to the other staff, we walked out of the lounge and went down in the lift to another buggy, after which he drove me to the gate for WY823 where they were just finishing up boarding. We got talking on the drive and he was understandably quite proud of the new MCT airport.

I couldn't believe how different this experience was to my previous flight. Service from everyone I spoke to the moment I got off WY102 was spectacular. Was this even the same airline? I was obviously hoping at this point this is how my next flight would be!

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WY823 (09.05 departure) - 18th April

WY only operates their new F on LHR, so the couple of other routes they sometimes have with F are operated by their much older A330s. They don't operate F on every flight and if they don't sell any F tickets when it is an F designated flight it seems from what I've read they just block the cabin and use it as a crew rest area instead. If I felt a bit like I was going into the LHR flight without knowing what to expect, then I had literally no idea for this flight. I spent quite a while searching online before the flight and I'm not sure there is a single review of WY's A330 F (other than an OMAAT review from a few years ago where WY didn't seem to correctly register that the reviewer was an F passenger before the flight). After my previous LHR flight I was feeling even more apprehensive.

I had selected 2K again, but on arriving at the gate I was told seat 2K had an issue and so I was being moved to 1K and was printed with a new boarding pass (amusingly, the new pass was for seat 1K but printed on the Economy boarding pass design). Fine, given it's just me I really don't care where I sit!

Boarding was through the second set of doors again. On approaching the aircraft door I was greeted warmly and after seeing my boarding pass was promptly escorted through J to the empty F cabin. After sitting down the CSM came over to introduce himself and I was quickly offered a choice of pre-departure drinks. I asked for a champagne, which was Laurent Perrier again, served promptly with an actual hot towel and some more smoked nuts. So far, so good!

Shortly afterwards a crew member came back and presented me with the amenity kit, then some pajamas, then carefully presented me with the menu for the flight. It was breakfast followed by 'refreshments' this time.

Menu


After boarding was announced as complete, the CSM came back to take my orders for both drinks after take off and breakfast. I decided to defer eating until a little later in the flight as I'd just had breakfast in the lounge. I was offered a top up of champagne (which I declined as I'd decided to wait for the LPGS in the air) and soon the crew came around with Arabic coffee and dates. Glasses were collected and we had a much shorter taxi this time, before I knew it we were heading down the runway.

The crew sprang into action as soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off and closed the curtains between F and J, as well as the ones at the front of the cabin. My drinks order for after takeoff appeared soon after.

Post-takeoff drinks


It was fairly obvious by this point that despite the crew appearing a very similar set up to the previous flight, with an Omani male CSM leading an all female team from South East Asia, this crew was a very different animal. This was a crew that were interested in getting everything right - I was asked if I wanted top ups rather than the crew just attempting to remove the glass when I'd finished; I was asked if I wanted a slice of lemon in my water. The CSM was serious about providing good service. I've flown solo in F quite a few times and there are a few things that give away quickly if the service is going to be super detail-oriented or not - one is where the crew walk when passing through the cabin. When passing between the front of F and into J, the crew only used the A/E aisle and came into the F/K aisle only when they were checking if I needed anything. It sounds like a very small thing, but when you're trying to sleep it shows a great level of attention to detail that the crew have thought about what will disturb you least.

A small display of dates was set up in the center of the cabin and the CSM told me to let him know as soon as I was ready to eat. The A330 F cabin is a bit odd, with 6 seats then a small sofa in the centre at the front which seems to be intended as a communal area. The seat itself is quite similar to the J seat on the same aircraft which is huge for J, but F has better privacy provided by a large privacy screen. The storage is better than on the 789, with several large lockers behind the sofa area. The cabin is a bit dated - the crew even handed out an infrared remote control for the IFE!

A330 F cabin


A330 F remote control


There was also WiFi on this flight, but the CSM explained that they usually didn't get free F WiFi codes for the KUL sectors. Soon I was ready to eat. The table was set with the same glassware as on the LHR flights, but they use different plates and cutlery for the A330 sectors. I ordered the granola, the scallops (hoping to actually get them this time!) and the kingfish.

Granola and scallops (dish on the side)


Kingfish


The food was pretty good, but I'd say the quality was half a notch below the catering ex-LHR if ignoring the weird scallop/gravlax dish previously. The table setting is also less impressive than on the LHR flights.

I decided on a nap after I'd finished eating and whilst I changed into wearing pajamas my bed was made up in 2F; as this was further away from the galley at the front I figured it was likely to be quieter.

A330 F bed


The seat was very comfortable as a bed and is a nice rectangular shape, it's comfortably long enough for me to not touch either end at 6ft2. Unfortunately, the pillows weren't quite as nice on this sector, but were still pretty good all things considered.

The crew dimmed the lights in the cabin through a purple colour to off and it became apparent that the A330 had a wonderful trick up its sleeve - the F cabin is fitted with a beautiful LED star ceiling similar to EK.

A330 F ceiling


After drifting for a few hours I got up and moved back to 1K. We were a couple of hours out of KUL and I decided to try something from the 'refreshments' menu. I ordered the smoked duck tart, which frankly wasn't that great and I left most of. I then had the cake selection too which, thankfully, did not include the advertised strawberry mouse (sic!).

Duck tart


Blueberry tartlet, almond cake and strawberry mousse


The CSM was extremely friendly and I got speaking to him in quite a lot of detail. He explained this was literally WY's oldest A330, which was probably why everything felt so retro! He also shared that he had previously worked for BA then EK for 16 years, but had now returned home to work for WY, which really showed. The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful, I enjoyed the copious drinks top ups and managed to make a decent dent in the second bottle of LPGS before landing.

Almost at KUL


The bathrooms on each flight were stocked with Amouage amenities and each flight had an orchid in the bathroom, but this one was the prettiest.

Flower in WY F bathroom


The communal area


We were on the descent into KUL, so I changed back out of the pajamas and got ready for landing. Before long we were on the ground and heading for the KUL satellite terminal. Once the seatbelt signs were off, the crew closed the F curtains again and the airbridge was attached at the front this time. I said farewell to the great crew and J was held back until after I'd deplaned. I was fairly quickly through immigration and customs and waiting at the belt for my suitcase about 15 minutes before they managed to get the luggage out. My suitcase was in the first batch that came out and with that I was on my way to the St. Regis for a night before heading to the Ritz-Carlton in Langkawi (may do a separate trip report if any one is interested).

So in summary, the hard product on the A330 is fairly mediocre for F, but the service on this sector really did shine. If I had to choose to fly one of the two outbound flights again, I'd probably choose the KUL one despite the hard product.

I was hoping the rest of the trip would be the same!

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WY822 (09.30 departure) - 23rd April

For my return trip, I decided to stay overnight before the flight at the St. Regis again which has convenient access to the airport on the KLIA Ekspres. In what was becoming apparent as true WY inconsistent style, the ground experience at KUL for F is nothing special, with WY using the fairly average MH Golden Lounge. I therefore decided to arrive as late as possible and enjoy the excellent St. Regis breakfast instead. I got the last KL Ekspres I could get to make it for the 1 hour check-in cutoff and arrived at the desks at around 70 minutes before departure. WY uses the bank of check-in counters at the very far end of the KLIA check-in area.

There was no separate F queue, just J and Y, but it didn't matter as there was literally no one else checking in. I knew I was the only F passenger on this flight again from the seat map and that it was fairly lightly loaded. Having booked a fairly long layover in Muscat with the intention of going out and doing some sightseeing, I was feeling a little bit tired and had quite a lot of work to do building up, so asked at the check-in desk if it was possible to move to the earlier LHR flight which I should still easily have been able to connect to. Unfortunately, I was told there was nothing they could do at KUL and that I should ask at MCT instead, fair enough. My boarding passes were printed (with another early boarding time about 15 minutes in the past!) and I was on my way.

I passed through exit checks which had a short J/F queue at KUL and also customs, then jumped on the first train out to the satellite terminal. I was probably at the lounge reception within about 10 minutes, where it obviously turned out the flight had not yet started boarding. My boarding pass was scanned and I was pointed in the direction of the J lounge so I asked if I might be able to use the F side instead. The attendant wasn't sure, so he asked his supervisor on the desk. She laughed and then replied in Malay something to the effect of 'no way!'. I resigned myself to the standard Golden Lounge and she then explained in English that WY only pays for access to the J lounge. After around 15 minutes in the lounge, the screens changed to show 'boarding', so I collected my things and started making my way to the exit. As I was leaving, the attendant who had just checked me in came into the lounge to tell me my flight was now boarding, which was a nice touch.

The gate was fairly close and I arrived in the middle of boarding. The airbridge for F and J was attached at the front again, so on showing my boarding pass at the door I was escorted back into the F cabin, into 2K this time. Shortly afterwards the CSM, Nawal, came around to introduce herself. She asked for my pre-departure drink choice and when I asked what the champagne was (I am a pain), I was given the choice of Laurent Perrier Brut or (correctly pronounced!) Grand Sičcle this time. I was also given the choice of a hot or cold towel this time. This was looking good. The glass was carefully presented with some more smoked nuts and then the champagne was poured at seat (this was a feature of all the flights).

Pre-departure drink


The routine of amenity kit, pajamas and menu presentation followed and boarding was soon complete. I asked about WiFi vouchers and Nawal was extremely apologetic they hadn't been loaded. Despite the flight being scheduled to leave 25 minutes after the MCT-KUL flight and actually arriving nearly 8 hours earlier due to the time difference, this time it was lunch then 'refreshments'.

Menu 1


Menu 2


Menu 3


Nawal came back shortly to take my order for after takeoff and advised me that if I didn't want what was on the menu, I could mix and match from whichever dishes I wanted. This was clearly going to be a great flight. I ordered the caviar service (does anyone ever not?), then smoked salmon, with the Arabic spiced prawns later in the flight. Nawal let me know they actually had two different types of salmon salad and she offered to mix both on the same dish for me if I wanted, which was a nice touch. Another service of Arabic coffee and dates followed and we were soon taking off.

The crew closed all the curtains and all the blinds around the cabin other than the ones at my seat as soon as the seatbelt sign was off and before long I was being presented with the amuse bouche.

Amuse bouche


The caviar service followed shortly afterwards.

Caviar service


Next up was the salmon. Surprisingly, the catering out of KUL was probably the best of the lot, definitely better than ex-MCT and probably better than ex-LHR too. The offer of a little bit of creativity probably helped. This was a great meal.

Salmon salad


I also decided to go for the ice cream with a glass of the quite nice Sauternes they were offering to round things out.

Vanilla and apricot ice cream


Feeling pretty full, I wanted a quick nap, so my bed was made up in 2F again. This time I got a different colour of blanket but the same comfy seat.

A330 F bedding


The remaining blinds were closed and the cabin lights were dimmed whilst I changed into pajamas. Night night!

A330 F ceiling


After a few hours, I got up again and was ready for the rest of my meal. I want to emphasise again just how good the service was on this flight. As another glass of champagne was poured at the table, the glass was about half full as the first bottle of LPGS was emptied. Nawal went to open another one and came back to the seat, then rather than just continuing to top up the glass as most other crews do, I was asked whether I was happy for the two bottles to be mixed or I would rather just have a fresh glass. Unfortunately I tried to order the smoothie on the menu at this point and was told apologetically it hadn't been loaded, but was advised the pink guava juice was pretty good instead (this being a flight from Malaysia). It was indeed much better quality than the equivalent rather cheap sweetened version I had on my MH J domestic flight a couple of days before.

More champagne and pink guava juice


Shortly after that my main course arrived.

Arabic spiced prawns


I was presented with another hot towel and decided to round things out with more cakes (yes, I know, I'm exceedingly greedy), so had the fruit tartlet and 'chocolate brwonie' (oh dear). Again, Nawal offered to improvise so it came with the vanilla mocha sauce and bits from other pudding options.

Cake selection


Not long to landing now, just time for a quick cup of mint tea. From 2K there is a lot of natural light as the cabin is very open - that's a long run of windows!

Mint tea


I actually didn't hate the A330 F cabin. There was ample storage fitting one of my quite large pieces of hand luggage in the side bins, the seat was comfy and the privacy would still have been OK had the cabin been busier given the large privacy screen. This A330 was a little newer and so everything was slightly better condition than the previous flight. In terms of seat choice, I think row 2 is definitely better as it's quieter and further away from the galley at the front, but if the cabin were ever full (I can't imagine this happens much) then I would prefer 1A/1K given you'd be likely to end up with a lot of privacy and the large unused sofa beside you.


A330 F storage


A330 F drop down armrest


We were soon descending over the Omani mountains and almost before I knew it we were on the ground in MCT again.

Omani mountains

We taxied to the gate and once seatbelt signs were off the crew closed all the curtains again and the airbridge was attached to the front set of doors. Nawal came around for another chat and to check that I had picked everything up and J was again held back whilst I disembarked. Another superb flight, the service was possibly even better than the outbound MCT-KUL one, just top class.

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MCT Ground Experience 2

On leaving the aircraft there was nobody waiting this time, so I made my way along the empty travelators towards MCT's central transfer security. We must have parked at almost the furthest away gate, but given MCT is quite compact it was still a less than ten minute walk.

MCT airport


The transfer security point was actually quite busy. There was a separate queue for F/J, but this ultimately fed into the general queue near the front rather than being an entirely separate security channel. It took 10-15 minutes to clear security this time and then I was on my way up to the WY lounge in the lift. At reception, I explained that I wanted to change to the earlier LHR flight which was leaving in a little over an hour and a half by this point. The attendant looked a bit stressed by the suggestion but said she'd speak to ticketing right away. She held on to my boarding passes and directed me back into the (again empty) F lounge.

The same two members of staff as last time appeared shortly afterwards and I ordered an orange juice and a water, which came with another large plate of snacks. The chef was called again and this time I decided to have a salad and some sandwiches from the selection he verbally read out. I had a feeling there had to be a written menu somewhere, but he seemed to prefer to just tell me what they had. Whilst I was waiting for the food to come, the attendant on reception came in to tell me that unfortunately, they couldn't move me to the earlier flight as I had checked luggage and there wasn't enough time to locate it. For a new airport, I feel like this should have been a potentially doable request. Instead, she said they were happy to arrange for a room at the airport hotel if I wanted. MCT now has an Aerotel, which is an airside hotel similar to the one at DOH. She told one of the other members of staff to bring me back out to her when I was ready to go the hotel. My food order arrived shortly afterwards.

Sandwiches and salad


Access door through to the (much busier) J lounge


Once I'd finished eating I decided to take a quick shower in the lounge. The theme here again is lots of gold. The shower room was well ventilated, had good pressure and came with good quality toiletries, but there was very little surface space and also not a single hook to hang anything on. I also couldn't get the door to lock for quite a while as it didn't seem to align properly. Given there are so few transit passengers here (most F passengers seem to be just flying between London and Muscat) I have to wonder how many times this has actually been used!

Oman Air F lounge golden shower (sorry, couldn't resist)


After showering, I went back out in the lounge and indicated I was ready to go to the hotel to work and then take a nap. I was escorted back to the lounge reception, then out of the lounge and across to the hotel. The hotel is also on the fifth floor just across from the lounge so it was a quick walk. At the hotel reception, what I needed was explained to the team on reception there and the attendant headed back to the lounge. They took my boarding pass and passport and I was told to take a seat at the reception whilst they dealt with my booking. The staff here were a bit ... odd. No one smiled (or pulled any facial expressions), it took seemingly forever to sort out my booking despite there being about six members of staff behind the desk and not a single person came or went from the hotel whilst I was waiting. Eventually, I was told my room was ready and I was sent up to it.

The room itself was clean and a standard four star hotel room. I either got lucky with the room allocation or they gave it to me because I was in F, but I was given one of the few rooms on the side of the hotel that look outwards over the runway.

View from airside hotel room


After working and then napping (which was interrupted by the fire alarm going off, twice), it was a few hours until my flight back to London. I showered in the hotel room, checked out and headed back across to the lounge. My boarding pass was scanned and I was escorted back into the F lounge. The seat map online was showing the flight as 8/8, having been the only F passenger when I'd booked it a week or so before. It seemed like a few passengers had also moved from the earlier LHR flight I'd wanted to get as the same seats were now occupied on the flight I was getting and the earlier WY101 had gone from full to being 4/8 in the end.

I'd noticed last time I was in the lounge that there was a bottle of Hennessy Paradis on the shelf. I'm not really a cognac drinker, but it made me hopeful they had something more interesting to drink than Lanson. I got up and examined what they had and quickly realized the next couple of hours were going to go by pretty quickly. On the top shelf was a bottle of Balvenie 30 Year Old. Just below that was Highland Park 25 Year Old. Yes please!

WY F lounge bar


Whilst I was on my second glass of Highland Park, some of the other passengers started to arrive. The lounge is so big we still effectively each had a 'zone' to ourselves. A little after this I decided to eat and this time, a menu appeared! I ordered the soup of the day (which was asparagus) then the salmon. Both came fairly quickly and I chose to eat in the formal dining area again.

Asparagus soup


Soy-glazed salmon


Before long I was in a bit of a Scotch-induced haze and a new member of staff came by to let me know he would soon be escorting us all to the aircraft. About 10 minutes later he came back and the five of us in the lounge headed out towards the gate. No buggy this time, just a quick walk to the gate for WY103. Boarding for all other passengers was already complete and after a quick boarding pass scan and at-gate security check, we were all ready to board. I hoped this time the service would be better than the outbound flight.

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WY103 (01.50 departure) - 24th April

As the five of us from the lounge boarded, we were greeted at the door and I was shown to my seat, 2A this time. The remaining three passengers in F were already on board and must have bypassed the lounge entirely, so we had a completely full F cabin. I settled in and before too long I was offered a pre-departure drink (LPGS champagne was available on the ground in MCT). Amenity kit and pajamas followed.

Settling into 2A


I promised I'd try to cover the seat and cabin in a little bit more detail this time - in summary there are a lot of positive things to say about it, but there are inevitably a few compromises in putting an F cabin on an aircraft as small as the 789. The main one is that there is a bit of a shortage of storage space compared to other F class products. Each passenger gets a slim wardrobe built into the seat which can fit a suit jacket, plus a couple of small side bins by the window of which one could possibly fit a small laptop at a push and that's about it, all other space is used for the seat itself. You'll notice in the above photo that my carry on bags are sat out by the ottoman as that is the only place they can go on boarding. There is a storage bin under the ottoman but it's not huge and the bedding supplied by WY completely fills it. Fortunately, there are two storage wardrobes at the front of the cabin where the crew can put passengers' luggage, but the crew member serving me wasn't particularly proactive about it on this flight so I ended up having to point out that I'd like to get rid of my luggage as my pre-departure drink was being cleared away.

The safety video was played and before long we were in the air again. The menu was already waiting for me at the seat in a leather binder, so it appears that presenting the menu is not part of the service standard for LHR-MCT flights (whereas it is for Asia ones in the old F). I find what WY has done with the menu on this departure a little contentious for F, there is a 'refreshments' menu of small bites after take off then the main meal for the flight is breakfast to be served before landing. The crew came around shortly after takeoff to ask what I'd like to eat. I tried to select two small plates from the refreshments menu (the fruit plate and the cake selection) but was told in a borderline rude way that it is meant to be one item per passenger only. I wasn't really expecting that answer in F and didn't know how to respond, so reacted by saying that I'd just have the fruit plate. I wonder if some of the other F passengers were last minute bookings or upgrades and they were under-catered as a result. My order for breakfast was also taken at the same time. After about half an hour, my table was set and the fruit plate arrived.

WY F fruit plate


Once this had been cleared away I was expecting to go straight to sleep, but a minute later the crew member came back with the cake selection and placed it down in front of me without saying anything before walking away. I happily ate it as I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the whole service experience was just a bit odd. I'd say the quality of catering out of MCT was OK, I understand Do & Co provide the catering for the LHR-MCT flight which seemed higher quality than this leg.

WY F cake selection


By this point I was pretty tired so I asked for my bed to be made up whilst I went to change into pajamas. Even with a full cabin the doors provide excellent privacy and between this, the individual air vents and the comfortable bedding I slept well for a few hours.

Time to sleep


WY F cabin at night


About 2 hours and 40 minutes out of London I was woken by someone tapping me on the shoulder and was asked if I wanted my breakfast. This is probably the earliest I've ever been woken up for breakfast on a flight and, given the entire service was over within half an hour, I'm not sure why they woke F passengers up so early.

I had ordered the smoked salmon starter and then the pancakes. Both were fine, very similar to dishes I've previously had in QR J in both cases but neither was amazing. The tomato accompanying the smoked salmon was still slightly frozen unfortunately (perhaps they shouldn't have been in such a rush to serve it!).

Smoked salmon starter


Pancakes with blueberries


It's difficult not to be impressed by the table setting WY uses in F. In addition to the beautiful plates and glasses, there are also little salt and pepper shakers in an abstract shape of the Omani mountains (see above). After I'd finished breakfast the rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. I'm not sure if the crew were a little inexperienced or just that was their service style, but they were slightly cold and not particularly proactive, for example if I wanted a top up rather than have something be cleared away, I'd have to stop them to request it each time.

Below you can see a few more of the seat features - there's a small marble cocktail table, a control screen for the seat and separate IFE remote, as well as a small (unrefrigerated) minibar with water and soft drinks. You can also see some of the really nice textures and finishes used for the seat.

WY F seat controls


WY F minibar


There are also two bathrooms in F, a small one to the side and a surprisingly spacious central bathroom which is great for changing. They were both kept clean throughout the flight. I changed back out of my pajamas just before we started our descent into a cloudy LHR.

WY F larger bathroom


Upon landing, we had a typically lengthy LHR taxi, before eventually pulling up at a gate with an air-bridge at the far end of Terminal 4. The air-bridge was attached to the second set of doors on the left again, but this time the crew didn't bother to hold the second J cabin back or close the curtains, so the F passengers had to wait to disembark until quite a lot of the J cabin had emptied out. The immigration hall at Terminal 4 was completely deserted at that time in the morning and I was through immigration and waiting for my luggage within probably 15 minutes of reaching the gate.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a wait before any bags appeared and the first set to come out were not priority baggage. After that another set of mostly J class luggage came out, then another. After about 40 minutes of waiting and quite a few crates of baggage, I noticed not just myself but a few of the other F passengers were still stood around waiting. Finally, probably 50 minutes after getting to the belt my suitcase popped out with a huge and somewhat pointless 'First Class' tag on it. I felt this was a fitting end to the flight.

WY F Priority Tag

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Summary

So, what did I think? A pretty mixed bag, I'd say. Two flights with a beautiful hard product and mediocre service, two flights with an uncompetitive hard product but wonderful service. It's disappointing because WY have clearly invested a lot of time and effort in the new F hard product and with better service/some small tweaks to the soft product I could see it being spectacular. Inconsistency was a bit of a problem throughout, WY just isn't as slick as some of their competitors in F. The real highlights were the lounge in MCT and some of the service. Overall, I'd happily fly WY F again for the right price (i.e. when they are less than EK are charging) but probably wouldn't go out of my way just to connect through MCT in future. If you have the choice between BA F and WY F to MCT, that's an easy one, however.

Pittie Pup

CarlTheWebmaster

Professional Bum

It's Oman Air.

Made my day!

NoY

An outstanding trip report - many thanks for taking the time & effort to complete it ^
WY are, it seems, just like some of the other ME carriers, consistently inconsistent!

lost_in_translation

Thanks for the positive feedback guys!

757

Amazing report and photos. Oman Air has always looked really impressive, and this flight is no exception. Thank you for sharing!

verve

Many thanks for this great review of WY - looking forward to the rest!
...and yes after having just returned from another great stay at the Datai I would be keen to hear more about the RC.