Oman Air Swaps My Aircraft Swap: What An Adventure

oh man oh man i would stay tuned. this is exactly why i read this blog. it is like a reality TV drama except in print. and i can post comments for the entire audience.

when the supervisor said you were nice and she expected you to be angry - you know, Ben, you and me both, were raised to be nice. we were taught, rightly or wrongly, we are not allowed to be angry. i hate that. you know? sh!t happens and we have to suck it up -> it makes life unfair

people like us can potentially benefit from a more aggressive approach.

in this particular case, the supervisor seemed to be polite as well, so you can be polite.

but what if you were flying on notoriously impolite American Airlines? you and i would be beta males and just suck it up (this has **actually** happened to me when i was DG from paid first to ECONOMY).

what would make this blog REALLY worth reading is if you told them off as much as possible without getting yourself offloaded or banned, y'know?

I flew Oman air 330-300 2 weeks ago in F. I was hoping for an aircraft swap to the 787, but that didn’t happen. I will say that the first class treatment in the first class lounge was really first class! I had a 9 hr layover and ended up having breakfast, a nap in the private room and lunch before boarding. The inflight service was phenomenal. They had the best caviar presentation of all the first class flights I’ve ever flown. Food was also super tasty.

@ tony xu -- "what would make this blog REALLY worth reading is if you told them off as much as possible without getting yourself offloaded or banned, y'know?"

Wait until you hear what happened on my Muscat to Frankfurt flight...

I’ve enjoyed Oman as a quirky airline on some flights in the past two years, but I would never rely on them for cutting edge service. Especially given the options available. The First service is nice but nothing earth shattering. The lounge is, as you say, always empty and quiet. But there always seems to be something off, a bit of a twilight zone airline.

@ Antwerp -- "But there always seems to be something off, a bit of a twilight zone airline."

Even as someone who loves Oman Air, I think that's an incredibly accurate description of the airline, hah.

I second that!

I flew Oman Air a good 10 years ago from MCT to LHR on what was then the not so retro A330-300 Business Class. I spent quite some time trying to find what it was that was amiss. For me, it was the soft product and an international mix of cabin crew that just didn’t seem to work well together and not as polished. I’m sure the airline has come a long way since…

I was on Oman Air Biz class a week ago on their 737-800 for the first time, and I found them to be quite good. The Biz Class lounge in Muscat is really nice, especially the buffet lunch I really enjoyed. The flight to AMM was pleasant with a good size and tasty meal and a personal entertainment screen that has adequate amount of entertainment. It's definitely one of my better experiences.

With all the flying I have had, I have yet to be downgraded on any First, Business or even Premium Economy tickets (award or purchase) yet (knock on wood) [although I had some other interesting experiences]. So thanks for sharing the story! I wonder would Air Canada (I think that's where you got your award tix from, correct me if I'm wrong) refund part of the miles with the downgrade. Keep us posted on that!

Glad this worked out as well as it did, though not exactly as hoped and planned for.

After WY joins oneworld, I'll give it another go, provided the first class award space pops up (maybe KUL-MCT-LHR, to get in the A330 couch and the 789 suite).. I still gotta try your 12th best first class product.

Superb, you still enjoyed your trip with WY. I have been Gold with them for many years and they constantly disappoint. Aircraft changed and downgrading is normality with them.
The only point in flying them..when they finally be part of Oneworld..and be used as a cheaper and easy way to gain Oneworld Emerald. If they will open their First lounge to OW Emerald pax? This would be great and will be definitely packed full..for the first time since it was opened. First Class in WY is a waste of money, the hard product is like the standard ones in First Class nowadays. The F&B are almost identical to Bus. Class, only presented in a more nicer and better way. Sercive/Crew have the same attitude like in Bus. Cl., nothing special or memorable. Just comparing to EY or EK First or even SV First..WY First is mediocre but still better than KU First which is the worst Middle East First Class...but definitely better than TAAG First! Remember that Ben! And even flown again after so many years. LOL! Nothing has improved in any way. It is like flying LCC in a very old worn out F seat..like the oldest C seat in WY which you have shown. AirAsiaX with their Bus. Cl. F&B as well as service is way more better.

I remember an experience with Qatar Airways around 2006 or 2007 when they swapped our DOH-LHR flight from a 3-class A340-600 to a 2-class A330-300. They obviously had to do some involuntary downgrades, but the way they handled it was to come around the premium terminal with police/security and round up the downgraded passengers. The First Class passengers were moved from First to Business area, and us Business Class passengers downgraded to Economy were rounded up and herded onto buses back to the main terminal. They would not allow us to continue using the Business Class area at the Premium Terminal once we were involuntarily downgraded.

As an ex-trader I’m looking at the arbitrage possibilities :). Book from the eu and cash in the 75% of miles payback when they downgrade you to biz class. And if not downgraded then enjoy the F!

Brutal!

There's nothing wrong with being angry, IMHO, as long as:

a) the person who is dealing with me is rude, indifferent to the issue, or both;
b) the anger is directed at the people who caused the problem, i.e. not the rep who came into the WY lounge in the article.

I blasted a TK gate official who managed to fulfil both of these requirements before boarding an IST-LOS flight.

LOL, getting all those inflated egos back on to the ground.

Slightly off topic… is a Delta // Etihad partnership eminent? Oman and Qatar with Oneworld, United and Emirates….

Ben. You don't get 'compensation' under EU261 for a downgrade. Rather the airline must refund a fixed % of the price based on distance flown. So in this case, you'd probably have got a greater number of miles back, but no cash compensation. On a short flight, the mileage refund under the mileage scheme may be better than the EU261 refund.

Be aware that some airlines try to get clever with downgrades and inform you ahead of time, offering a choice of 'accept the change, get a refund, or rebook'. And of course, one you have made a choice, they say it was your decision. Unlike a cancellation of a flight (where the compensation is only available if insufficient notice is given), the downgrade provisions apply regardless of notice. I had a stand-off with BA on exactly this point where they kept insisting that I make a choice about the downgrade, and I refused until they would acknowledge the compensation. They in turn said compensation can only be addressed after you have flown... I won. Eventually. But you need to be tenacious and well informed.

I think you need to just camp out in Frankfurt, monitor when Oman Air sends a plane to continental Europe with first class and then buy a ticket on the flight to Muscat. You can guarantee there won't be an equipment swap if you board in Europe.

If you fly them ex-EU and get downgraded again, the EC261 compensation experience would be worth hearing about... I've always heard it to be painful since the operating carrier is the one who's responsible for paying it out, but you booked via another program. There doesn't seem to be an easy mechanism to get back 75% of the miles, and there isn't really a cash value to refund you 75% of.

The title of this post is “”Oman Air Swaps my aircraft swap”. Shouldn’t it just be “Oman Air Swaps my Aircraft”? Why the second “Swap”?

It refers to them swapping the already swapped aircraft, indicating this was the second aircraft change of his flight.

oh yeah, the WY aircraft swaps seem brutal. they have now swapped A330s for 737s on the MCT-KUL route.

Ouch!

Hope you pay for a product or service soon only to end up getting something crappy instead. That should keep your ego at bay, too.

You fly around the world for nothing in business or first class because you have accrued millions of air miles by flying for nothing and all you do is moan.I worked in travel for over 40 years and did plenty of long haul travel but never expected anything and the ocassional upgrade was considered a privilege.You need to get a life and look at the real world.Your reviews are generally biased and considering what the world has been through and is still going through and many airlines are lucky to survive you need to think about what you write and I expect your partner flies for free as well.Call your articles reviews.Its a joke.You can respond to me if you wish.

You mean the record bailouts from taxpayer money in bad times and record profits after which airlines have?
And then they get to shit on customers, avoid compensation for delays and poor mechanical maintenance? Some even avoid paying compensation for downgrades. 😉

You might want to shill for airlines somewhere else.

Get a life, Julian.

Funny comment regarding aircraft scheduling... I had a connecting flight from BKK to LHR rescheduled which negated my itinerary. Credit to Oman Air, I received a full refund.

I have a few issues with this compensation.
First, they provided you access to the first class lounge. That is not an upgrade or an extra benefit. If you arrived on the flight you should have arrived on then you would have had access presumably since you were transiting there.
Second, they only addressed the situation in the way they did as you mentioned because presumably they found out about your post. This implies that "normal" or ordinary passengers would not have been handled in such a way.
Third, they did not provide you with anything that made a difference. Offering the refund, that is out of their control and good luck claiming it. Perhaps appropriate representatives would say they should not have offered it or did not have that power and what if you booked it on points, for example. The refund difference in fare is just something basic because you had a lower service so you should pay less but what about the compensation for this?!?!?!

and on the MUNICH-MCT route which is a night flight!!! we are caught up in that and definitely not happy as we paid for the flight, it wasn't on miles. Not sure what to do about it