Review: Oman Air Business Class Airbus A330 (MCT-FRA)

At least the food looks good.

Ben - Just curious, is it intentional to space out your review several weeks after the flight? I read your account of the poor service back in mid-January when you published it, and (this is a minor quibble but) it's a little hard to keep up with your your trips (when you went, where you went, why, etc.) when relevant trip posts are spaced so far apart.

One of my pet hates in reviews is the line 'xxx crew member just didn't seem to want to be there'. ALERT! Like MOST workers - the nurse that is working a night shift in a hospital or the hotel receptionist or whatever your job is - no, we do not particularly 'want' to be there and yes we would rather be at home.

Saying that, the pro FA's fake it til they make it. I can work a 14 hour night flight and be smiley and pretend I am not exhausted and laugh whilst a passenger recounts some lame tale and show interest in some other passengers conversations about their travels telling me all the things they saw and did in europe.

@ LP -- Thanks for the feedback, I understand your confusion. Just to clarify, typically my intent is to provide some initial impressions of a flight experience "live" (or shortly after I take the flight), and then upon my return I publish a much more thorough review of the entire experience. That's because some people just like to read short summaries of what happened, while others prefer a detailed review.

So I'm open to changing that, but generally you can expect lots of live updates, and then several weeks later, a much more thorough review. I understand that can be confusing at times, given how many review trips I've taken lately.

@ Duck Ling -- Fair point!

I partially agree with @LP. If the first impressions and the full review are spaced too many weeks apart, it's easy to even forget about the whole trip altogether. In my case, I thought the whole Oman Air saga was wrapped up long ago until I saw today's full review of the final leg. What's interesting about this trip in particular is that @Ben's first impressions were probably slightly too comprehensive this time (esp. given the downgrade, the service issue, the purser drama). Maybe that's what made me move on too quickly. But in the end, loyal readers will end up reading every single thing (as I and @LP just did).

@Ben this is why I think you should get rid of your stars ratings. I used to think your stars were what you thought of the airline or hotel, but now based on this it seems like it's just a rating of the individual experience (unless you've updated Oman to 2.5 stars, which I doubt?). Just a bit confusing, is all, especially when Oman has 5 stars on another blog (I get why) and a terrible rating on this one (I also get why), and I'd think a lot of people come via Google and see that rating and think that's what you rate the airline rather than the specific experience. Maybe I'm overthinking this...

Of course most people will prefer "not working" to "working"; but many of us have sought out jobs that we nevertheless find fulfilling, interesting, and enjoyable. This personality fit is particularly important for roles that include a customer-facing component. So, it is in fact quite problematic if a crew member doesn't want to be there. Maybe this isn't the job for them.

I think you are overthinking this. The rating is subjective and captures a moment in time, and it's always been that way.

Yup, I agree. I think in the past Ben has intentionally chosen not to review certain parts of a trip (already has a similar and recent review). In that case, I'm waiting for something that didn't appear. Whereas in this case, there seemed to be an abnormal pause in the review trip, especially considering that the trip was taken in quick succession, and the other parts came out in a reasonable flow.

It has always been a rating of the individual experience. It even says Review Rating, not Oman Air Rating.

I guess what I'm trying to say then is what's the point of the stars? You can have a terrible experience on a terrific airline, and even a great experience on a poorly rated airline. A one-off experience with a rating has no relevance and doesn't really accomplish anything. I am definitely overthinking this though. I just stick to the terrific reviews.

The menu card only lists one meal. Since it states "dine at anytime" I am wondering of one could have simply another meal service, with some variation of the dishes listed, closer to the arrival time.

Since Ben had a great flight with Oman just before, his expectation were high. I think the aircraft, selection of meals and possibly WiFi were out of the crews control. However, I agree that the crew did not seem to be very proactive. I have seen this on other airlines and it just depends on the crew - some see an empty glass and refill or remove it, others just ignore it.

Thanks for the info! I enjoy both the initial impressions and the full review and recognize there is an audience for both (sometimes I'll read both in full, sometimes just skim, etc depending on my interest in the product or trip). Ideally, keeping all the coverage of a trip, from intro to first impressions to full reviews, within ~2 week would help alleviate the "Wait, where is Ben, I though he was on the other side of the world, is he still there for a month?" confusion. And especially not publishing content from a different trip between the beginning/end of content from the first trip. But I recognize it takes time to put everything together and you don't work 24/7. Thanks for all the great content!

What I was more getting at Nomad is that being human, if we work say 150 flights a year the 'wanting to be there' aspect will vary from flight to flight.

And on those flights where you really WOULD rather be someone else, be professional and fake it lol.

As an IFM I always tell my crew - come to the galley, have a moan, vent, roll your eyes about the d*ck in 3A. And then, take a deep breath, smile, float back into that cabin 🙂

"On a good day, Oman Air is exceptional. On a bad day, Oman Air is quite disappointing."

Just curious, but what is the good to bad ratio you have experienced hiding this airline? It seems before this flight your opinion of the airline was more positive...

Flying, not hiding lol

Not really sure what you are complaining about apart from the crew not being particularly friendly.Perhaps they had reasons for that being as you mention they are withdrawing their A330,s from service and perhaps they have not been offered alternative positions on the rest of the fleet which would seem a reasonable explanation.Comparing an A330 to a 787 is a completely different subject trying to compare business class service levels.

Cripes how more times are we going to read "...my downgraded trip..."?

I flew for Pan Am in the early-mid 80's, almost exclusively to Latin America...think lots of over night trips and I could not agree with you more...but we too took pride in providing (especially in First & Clipper ) the service that we would like to receive if WE were the pax. Excellent comments Duck Ling

Life is so short. I never understood why people choose a line of work they dislike or don't have the aptitute for. Please leave the industry. You will be happier, passengers will be happier, coworkers will be happier; the world will thank you.

So true! And particularly applicable in this case with US carriers in particular. While I have had some genuinely excellent F/A’s on US carriers, I have noticed a severe drop in the service provided in the past 6 years or so. You are being paid to WORK, not throw food/beverage at your customers then retreat to the galley to have a bitch sessioon about how much your job sucks. For heavens sake, if it’s that bad, GET OUT

As you have said..never beat a dead or dying horse..it is just sad. Same fate like GF from good to bad. Now flying with B737 to MUC KUL etc. That is the beginning of the end.

It is so easy to say 'if you don't like your job leave and get another one'. I will go back to my original point - I think those that enjoy the work they do are not in the majority, in any industry. Sure, there will be good aspects of the job but also negative ones and they will have those 'I would rather not be here' days just like an office clerk, bus driver or whatever.

I think what also needs to be considered is the cultural aspect here. I am not just talking about the western vs asian/middle eastern etc societal cultural differences but also company culture.

I have noted particularly with US carriers the mantra is 'I AM HERE FOR YOUR SAFETY!!' which while technically is true, 90% of a cabin crew's role is service.

Saying that, when FA's are good on US carriers they are GOOD. I have probably encountered my best business class flight attendants ever on the likes of AA and BA and also the very worst.

I will put it bluntly - many asian/middle eastern airlines will retire you when you hit 50, will ground you if you put on a few pounds and most certainly discipline you if you receive negative feedback. The laws of many countries also make it much easier to get rid of a 'bad egg' than others. I know in most european countries it is virtually impossible to fire someone on a permanent contract.

In Lucky's Oman encounter I would say his FA had very much realised that she had been clocked and was like a duck back stroking in the water desperately trying to convince Lucky that she really wasn't as bad as he thought she was.

Because when you think about it, lets say a crew member in almost any other region of the world loses their job. All they lose is their JOB. They apply for others. In the middle east with nearly all the crew being ex-pat labour they lose their job. They lose their employee provided flat. They lose the right to live in the country they are living in.

So the food was excellent and the seat one of the best and comfortable. Looked perfectly ok to me and Oman Air is usually a lot cheaper for business class flights. I think the author was predisposed to not liking the flight rather than weighing up everything.

Seems like the service I got on my flight from mxp - muscat sector. Worst business class service I could have dreamt of. My attendant completely forgot about me. Took my order and didn't get my meal for 2 hours while everyone else in the cabin was served. On remind in between the meal service, she said she is getting my meal but it never came. 3 hours after take off when the entire cabin was sleeping I reminded her again, and she got my meal and served with nothing else. Just the meal. No drink was asked, no sides, nothing just the meal. Then no desert was offered. It was the worst service I have ever seen. Not even seen something like this on an LCC. Worst 60k odd miles spend of my life

We flew from Munich to Maskat December 6 in business class. Unfortunately we haven’t recognised that the aircraft was a Boeing max. The worth business class ever, less than premium economy, no flat seats. Very uncomfortable for 6,5 h night flight. The service was poor. Only one meal after take off. No morning coffee before landing.
We flew with Oman Air very often, it was always excellent. Munich - Muskat now extremely disappointing. We never will book it again.

At least Cockpit Casual got to do an interview in what looks to be the Oman Air A330 First Class Couch you didn’t get to fy, in their 3rd episode of their new podcast, Lucky