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

To kick off the return portion of my downgraded adventure to Oman, I flew Oman Air’s Airbus A330-200 business class on the 7hr30min flight from Muscat to Frankfurt.

This is where the trip really takes a turn for the worse. For one, my flight had an aircraft swap, so I was downgraded from first class to business class. That was frustrating, since that was one of my primary motives for taking the flight, but oh well, stuff happens.

On the plus side, I was still flying Oman Air’s excellent business class, right? While my Oman Air Boeing 787-9 business class flight to Muscat was exceptional, unfortunately this flight was a completely different story. Oman Air’s A330s are tired, the Wi-Fi was broken, and the soft product was also much worse, with lacking amenities and bad service.

On a good day, Oman Air has one of the world’s best business class products. On a bad day, the airline leaves a lot to be desired. Let’s get into the review…

How I booked my Oman Air business class ticket

I booked my Oman Air business class ticket using Air Canada Aeroplan points. Specifically, I booked the following award in business class for 45,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points plus $62.57 in taxes and fees:

1/13 WY115 Muscat to Frankfurt departing 2:20PM arriving 6:50PM

I suppose to be more accurate, I should say that I booked that flight in first class for 65,000 points, but I was downgraded due to the aircraft swap, so got 20,000 points refunded.

Aeroplan points are easy to come by, as the program is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards. On top of that, there’s the Chase Air Canada Aeroplan® Credit Card (review) in the United States, which is quite rewarding.

Oman Air business class lounge & boarding

In previous installments, I reviewed the Oman Air First Lounge and Oman Air Business Lounge Muscat, which are solid hub lounges. Muscat Airport is a fantastic hub, but then again, so are most hubs in the region nowadays — Abu Dhabi Airport, Bahrain Airport, and Doha Airport, are pretty awesome as well.

My flight was departing from gate A11, with boarding scheduled to start at 1:20PM. In reality, that’s just the time when the gate opened. Gates are one level below the concourse, and your boarding pass is scanned as you enter the gate area.

Actual boarding ended up starting at 1:45PM, with business class passengers being invited to board first.

Oman Air A330 business class cabin & seats

The version of Oman Air’s Airbus A330-200 that I was flying features a total of 30 business class seats, spread across five rows, in a 2-2-2 configuration. The forward cabin has three rows, while there’s also a rear cabin with two rows.

Oman Air has Apex Suites on these A330s, which I rank as one of the best business class seats in the world, and arguably the best business class seat that you’ll find on any A330. This is essentially the same product you’ll find on Oman Air’s 787s, except the seats are a bit narrower, and the cabin also feels a bit more tired.

I assigned myself seat 12K, the window seat on the right side in the third (last) row of the forward cabin.

The non-window seats in this configuration are decent, with one nice thing being that there’s no small footwell you have to squeeze your feet into.

However, it’s the window seats that are most exciting. They feature direct aisle access, as each window seat has a small walkway through which you enter the seat.

Then you have a seat that features an unparalleled level of privacy, plus a huge ottoman.

As far as seat features go, all the seat controls were on the armrest to the right of the seat, and they were easy to use.

Meanwhile on the left armrest was the entertainment controller, plus the buttons to control the privacy partition between seats (which can even be up during taxi, takeoff, and landing).

Underneath the entertainment controller was the USB-A and AC power outlet. The AC power outlet can be quite difficult to access, given how far down it is.

The tray table also folds out from the center armrest, and is quite large.

Then there’s a storage compartment underneath the seat and to the side, which can store a decent number of items.

The only other storage option is that you can place items underneath the ottoman — it would be quite easy to store a personal item under there during the flight, for easy access.

Unfortunately Oman Air A330s don’t have individual air nozzles, as the overhead console just has reading lights.

The hard product was definitely the highlight of this flight, as A330 business class hard products don’t get much better than this.

Oman Air business class amenities

There were some highs and lows when it came to the amenities on this flight. On the plus side, this flight had the full Oman Air bedding setup, including a pillow, blanket, and mattress pad. Oman Air’s bedding is excellent, and makes it super easy to get comfortable.

There were also a pair of headphones, which were light but reasonably comfortable.

Once settled in, the crew came through the cabin to offer pre-departure drinks, with the choice of a lemon mint juice or orange juice, plus a warm or cold towel. I had the lemon mint juice plus a warm towel.

Next up, Arabic coffee and dates were distributed.

Lastly, menus were passed out.

What I found strange is that there were no amenity kits or pajamas. On my overnight Oman Air flight (which was two hours shorter) I was offered both amenity kits and pajamas, while neither were offered on this flight.

It’s my understanding that Oman Air offers these on demand in business class on longer daytime flights, but the flight attendant taking care of me claimed that’s not the case (which I’d usually take at face value, but service on this flight wasn’t good, and the crew’s sole focus seemed to be to provide as little service as possible, which is why I’m skeptical).

I can totally appreciate not offering pajamas, but not even an amenity kit on a nearly eight hour daytime flight? That seems a bit cheap. So as you can see, the amenity situation on this flight was a mixed bag.

Oman Air A330 business class entertainment & Wi-Fi

I have mixed feelings about Oman Air’s A330 entertainment system. On the one hand, the selection is decent. On the other hand, the system is a pain to use. The entertainment monitor isn’t touchscreen, but rather you have to use the little controller to make all your selections.

Sadly there’s not even a way to use the controller to view the selection on the main screen, but rather you have to view all the entertainment options on the little controller, and it sure isn’t easy to use. I find this to be such an annoying setup, as this is so much worse than on the 787.

So for the most part I just used the entertainment system to watch the map feature, which I always enjoy.

Here’s my other point of frustration. Oman Air’s A330s have Wi-Fi. I’ve used it many times before on previous Oman Air A330 flights. However, it wasn’t working on this flight.

When I approached the flight attendant about this (since often the crew can fix this issue by resetting the system), she claimed that A330s on Oman Air don’t have Wi-Fi. I asked her to double check, and she insisted that was correct. I don’t understand how a senior cabin crew member can be so unknowledgeable about basic features?

Oman Air A330 departure from Muscat

The boarding process was efficient, and was complete by 2:10PM. Throughout the boarding process I enjoyed listening to Oman Air’s boarding music, among my favorite on any airline.

At 2:15PM, the main cabin door closed. Business class was just over half full, with 17 of the 30 seats taken. The seat next to me as well as the two seats across from me were empty, so that was pretty nice.

Once the door closed, the Omani cabin manager made his welcome aboard announcement. He shared all the languages spoken by the crew, including Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Malay, Swahili, and Tagalog. Interestingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), there was no German speaker.

At 2:20PM we began our pushback, right next to an Oman Air Boeing 787-9 bound for London Heathrow. At that point the safety video was screened.

We started our taxi at 2:25PM…

…and by 2:30M we were cleared for takeoff on runway 8L.

I’ve gotta say, this has to be one of the fastest departures I’ve ever had. From starting push back to taking off in about 10 minutes is lightning fast. The views on the climb out were great, and the seatbelt sign was turned off about five minutes after takeoff.

I loved the view of the coast on our departure, and in particular loved how around 35 minutes after departure, we had epic views of Dubai and the Palm Jumeirah.

Oman Air business class lunch service

Oman Air has a dine on demand concept in business class, but not in the traditional way. That’s to say that it’s not a menu with a bunch of options you can order any time, but rather you can order your typical meal at any point during the flight. You can find the menu and drink list for this flight below.

I’ll talk more about service in a bit, but first let’s focus on what was actually offered. I kicked off the meal with a glass of champagne, served with some room temperature mixed nuts. Oman Air pours Piper-Heidsieck Cuvee Brut in business class, which is quite good.

Next up, my table was set for the lunch service. I appreciate how Oman Air doesn’t have trays, but rather offers a restaurant-style experience.

As an appetizer, I ordered the Arabic mezze, comprised of hummus, tabbouleh, pickled vegetables, saffron labneh, crisp leaves, bell peppers, lamb kibbeh, cheese samboosa, and chicken fatayer. To drink, I switched from champagne to sauvignon blanc.

For the main course, I selected the Omani fish with grilled prawns, zaatar chicken kebab, spiced tomato sauce, herb crushed potatoes, roasted bell peppers, eggplant, and onion. The dish was delicious — Oman Air has great food, no doubt.

Lastly, to finish off the meal I had the tropical cheesecake with vanilla crumble and custard sauce.

This was an excellent meal, so I found the food to be good, as always on Oman Air.

Oman Air A330 business class lavatories

Oman Air has three business class lavatories on the A330 — there’s one at the very front of the cabin, and then two by the second set of doors. That’s a good ratio of lavatories to seats.

The lavatories were pretty standard, except they did have a bidet feature.

Furthermore, they also had some extra amenities, like a dental kit, plus some Amouage hand cream and fragrances.

The one thing I noticed is that the lavatories were in really bad shape. Not in terms of cleanliness (necessarily), but they were basically falling apart. These Oman Air A330s need some TLC, in my opinion.

Oman Air A330 business class bed

After the lunch service, I decided to get some rest. I made my own bed, and then got cozy. Thanks to the empty seats near me, I could also grab an extra pillow and blanket, to get extra comfortable.

I ended up going to sleep with just over 5hr30min remaining to Frankfurt…

…and woke up with just over 2hr30min remaining to Frankfurt. I was so happy to get some rest, as it had been a long couple of days.

When I woke up, the cabin was fully dark, and it stayed that way until our landing.

Oman Air business class pre-landing service

When I woke up, I ordered a cappuccino from the crew, which was served on a tray with a cookie.

Oddly, there was no pre-landing service whatsoever. This is a nearly eight hour daytime flight, so you’d think that something would also be served before landing. When I asked the crew about this, they told me that there’s a fruit plate available on demand, but that was also never offered, so…

Oman Air business class service

In a previous post, I wrote about the awful service in business class on this flight. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, so I’m not going to cover it in detail again. I’ll simply state that the difference in service between this flight and my last Oman Air flight was night and day. It was clear the flight attendant serving my aisle didn’t want to be there, and as a customer, you certainly feel that.

This came in terms of basic things, like not following the correct protocols, and it also came in terms of zero proactive service. Like, when you bring someone dessert and see that they have two empty glasses, wouldn’t you ask them if they’d like something else to drink? There was simply none of that on this flight.

I ended up sharing some feedback with the cabin manager about the bad service, and that got super awkward. I find Oman Air has rather inconsistent service, and this flight is the perfect example of that. The main reason I’m giving this flight such a low score is because of the service.

Oman Air A330 arrival in Frankfurt

Around 6:35PM, we began our approach for Frankfurt. As soon as we began our descent, the crew prepared the cabin for landing, as is standard on Oman Air.

We ended up having a powder smooth touchdown in Frankfurt at 7:10PM. From there we had quite a long taxi to our arrival gate, where we pulled in at 7:20PM.

From there I headed through immigration and to the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport, where I’d be spending the night.

Bottom line

While my Oman Air 787 business class flight to Muscat delighted me, my Oman Air A330 business class flight to Frankfurt was a huge disappointment. On the plus side, the seats were comfortable, the bedding was great, and the food was tasty.

However, the flight also had major issues. The biggest problem was the service, which just made me feel very unwelcome. Beyond that, the cabin felt quite worn, there were no amenity kits or a second snack on a nearly eight hour flight, the Wi-Fi was broken, and I found the entertainment difficult to use.

So yeah, it’s hard to know what to make of Oman Air. On a good day, Oman Air is exceptional. On a bad day, Oman Air is quite disappointing.

What’s your take on Oman Air A330 business class?