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Spiderguy252 · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 1:16 pm Post subject: A hyped up WY on MCT-BOM

Introduction:

Over the last year or so, I've heard a lot about Oman Air's rebranding. Expect More say the ads. The new Oman Air now had access to Europe and South East Asia on their spanking new, state of the art Airbus A330-200 and A330-300 aircraft. But amidst all of this, how was theirservice on their existing network? It's common fact that WY's 737s were the spine of their operations to the Middle East and South Asia. Was that the new Oman Air as well? That's what I decided to find out when I took the short hop across the Arabian sea from Muscat to Mumbai.

BOM is never easy for any airline, even a Gulf carrier. The competitiion is intense and if you don't have at least a daily operation, chances are you'll sink amidst the rest of the options the traveller has on the sector. MCT-BOM is served by Jet Airways, Air India, Indian and Air India Express besides Oman Air. Not to mention the various one stops via Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi which are not far from MCT.

I booked my ticket through WY's website, which was fairly efficient and easy to use, pretty much like 9W's website. WY operates 2 daily flights to BOM, but the morning one was unavailable, so I had to opt for the red eye flight.

Oman Air
MCT-BOM
WY 201
Departure: 1:25 AM
Arrival: 5:30 AM
Economy
Boeing 737-700
Price: 59 OMR

The Horrors of Check In

I arrived in MCT at 10:25 PM, 3 hours before departure. I figured getting over with check in in quarter of an hour max, and exploring MCT's duty free, which I had not visited since 2006. I just had my backpack and my laptop so I figured I could use the self check in kiosks WY had introduced recently. Once I entered the terminal, MCT felt pretty much the same. Unlike other airports in the region, MCT hasn't changed much since the turn of the century and is simpply no comparison to nearby DXB, DOH or even AUH. A parking space, for example will take you no less than 20 minutes to capture, and it's worse during peak hours of the day (or night) when it's like rush hour at Gulf airports. Whereas in DXB, there are literally thousands of free spots available at anytime of the day.

So WY doesn't have it's own terminal. But it does have it's own check in zone- a tiny glass hall/room where you have 7 or 8 counters saying "All Destinations". While this may have been ample when they were operating 3 ATRs and 2 737s a few years ago, it unfortunately won't do for today's capacity. The queue extended well outside the zone, and I was apprehensive about entering the zone itself- it was crazily packed! The kiosks were located inside the zone, however so I had no choice.

What's more, the zone was segregated into two. There were WY flights departing to DEL, MAA, BLR, TRV, COK, DXB, BKK and MUC. The A330 flights to MUC and BKK were alotted another side of the zone (though that said "All Destinations" as well. This portion of the zone was strikingly more bright, airy and you also had porters to carry your luggage from the start of the queue to the desk....for free!!! Evil or Very Mad

I also noticed the purple carpet on the floor for those two flights only.

The rest of us, unfortunately were jostling to get to one of the 3 remaining check-in counters (another one was for business class). You would expect the agents behind these desks to be harried but no, they were just joking around. Every 10 minutes or so, one of them would go take a break leaving 2 agents free who instead of trying to speed things up were just........joking around! One of the male agents was apparently a new recruit, since he couldn't figure out how to print the baggage tag or something of the sort so one of the other agents kept coming over to help him out and show him how it's done. To say that the queue moved at a snail's pace would be an understatement. Add to this the amount of luggage labourers to MAA, Kerala, etc. carry. One guy was carrying a 29" LCD, another a grinder/cooker! When the agents pointed out that the size of the cartons was bigger than what was allowed, the pax just smiled sheepishly. Few knew any English. Some pax were forced to leave stuff behind and once they were done, came back and jumped to the front of the queue directly. How Gulf airports manage stuff like this nightly beats me.

As for me personally, I didn't have anything to check in, so I headed off to those kiosks in the corner, near the desk for the BKK and MUC flights. However, a securityperson came forward and this is how the conversation went:

Him: Good Evening Sir, where are you flying tonight?
Me: Good Evening. I'm flying to Mumbai.
Him: The queue for the Mumbai flight is over there, sir.
Me: But I don't have any check-in luggage. I would like to use this kiosk.
Him: I'm sorry sir, but this is reserved only for European and Bangkok flights for today.
Confused

I had little choice but to head back to the queue. And my expectations of getting the thing over in 15 minutes took a blow. maybe I'd take an hour and 15 minutes now.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Gulf airports, there is always an element of racism involved when dealing with the ground staff. If a person is seen talking loudly to his mate, security will just yell at him and force him to the back of the queue, outside. If an Arab pax turned up, flying to DXB for example, he would be welcomed with open arms and a "Salaam Waleikum" and escorted to the front of the queue. No questions asked. Neutral

meanwhile, on the other side of the zone, the queue moved serenely and the pax possibly watched in amazement at the scene unfolding on our side.

An hour in the queue and it hadn't moved much. The check-in staff suddenly realize that the flights would be closing in a while and at this rate, many pax would miss them. The J agent was the most efficient of the bunch and she began calling out to all DEL bound pax to join her queue. The trainee agent did the same for MAA, albeit at a slower pace. 20 minutes later, I was at the queue's summit. It almost felt like an achievement. I hurried forward to the trainee's counter and shoved my ticket in his face. He nervously keyed in the passenger and reference number and said

Him: Sir, put bags on belt please.
Me: I don't have any, I'm not checking any luggage in.
Him: Oh?

He then got up and talked to the female agent on the left. She rebuked him and he returned and went back to his computer. The female agent looked at me and said

She: You should have used those check in machines. it would have saved you time.
Me: But I thought they were reserved only for a few flights.
She: Is that so?
Rolling Eyes

I shook my head and turned back to the traniee and gave my request

Me: Can you save a seat in the emergency exit row please?
Him: how do you do that? I do not know how to exit the random seat assignment program on the system.

Evil or Very Mad

Me: (sighs) All right. I'll take a "random" seat.

I picked up 2 cabin baggage tags and 5 minutes later, I was done. I had a little more than an hour to kill before boarding. On a sidenote, I find it strange though that while staff are generally rude towards South Asian pax, they do tend to be a little sympathetic towards the middle class variant. Just a passing thought.

Immigration & Security

After I left the WY check in zone, I went ahead to immigration before which there is another baggage screening, the first one being at the entry to the terminal. Immigration in contrast to check in went fast enough and I was done in less than 10 minutes. Just after immigration I looked up at the departure board. besides the WY flighs I mentioned, there was also a BA flight to LHR via AUH, an IX to Kozhikode, which was apparently delayed by many hours, a UL to CMB and also an EK to DXB. MCT's tiny apron was surely bursting at the seams that night. After clearing security which was filled with transiters, I clicked some pics of the duty free and had some fast food to eat from a restaurant. I then headed downstairs to the Gate, where my flight would be boarding. MCT has no jetways, not one so it's all buses. But why would an aviation geek complain? Laughing

In the boarding Gate, I witnessed another case of discrimintaion, if you would want to call it that. A WY flight from London had come in a few hours before and a few British pax joined the queue for the BOM flight. the hall was fairly large for a 737's load. Anyway, there were only arouund 50-60 of us.

We all got seated in the seating are of the hall, watching buses move past the glass wall facing the airside. 20 minutes later, WY staff and security arrived at the entrance to the hall. Apparently, pax were only allowed to enter the hall after having their boarding cards verified. Since this was not done, the guard yelled at us to get outside.

OUTSIDE! OUTSIDE! With Boarding Card!

Strangely, as the British pax were getting up, the guard spotted them and checked their boarding card right there with a pleasant "Thank You, please be seated". They were flying Y I noticed! This behaviour disgusted another pax (an Indian) and he demanded the same treatment from the guard. The guard pretended not to hear and walked away, whistling. Shocked

A quarter of an hour later, boarding commenced. It was 1:15 AM and a delay was inevitable. One bus arrived outside and the 50 odd of us went in and it was slightly crowded. We drove past an EK 332, many WY 737s and also a strange sight- an Air Finland 757. Shocked

A charter maybe?

We reached our WY 737-700 parked next to a free spot. The blue paint looked fresh and the registration was A40-BS. I clicked a few shots of the jet from the outside. It was the oldest 737 in th eWY fleet, delivered to WY 8 years ago.

Airline: Oman Air
Aircraft: Boeing 737-700
Registration: A4O-BS
First flight date: 20/11/2002

Load in J: ?
Load in Y: 50%

Scheduled Departure Time: 1:25 AM
Actual Departure Time: 3:00 AM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 5:30 AM
Actual Arrival Time: 7:05 AM

Flight Time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

As I was clicking a shot of the tail from the stairway, I heard a shout from below. Turning around, I saw an MCT security person signalling me to come down. I knew this was about the photo and I had faced enough situations like these to know that to escape, all I had to do is not click any more pictures, don't respond to him and just enter the door. Except that he came after me. I had no choice but to join him at the foot of the stairway. He demanded to show the picture I had taken. When I showed him the tail of A4O-BS (a very good shot, mind you) he reminded me that photography was strictly prohibited in MCT and he asked me to format, which I reluctantly had to do.

In-Flight

Thanks to the episode, I was the last one to board and by then there were no FAs at the door. I found my seat- 18A occupied by some Arab guy so I showed him my boarding card and asked him to vacate it. He just smiled and said nothing. Apparently, he didn't know any English. An FA came running towards me and said that he was her uncle and was flying to BOM and back today. She asked me to sit anywhere else, as we were having a light load.

I went for the next row- 19 and got 3 seats to myself. I busied myself with the inflight magazine, 'Wings of Oman" which was again all about the new Oman Air on offer to London, Germany and Thailand! There was not one mention of any other destination in the magazine and had it not been for the fleet page, you'd be fooled into thinking that WY had an all A330 fleet!

Our scheduled departure time- 1:25 AM had long gone, and at 2:20 AM we were still on the ground with no word at all from the flight deck. Right about then, the lights went off suddenly and the cabin was in complete darkness before something hummed and the lights came back on again. Is this something to do with the APU?

20 minutes later and still nothing. The LCD IFE screens were lowered and were showing the static airshow. The spot next to us was taken by a QR 320. Right about then, the captain came on line and said that they had been waiting for two pax from Salaleh but since they couldn't be found, their luggage was being offloaded and we would soon be on our way. All this while, the cabin crew were mysteriously not there at all, and we weren't even served a glass of water to drink. The cabin looked old too, and the seat covers, though new were already slightly ripped. It wasn't the new Oman Air, I can tell you that much.

Finally the purser came on line and announced all the flight details. She also referred to the aircraft as a Boeing 737-800 Laughing

The safety video played after she was done. The captain came on line once more and said that cabin lights would be switched off for take-off, have a pleasant flight, blah blah blah.

3 taxiways later, we took off after a WY 333 and we were up gracefully, thanks to the super light load. It was 3 AM in the morning. MCT disappeared below us and we were over the Arabian Sea in a few minutes. The cabin lights and OFE came back on again and the 4 Jordanian/Lebanese FAs for the Y cabin came right away with the food cart. I had placed a request for an "Indian Non-vegetarian Meal" just to test their catering and when the FA came to my row, she didn't have a list of meal requests or anything so I reminded her:

Me: "I requested an Indian non-veg meal"
She: i am very sorry sir, but we don't have that request. Would you like to have lamb or chicken?
Me: "I'll take the chicken please" Crying or Very sad

.
.
.
She: "I'm sorry Sir, but we're out of that as well. Here's the lamb"

Confused

Well what can I say? Pathetic! WY has miles to go before it matches the wuality catering offered by QR or EK, that's for sure. At least when it comes to meal requests. How can a BOM flight not have an Indian meal?
These little details go a long way in retaining pax and building brand loyalty. With 55 pax on board, they haven't got the hang of it yet.

The lamb biryani was however surprisingly edible but the rest of the items on the tray- the salad and the pastry was disgusting. After eating the biriyani, I put the tray away. Who has dinner at 4 AM anyway? Actually, who eats anything at that hour, let alone stale pastries and wilted fruits.

After my tray was cleared I stretched out to the other three seats, mainly because mine wouldn't recline all the way. I couldn't catch any sleep though, because the aircraft was a tad bit noisy and the lights were switched on to full brightness. The J cabin towards the front, on the other hand was in serene darkness. I was regretting not booking J. Crying or Very sad

The FAs had disappeared after the meal service and were probably chatting away in the galley They were oblivious to passenger calls, myself included (for a blanket). As I walked to the back of the plane to get the blanket myself, I saw the FAs giggling away with their male colleagues. One seeing me one said

She: "Sir, the toilets here are blocked. Please use the one up front in the business cabin".
Me: "Thanks, but I'm looking for a blanket".
She: "Oh" she giggled, we don't have blankets today I'm sorry"

I just shook my head in disbelief at this joke of a Full service airline and went back to my seat. I whiled away the rest of the flight listening to the audio selection which was pretty decent. WY headsets were okay too, at least on par with the rest of the competition in Y. A pax on the opposite side of the row had opened up a copy of "The Khaleej Times" (a UAE newspaper) and was reading it. A few minutes later, a male cabin crew informed him that it was forbidden to read any other newspaper than what was offered on board. Rolling Eyes

This is ridiculous! How can WY get away with such a crappy rule?

Soon after the incident which woke many pax around us including the FA's uncle, we began preparations for landing. The IFE switched back to the airshow before folding up right before touchdown and we came onto BOM's famous cross runways for a smooth approach.

We parked next to an AI 77W and an ET 767.

Deboarding was quick, owing to the light load and save for one FA who said "Goodbye", the others were just sleepy and downtrodden.

Immigration at BOM was painless and the staff at the airport seemed like angels in comparison to the ones at MCT. The guy who stamped my passport smiled and said "Good Morning"!

I didn't need to go to baggage claim so I just took a cab from the Arrivals area, which was very much improved compared to the last time I was in BOM, a year back.

I've taken WY a few times before this, the old WY that is and they, while not being an EK or SQ, got me from A to B with decent service. The so called "new Oman Air" catering to only it's A330 destinations has only made them worse, overall. I can't comment on the FRA or LHR runs, but judging by reports on A.net, they seem to be good, unlike their 737 flights. For WY's sake, I hope this is a one off. That said, I wish 9W just kick them out of a few cities soon.

Scores:

Punctuality: 4/10
Seat: 4/10
Catering: 5/10
Aircraft Condition: 5/10
Entertainment: 6/10

Total: 24/50 = 48% = Two stars out of Five.

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Yeah.

yash777 · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 1:54 pm Post subject:

Can you change the green fonts please? Smile

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AI151 · Member Joined: 28 Dec 2009 Posts: 19 Location: London, UK

Hey dude that sucks that you had a bad experience. Although I must admit that the check-in agents have been funny with me, but as soon as I show them my British passport or they hear my English accent, all of a sudden they change the tone of their voice! Double standards I think!

Oman Air have normally been good when I've flown with them from LHR to MCT. Lots of people have good reviews about them. Its a shame you didn't like the service that much.

Maybe if you travel on the A332 or A333, you might change your mind.

Sandeep
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himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

I had a good experience on Oman Air on DEL-MCT-CAI back in 2008. The food was great on all the 4 sectors. The only problem was that my wife who is a vegetarian had to make do with salad and croissants on the MCT-CAI-MCT sector.
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Nimish · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:23 pm Post subject:

Thanks for posting - this is definitely an eye-opener. Contrasting this to the glowing reports on A.net - seems like we're talking about entirely different airlines. Maybe Peter Hill has yet to train WY on treating all pax with equal amounts of dignity - something which I've seen on EK at least.
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rutvij · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:11 pm Post subject:

Can a one off TR be SOO BAD ? Shocked

And OUT OUT ? Shocked

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:07 pm Post subject:

Thanks all for your comments.

Yash, green works well with the subsilver theme, which I am using. If I use any other colour, it may not work on some others. Which board style are you using?

Thanks Sandeep. Yes, judging by planehunter's TR on A.net, the 330s are definitely a great product. My point however, is that their regional network has taken a blow possibly due to overemphasis on expansion by the management. QR went through a similar phase at one point of time.

Himmat, that is a common problem on inter-Gulf/ Middle East flights. They don't stock many veg meals on board. On a DXB-KWI EK flight in October 2007, an Indian pax next to me didn't get his requested veg meal. There was nothing cabin crew could do about it but after creating quite a scene, he was finally offered a veg meal originally meant for cabin crew.

Nimish, it's just like AI. Look at the difference in the on board products between the 777 and the 310. Something similar happening here.

Rutvij, I can see you've never faced ground staff at Gulf airports. Laughing

It happens all over.
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Yeah.

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Nice report and very well written. Sorry to note that you could not take any pictures as it would have made it very interesting to read.

But was shocked to read Oman Air giving such a bad service the attitude of the crew seemed to be very louzy.

Regarding discrimination so long as we are brown skin and carry a developing country passport there is nothing we can do about it. I am also often stopped by customs/immigration when I travel overseas for routine questioning. Earlier it used to irritate me a lot but now I have taken in my stride.

d3vski · Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:08 am Post subject:

Racism in the middle east: got be the biggest understatement of the century.

While i acknowledge that middle east carriers have some of the finest onboard products, i personally refuse to pay them a penny and avoid them because you can never be too sure how they will treat you because of brown skin. The flight from Europe to the middle east will have subtle racism but the middle east to India will be a full blown in your face. Even the likes of Emirates are capable of treating South Asians with disdain.

I have no interest or need to travel to the middle east so i am more than happy that Indian carriers (Jet, KF and even AI) have a very good onboard products and a connecting network to the major centres in South Asia and the orient meaning i can avoid the middle east carriers.

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Nice TR .... sorry about the flight Confused

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turbo jet · Member Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 101 Location: voml

i definetely agree that flights from the indian subcontinent to the gulf region is pathetic & attitudes of the staff of the gulf based airliners are nothing short of being racists & that can be also said to airliners in india , they treat passengers flying on these flights as labourers, while its not the case for passengers flying to the us or europe , its sad that there are no real alternative than flying the cattle class on these airlines.