Oman Air Reviews | Opinions of Oman Air shared by travelers

Choosing to travel over the busy Easter period, I wasn't surprised to be paying £650.86 for a return economy class ticket to Bangkok with Oman Air. And a further £132.00 was spent on changing the flight date - bringing the departure date forward by 48 hours. Still, this relatively small carrier impressed me a lot, and I am convinced that I got great value for money.

Arriving at Heathrow at around 6.45pm for my 10.05pm flight, there was no need to wait in a long line. The check-in desks were free of passengers and I walked straight over to a desk, dropped my bags and received my boarding cards for both flights - Heathrow to Muscat, and Muscat to Bangkok - within about a minute. It was a really swift operation! And my 25kg suitcase was well within the airline's very generous 30kg baggage allowance.

Sitting in the packed departure lounge, I regularly checked the status of the inbound flight from Muscat, just to give me some idea of whether or not we would be on time. The flight from Muscat was running around 90 minutes late, which meant a little over an hour to turn the Airbus A330-300 aircraft around. I was expecting a short delay.

On reaching the gate, the cabin crew were sat and waiting to board the aircraft, further confirming that a delay was likely. They eventually boarded at around 9.45pm, with boarding of passengers starting around 15 minutes later.

For the first flight, I was sat in seat 31A. The seats are arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration in economy, and I soon joined by another passenger in the seat next to me. The aircraft was completely full this evening, and the crew worked hard to get everybody seated and baggage stowed as quickly as possible, trying to the get the flight on its way with minimal delay. As boarding continued, there were no shortage of announcements from the crew, and they were very apologetic for the delay. The captain also made an announcement, and assured us that despite our later departure, we would arrive on-time in Muscat - providing peace of mind for the many passengers travelling on from Muscat.

Once airborne, the service got under way, beginning first with the bar service. Like any good airline, all beverages are included in the cost of the ticket, and they were served with a generous sized portion of peanuts and raisins. At the same time, the entertainment system was switched on. The huge screen provided superb picture quality and no end of television programmes, movies, audio and games were available on-demand. It was great to also have the option to watch live television (including BBC World) during all phases of the flight.

Menu cards were handed out during the flight, letting passengers know what their three meal choices were (two meat dishes and one vegetarian). Being a full flight, the red curry option that I was after was popular, and soon ran out. I chose the vegetarian option (beetroot stuffed tortellini) and it was excellent, served with the usual bread roll, feta cheese salad, berry pudding and crackers with cheese.

With the cabin lights dimmed, allowing us all to get some sleep on the 7 hour flight, I reclined my seat and took advantage of the foot rest. With 34" of seat pitch in economy, I was very comfortable and had no trouble getting some sleep. In what seemed like an instant, the mood lighting lit up the cabin and breakfast was served. Still quite full from the earlier meal, I didn't need it, but had it anyway! The offering was as impressive as our dinner just a few hours before; a substantial serving of food, great flavour and great presentation.

Soon enough, our descent into Muscat was under way, and we all enjoyed the scenic approach with towns and villages spread amongst the desert and mountain terrain. Looking out of my window and seeing the pilot's view on the screen in front of me was quite special.
As promised by the captain, we arrived in Muscat right on time and began taxiing to our parking stand. Muscat doesn't have gates and jetties common with other airports, and the only way between the aircraft and the terminal is by bus, which means that disembarkation takes a little while longer than it might normally - especially when sat at the back of the aircraft!

I had 1 hour 45 minutes before my next flight departed to Bangkok, and that proved to be just the right amount of time. After finally getting into the terminal and clearing security, I found myself back in departures. My flight was already showing as 'go to gate', so that's what I did. After about 30 minutes of sitting around, we were again put onto buses and driven the short distance to our waiting aircraft. It was the very same Airbus A330-300 that had brought me from London. I took my seat - 38A this time.

The flight was again great, and despite being only 5 hours 30 minutes, we were again served two meals. The snack before landing was an Arabian chicken wrap, which was especially good! With the entertainment being on-demand, the same selection of audio and video programming was available.
Oman Air is a fantastic airline, and one that I will continue to use in the future. Their inflight service is top class, their crew are warm, welcoming and very professional, the catering is superb, and the airline offers those little extras that others don't - complimentary amenity kits on every flight, live television at no additional cost, and an inflight communication service, where passengers can use their mobile telephones and laptops to converse with people on the ground.

Having flown with a number of international airlines, including Emirates and Etihad Airways in the Middle East, there is no competition when you experience Oman Air.