Following our arrival to Muscat Airport after our late, lengthy journey from Kuala Lumpur, it was time to figure out what next after an almost certain Oman Air misconnect.
I was curious to see how this would get handled in practice; as we all know from my previous Etihad misconnection experience, they had attempted to get away with rebooking us all on the same flight 24 hours later, which just like then, was not going to work for me in this case either.
Upon disembarking, we bolted for the connections area – which understandably was under siege. Our phones both didn’t have mobile data for Oman, so we were left with no option but to rush and try to see what kind of resolution we might get.
Considering the apparently significant disruption, I have to say that once again, Oman Air did a very poor job here – with long lines, an unbelievable amount of queue jumping and counter-hugging, and a premium counter completely swarmed with economy passengers shouting over each other.
Look, disruption is never fun or easy but at least have agents ready to help in the connections area before anyone needs to hit a counter (which would’ve actually solved our problem, given the airline had rebooked us in the background), at least stand up an appropriate amount of queue barriers, some degree of policing of the queues, and – given we ended up using a different airlines’ transit counter – allow boarding pass collection from any counter since that seemed to have been possible.
We eventually ended up at the Qatar Airways counter having given up on the Oman Air counter; where thankfully the agent was able to print out our new boarding passes which had been organised.
To give credit to Oman Air and their irregular operations handling, it was a sensible and efficient reroute that was organised completely in advance of our arrival; no arguing or conversations, just a short layover in Muscat before an early morning ping pong back to Dubai on WY603, and then onwards to Dublin with Emirates. Incidentally, my second business class flight to Dublin of 2025 with Emirates that was the result of another airlines’ reroute.
Similarly, transit security at Muscat Airport was a disaster zone; with long queues, an unpoliced premium passenger queue feeding back into another queue at the end on the right, and the security agents at our station seemingly unhappy with their respective positions; one wanted to be on x-ray it seemed, the other one didn’t want the metal detector and ultimately just walked off to look for someone else to do it.
Overall, the experience between the connections centre and transit security left me feeling that Oman Air and Muscat Airport both aren’t quite ready for transfer traffic primetime just yet – especially when a disruption takes hold. There felt like a real need for a proper disruption handling playbook yet to be created.
We had just enough time to pop into the lounge to clear up what time of day our onward flight to Dublin was supposed to be (hence the handwritten ‘pm’ on the boarding pass image), before proceeding to our gate.
Once again we were hosted on another Oman Air 737 with the same seats as we had endured overnight, and I have to say in the context of the roughly one hour flight from Muscat to Dubai Airport, these seats make so much more sense and are far more acceptable. The legroom isn’t bad at all, and they’re comfy enough to while away a few daytime hours – but sleeping on medium-range overnight hauls, they’re not for.
Before long, we were deplaning in Dubai’s Terminal 1, passing through a far more orderly, peaceful transfer security before catching a bus over to Emirates’ home in Terminal 3.
Considering I so rarely book with Emirates, but have ended up with them either because of work, or rebookings from other carriers’ during disruption, I have to say I remain a big fan of the concept of their business class lounge.
There are so few lounges as iconic and instantly recognizable, that offer proper privileges and amenities like direct boarding from the lounge, an entire terminal footprint worth of lounge space, alongside the very extensive food and beverage offerings, washroom/shower facilities, and everything else in there. Sure, it’s beginning to show its age, but it still remains something of a one of a kind.
Either way, after the drama overnight, our flight to Muscat that became Sharjah and then back to Muscat, trying to sleep in the recliner seat, the Muscat Airport connections chaos, and our flight to Dubai; I was more than ready, regardless of time, to pour a few glasses of Champagne while we waited the few hours to our flight home.
Thankfully, it was all very much ‘travel as you’d want it to be’ from there – and next time around, I’ll post my review of the recently renovated Emirates 777 business class to Dublin, which is such a huge improvement over the previous layout and seats.
