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Not quite a rant, but I need to share this experience!
I had just flown from IST to DOH on QR in J and, as usual, it was a great trip. QR really know how to do Business. I had about 2.5 hours transit before catching an Oman Air flight in J, which was going to get me into Muscat MCT at 00:20am.
I checked in on-line for the WY flight, so I didn't need to faff around at a transit desk (I am HLO this trip). Therefore I didn't actually speak to any check-in agent about lounges, and this was probably a mistake. From the WR web site, there is no mention of any lounge access at DOH, but there has to be, for J pax. If I had asked, I would probably have done better than I did. But as it was probably only an hour in the lounge after other stuff to do at DOH, I simply went the Priority Pass option - which got me into the Al Maha lounge. Its being renovated, so is tiny, crowded and the smoke smell has seeped out of the smoking cabin. I spent just enough time to put some charge on my laptop and phone and then went looking for a new Sony camera. They didn't have the one I wanted by the alternative was actually more expensive, D/F at DOH, then after-tax from the Aussie Sony web site!!
I wandered to the departure gate B5 40 min before boarding; some-one turned up at 30 mins prior, which I thought was cutting it a bit fine. No gate announcement, but the guy just said to the crowd (mostly sub-continentals going home via MCT) "Gate change to C27". Now this is "miles" away, so the entire flight got up and followed the guy for a 15 walk to the new gate.
I pointed out that the monitors were actually saying C22, bot C27, so we went to C22. The guy logged on, and immediately said, not loudly, to those near to him: "Fight delay for 2 1/2 hours" WTF? You brought us all this way, from one end of the airport to near the other, and NOW tell us there's a flight delay? :evil: :evil: :evil:
Not happy, Jan!!
Back to the coughpy lounge. Its still coughpy, and smells, so I go out and get a curry in the food court. Kill sometime, then head back to the lounge. This time, I am directed to the adjacent Oryx lounge, which was a quantum jump in quality; the guy mumbles 'flight delay'. There, I log onto FlightAware to find where the in-bound flight is. It can't find ANY WY inbound, or scheduled to be inbound to DOH that night. It also has no delay on my flight, and TripItPro also hasn't registered any delay, almost 2 hours now into the delay.
The monitors show "gate change" against my flight (but not "delay"), and a new departure time of 00:45
This is now getting concerning. So I phone Oman Air's customer service. After a very short hold, I make my enquiries about the status of my flight. Well, as far as he's concerned, my flight has flown!! And there are no flights going to Doha for 2 days !!!
.
HU and don't call again. Utterly useless.
Now, a bit worried, I go back to the gate, an hour before the re-scheduled departure (which was 00:45). A scene of utter chaos! There are about 6 WY gate agents there, trying to book as many of the sub continent folk (who numbered well over 100) onto other flights and carriers, as most of them were only connecting in MCT to go home. You can imagine the scene - or rather you probably can't; using radios, phones and shouting it seems. I stood back, bemused. One of the agents spotted the white guy and came over and said could he re-book me? I queried the flight status and it seems we are now due to leave 1:00am. He tried briefly, but no J available, and I wasn't too concerned.
The chaos continued until about 12:40, when about 6 westerners were told to come forward for boarding by agent A; told to wait by another B; beckoned forward by A; B then re-ropes off the way. It was that sort of night.
At no stage was any gate announcement made - you only found out what was happening by collaring some-one.
Onto the bus at 12:45, then wait on the bus as more transferring pax dribble on. Got on board the plane at 1am.
At 1:10am, Captain comes on the PA and apologises for the delay, "due to late arrival of in-bound flight". FFS!!!
1:15am, more pax board.
1:40am both the boarding stairs and the last bus to bring pax are still next to the plane. Oh-oh. Are we about to be taken off again?
Ground guy (no fluoro, just street wear) comes and goes with paperwork a few times.
Served dates and Arabic coffee, which was nice. Saving grace is a lady flight attendant, very personable and chatty. Tells me that the on-plane delay because they had to off-load baggage for the pax who got put onto other flights. But this begs the question as to why their bags were loaded in the first place, given we had an approx. 3 hr initial delay during which time they were being re-assigned flights!
2:15am, ground guy comes with a stream of paperwork, goes into coughpit, followed, incredibly, by 2 of the FAs. There seems to be a conference going on. They then clear out and I can see the pilot, gesticulating a bit and raising his voice. He's not happy, and that's a worry!!
2:19 the senior FA is outside with a flashlight, shining it onto the outside of the plane. What's that about? Shouldn't one of the flight crew be doing that?
2:21am, doors closed; airborne about 2:30am
Arrive MCT about 4:45am (lose an hour due to time zone). Its daylight; welcome to Muscat!!
The friendly flight attendant told me what had happened and its good news for people flying WY. The flight outbound from MCT to DOH had a light show red (or similar) after they had taxied out to take off. Inspection found an actual fault (which would have been an actual issue), so they had to source another plane. By that time the pilots were out of hours, so a new crew etc etc.
So I'm very pleased that the delay was about remediation of safety concerns and that the pilots abandoned the original departure.
What I'm still not very pleased about I the total lack of communication to the DOH pax by anyone from WR and that their customer service people were oblivious to a 3 hour delay in one of their flights.
I had just flown from IST to DOH on QR in J and, as usual, it was a great trip. QR really know how to do Business. I had about 2.5 hours transit before catching an Oman Air flight in J, which was going to get me into Muscat MCT at 00:20am.
I checked in on-line for the WY flight, so I didn't need to faff around at a transit desk (I am HLO this trip). Therefore I didn't actually speak to any check-in agent about lounges, and this was probably a mistake. From the WR web site, there is no mention of any lounge access at DOH, but there has to be, for J pax. If I had asked, I would probably have done better than I did. But as it was probably only an hour in the lounge after other stuff to do at DOH, I simply went the Priority Pass option - which got me into the Al Maha lounge. Its being renovated, so is tiny, crowded and the smoke smell has seeped out of the smoking cabin. I spent just enough time to put some charge on my laptop and phone and then went looking for a new Sony camera. They didn't have the one I wanted by the alternative was actually more expensive, D/F at DOH, then after-tax from the Aussie Sony web site!!
I wandered to the departure gate B5 40 min before boarding; some-one turned up at 30 mins prior, which I thought was cutting it a bit fine. No gate announcement, but the guy just said to the crowd (mostly sub-continentals going home via MCT) "Gate change to C27". Now this is "miles" away, so the entire flight got up and followed the guy for a 15 walk to the new gate.
I pointed out that the monitors were actually saying C22, bot C27, so we went to C22. The guy logged on, and immediately said, not loudly, to those near to him: "Fight delay for 2 1/2 hours" WTF? You brought us all this way, from one end of the airport to near the other, and NOW tell us there's a flight delay? :evil: :evil: :evil:
Not happy, Jan!!
Back to the coughpy lounge. Its still coughpy, and smells, so I go out and get a curry in the food court. Kill sometime, then head back to the lounge. This time, I am directed to the adjacent Oryx lounge, which was a quantum jump in quality; the guy mumbles 'flight delay'. There, I log onto FlightAware to find where the in-bound flight is. It can't find ANY WY inbound, or scheduled to be inbound to DOH that night. It also has no delay on my flight, and TripItPro also hasn't registered any delay, almost 2 hours now into the delay.
The monitors show "gate change" against my flight (but not "delay"), and a new departure time of 00:45
This is now getting concerning. So I phone Oman Air's customer service. After a very short hold, I make my enquiries about the status of my flight. Well, as far as he's concerned, my flight has flown!! And there are no flights going to Doha for 2 days !!!
.HU and don't call again. Utterly useless.
Now, a bit worried, I go back to the gate, an hour before the re-scheduled departure (which was 00:45). A scene of utter chaos! There are about 6 WY gate agents there, trying to book as many of the sub continent folk (who numbered well over 100) onto other flights and carriers, as most of them were only connecting in MCT to go home. You can imagine the scene - or rather you probably can't; using radios, phones and shouting it seems. I stood back, bemused. One of the agents spotted the white guy and came over and said could he re-book me? I queried the flight status and it seems we are now due to leave 1:00am. He tried briefly, but no J available, and I wasn't too concerned.
The chaos continued until about 12:40, when about 6 westerners were told to come forward for boarding by agent A; told to wait by another B; beckoned forward by A; B then re-ropes off the way. It was that sort of night.
At no stage was any gate announcement made - you only found out what was happening by collaring some-one.
Onto the bus at 12:45, then wait on the bus as more transferring pax dribble on. Got on board the plane at 1am.
At 1:10am, Captain comes on the PA and apologises for the delay, "due to late arrival of in-bound flight". FFS!!!
1:15am, more pax board.
1:40am both the boarding stairs and the last bus to bring pax are still next to the plane. Oh-oh. Are we about to be taken off again?
Ground guy (no fluoro, just street wear) comes and goes with paperwork a few times.
Served dates and Arabic coffee, which was nice. Saving grace is a lady flight attendant, very personable and chatty. Tells me that the on-plane delay because they had to off-load baggage for the pax who got put onto other flights. But this begs the question as to why their bags were loaded in the first place, given we had an approx. 3 hr initial delay during which time they were being re-assigned flights!
2:15am, ground guy comes with a stream of paperwork, goes into coughpit, followed, incredibly, by 2 of the FAs. There seems to be a conference going on. They then clear out and I can see the pilot, gesticulating a bit and raising his voice. He's not happy, and that's a worry!!
2:19 the senior FA is outside with a flashlight, shining it onto the outside of the plane. What's that about? Shouldn't one of the flight crew be doing that?
2:21am, doors closed; airborne about 2:30am
Arrive MCT about 4:45am (lose an hour due to time zone). Its daylight; welcome to Muscat!!
The friendly flight attendant told me what had happened and its good news for people flying WY. The flight outbound from MCT to DOH had a light show red (or similar) after they had taxied out to take off. Inspection found an actual fault (which would have been an actual issue), so they had to source another plane. By that time the pilots were out of hours, so a new crew etc etc.
So I'm very pleased that the delay was about remediation of safety concerns and that the pilots abandoned the original departure.
What I'm still not very pleased about I the total lack of communication to the DOH pax by anyone from WR and that their customer service people were oblivious to a 3 hour delay in one of their flights.
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No priority boarding!! Anyhow, I was looking forward to the WY A330, with its 1-2-1config in J. A beep when he scans my OLCI BP. Oh, no, new seat allocation - 'change of aircraft' :evil: . Oh well.
