This was a meal of such solid quantity, that I never anticipated agreeing to have such a volume of food placed on my tray table to begin with – but Oman Air's crew have clearly been trained in the art of meal-pushing negotiation skills, and overall, I'm glad they were because this was a really respectable meal.
Airline: Oman Air WY818
Route: Bangkok – Muscat (Approx. 6 hours)
Class: Business
Oman Air offer dine on demand, and my experience with this process – while an amazing concept – has so far been incredibly mixed; for the most part a couple of people order a meal, everyone else feels a little guilty not to order at the same time wanting to make the crew workload a little lighter, and ends up ordering as well – whether they actually wanted a meal at that time or not. On the opposite end of the spectrum was a flight I had with Emirates in First, where they really never came anywhere near anyone until the call bell had been deployed into action.
On this flight, which actually departed Bangkok quite early in the morning, this moment came relatively early on – when someone up front asked when they could order not long after take-off, and, with not a spoken word of agreement to establish this as our mealtime, the entire cabin – myself included, though I was a little hungry – duly set about ordering our meals.
To give Oman Air credit, this meal, especially coming on the back of the previous nights' Royal Jordanian let-down, was such an absolute delight. My initial plan was to go for the main course directly, but the crew seemed hell-bent on ensuring not a course was left unaccounted for and I was nearly blackmailed into going for the herb poached prawn to start with (which was absolutely delicious), along with a glass of wine – with the meal this time, and not presented afterwards like the previous nights' misadventures.
For the main course, I had a massaman – as I said in my Instagram post at the time; does anyone know what a massaman actually is, because I sure don't – beef curry. Suffice to say that if I was served that in an upscale eatery near my workplace, I'd have been suitably impressed. But being served it in a metal tin 30,000 feet in the air made it truly mesmerising. It tasted really fantastic.
Overall – while we can debate the merits of ‘dine on demand' – this was a really great meal; one that overall I wouldn't have any aversion to being served on the ground. By the time I arrived to Muscat, I wore all the hallmarks of a great business class experience; half-asleep, so full I could nearly have pardoned myself to vomit (if for no other reason than to make space for the next flights' offerings), and exuding a stale air of alcohol.
Leave a Reply