[Minh-Ha]

OMAN AIR DELETED THIS POST BEFORE ON FACEBOOK!

If you want to fly with ANIMALS, avoid OMAN AIR by all means!

“At Oman Air we are committed to exceed the expectations of our valued customers and stakeholders by building a "First Choice" airline. Our aim is to provide a safe, reliable and seamless flying experience, enhanced by warm and friendly customer services” is what Oman Air claims; the experience we had is rather different.

Last week we relocated with 2 cats from Saigon, Vietnam to Casablanca, Morocco.
We flew from Saigon to Bangkok with Vietnam Airlines with no issues.
The rest of the journey (from Bangkok to Casablanca, via Muscat) was another story…
Dealing with Oman Air in Thailand was a daunting experience, as our cats and ourselves were held in Bangkok for over 60 hours with no help or support.

We booked our flight tickets 6 months ago (precisely on December 12, 2018) after thoroughly checking Oman Air’s website regarding regulations for pet transportation. Since some of our questions were not answered through their website and FAQ, we contacted Oman Air on December 21, 2018. The only response we got came in the form of a simple link to their website and another email address being given to us, to which we also sent our queries. We decided to let a few weeks go, expecting our last email to be answered in the near future (and aware of the end of year delays), but no answer came.
At the end of January, we called the Muscat head office which referred us to their Bangkok branch.
A few, useless emails were exchanged but our initial questions remained unanswered. March 19, 2019 marks the last answer from Oman Air regarding the reservation of space for our cats: we were given a phone number (for the call center in Muscat) and two email addresses (supposedly to contact the office in Bangkok). After reaching the call center, we were told to deal directly with the office in Bangkok and given another phone number. We tried reaching the latter phone number dozens of times, at different times of the day over several different days with no luck. NO ONE ever answered our calls.
In parallel to the phone calls, we also tried contacting the Bangkok office through the two email addresses previously mentioned. We sent several emails including the most important one 72h before our departure with all the required documentation for the cats’ approval of transportation. Once again, we have NEVER received ANY ANSWER from anyone at Oman Air, either in Bangkok or Muscat, regarding that matter.
Desperate to have an answer and to ensure that all would be in order on both sides, we contacted Oman Air in Muscat through their Whatsapp helpline: the person we talked to on said helpline assured us that as long as we had all the papers in order, everything could be handled directly at Oman Air counter in Bangkok airport.
Upon arriving in Bangkok airport, and despite having voluntarily chosen flights giving us over 10h of transit to deal with any complications that would arise, we were unable to meet or contact anyone from Oman Air until 3h before our departure time.
When the transfer counter finally opened (almost an hour later than it should have), the employee we had to deal with plain refused to help us, instead simply telling us that her supervisor was coming “in 10 minutes”. An hour later, and with the help of another Oman Air employee passing by, we managed to reach said supervisor (Mr. Suphot Chamnankijvanich), over the phone. It then took another 30 minutes for him to reach the airport. Upon his arrival, Mr. Chamnankijvanich did not try to hear us out, instead being very defensive and disrespectful, and shifting the blame from Vietnam Airlines to employees of Ho Chi Minh City’s airport, us, and finally Oman Air employees in Casablanca and Moroccan customs... At no point did he acknowledge that Oman Air office in Bangkok had not answered any email or call regarding our pets’ transportation for two months prior to departure date, even when shown proof of it.
From here onwards we were let on our own, with zero support whatsoever from Oman Air, our animals left alone in transit and without anyone updating us on their wellbeing. Once the flight we were supposed to take had taken off, Mr. Chamnankijvanich simply left, promising he would come back. Of course, he never did.
With no information on when or if we would be able to continue our journey to Casablanca, we were forced to exit the airport, finding ourselves in the middle of the night with our entire life in a few suitcases, traumatized cats (that had to go through more obstacles as exiting the airport meant that they needed to be imported in, and exported from Thailand) and having to find a pet-friendly hotel nearby the airport since we were told to come back at 5am the next day to re-book our flights. Of course, we came back the next day and were told that actually we could not re-book anything until we were given approval by moroccan customs (more on that later…) and that we came back to the airport that early for no reason.
Finally, after proactively calling Oman Air several times we were told on Friday evening that we would be able to fly on Saturday night and “only” had to pay 300 euros to change the flight tickets’ dates.

Finally, upon arriving in Morocco, no questions were asked about the pets, no papers were checked unlike what Oman Air was claiming. We even contacted a lawyer in Casablanca who assured us that no import paper or any specific document (except the health certificate with the usual vaccinations, which we had) was required from Morocco to import cats (and pets in general). Therefore, it was a poor attempt from Oman Air at shifting the blame once more, rather than admitting their SEVERAL mistakes.

The whole experience, apart from the financial implications (it seems important to precise that we had to front several hundred euros in the span of 48h, only to be able to get our cats back, find somewhere to sleep for a couple nights and exit Thailand. All of this with NO SUPPORT from anyone at Oman Air), was physically and emotionally straining and I would strongly recommend anyone intending to fly with pets to STAY AWAY from Oman Air.

To whom it may concern at Oman Air,
We demand that this does not stay unanswered and that Oman Air takes actions accordingly.