My entire family were given seats all over the aircraft. I told the ticketing agent that my five year old will not sit with strangers…trust me. He gave us a sympathetic smile and assured us the flight attendants would be able to rectify the problem. The flight was completely full and we boarded first (one advantage of having small children). The flight attendant was helpful and told us to sit together in one row and that she would sort things out. Things only got worse.
If you’ve ever flown the MCT to SLL flight you’re aware that Dhofari women don’t like to be seated by men. So we play Musical Chairs until everyone is happily or not so happily seated. This one guy got moved three times and finally blew when he yelled at the flight attendant “I’m not moving one more f-ing time!” He took his things out of the overhead bin yet again… and red-faced moved to a seat with two other men. He shot us a not so pleasant look since we were the culprit of his first time move. Women huddled together peering through their burqas letting the flight attendants know they were not about to sit next to any strange men. I watched the flight attendants’ patience wear thin, even getting a little feisty with their co-flight attendants when their seating arrangements didn’t pan out. Sam kindly switched seats with the last woman standing and he sat between two rather large men, I couldn’t help but chuckle seeing him squeeze between them. On a more serious note, they really need to get it together.
1. No matter how you splice it, Dhofari women are not comfortable with sitting next to strange men and will continue to request being seated with each other.
2. Most expats don’t care where they are seated (next to men, women, or both) but feel being moved around three times is a huge inconvenience and annoying.
3.Oman Air experiences this person-shuffling every single (MCT-SLL) flight, so why not try to resolve the issue for their own sanity as well as for the passengers.
So I decided to write a little suggestion letter. Why not have the plane split in three??. Men’s section, women’s section and family section? The airline already knows the gender of the passenger prior to boarding so just put the passenger in the appropriate section. If you are part of a family, don’t put little kids in a seat all alone, far away from their parents. Easy no? Maybe easier said than done, but I think on this particular flight Oman Air should pay special attention to needs of the passengers considering this has become a big problem for all those involved on the flight.
Salalah ramble:
Although nearly two weeks in, I just noticed that summer has crept in on us. I accidentally leaned on the glass door this morning and nearly burned my forearm and part of my bum. Its blazin’!
The reconstruction of Al-Istikrars parking lot is taking too long. Cars are parked all over the place and it’s a hassle to shop. What are they doing anyway? Putting new pavement?
I really enjoy discussing the topic of Globalization/Americanization of the world, its both scary and intriguing.
Lastly, I need more motivation to drag myself to the gym. Last weeks motivation was to check out the rumored prostitute who works out five days a week. I want to muster enough courage to flat out ask her if she is one. I’ll just play the dumb expat asking an innocent question and who has no idea what ayb (shame) means.
Happy first day of the week!
