Alone in A First Class: Oman Air First Class Lounge Muscat

Oman Air First Class Lounge Muscat may be one of the best surreal lounge experiences I have had. Until recently, I had never even flown Oman Air, but I co-incidentally did happen to stumble into one of their outstation lounge in Bangkok airport a few years ago. This did somewhat give me a taster of Oman Air hospitality so I was super excited to be flying Oman Air First Class on their Flagship route to London.

On this occasion it was just a long weekend in Muscat (as I’d been to Oman a couple of time before). For my last night, I decided to spend it in Muscat airport as I knew Oman Air lounges had private sleeping rooms. What made this experience so unique is that I was the only First Class passengers using this lounge for the entire time!

Access & Location

I checked in on mobile just into the 24 hour window and had my boarding pass sorted. After a late night dinner, I did not arrive into the airport until 3am.

Muscat International is a beautiful and well laid out airport, large parts of which are new from 2018 renovations. It is quite easy to navigate.

I was able to go straight through security and immigration and then get the elevator up to the lounge.

Oman Air First Class Lounge Muscat

You enter into the lounge through what initially looks like a closed shop, albeit a golden gated one

As indicated, both First & Business lounges are housed in the same complex and share the same reception and entrance..

The reception itself has a beautiful backdrop illuminating Omani mountains..

On the left you have this rather outsized model of an Oman Air 787

As a First Class passenger you are escorted into the First Class section.  Since I entered the lounge in the depths of night, I am including a mix of night and daytime pictures here..

You walk through the first room which has little natural light. It is divided up nicely with seating for groups of up 6-10 chairs

                                         Oman Air First Class Lounge Design

Then you end up in the second room which is flooded with natural light out from the airport and what looks like a terrace area but there is no way to go out onto it..

All the furniture is thoughtfully placed so should there be multiple groups of people you are affectively zoned into different “living” spaces..

and the centepoint of the room is this beautiful curved bar

Oman Air First Class Lounge Catering

Unlike the business class lounges ( including the lounge right next door) everything in First Class is a la carte and on-demand.

In less then a minute of being escorted into the lounge and choosing a place to sit, I had not one but 3 other staff come out to introduce themselves..

What seemed the most surreal of my lounge experiences is that they were all literally falling over themselves to serve whatever it is I wanted. To their disappointment I was not hungry enough to order any food but I did settle for some Cristal Champagne which they served me with a tapestry of dates and nuts..

Oman Air First Class Lounge MCT Welcome Cristal Champagne Dates..

Oh and some hot towels were also offered before the champagne.

After I woke up, I was again escorted back into the main First Lounge area and offered some coffee to wake myself up before my morning shower..

After my shower, I was seated in the formal dining areas for breakfast..

And the table setting with fine china, silky tablecloth and fresh flowers really set the tone making me feel like I was in my own private restaurant..

It was a very hearty breakfast, with chicken sausages, very crispy has browns and omelette.

A few hours of rest and checking out the spa, I decided to order some lunch..

The a la carte menu was as follows:

As I wanted to leave good room for food on the flight, I opted just to order a main, the Kingprawn Macboos..

And boy were they some proper king prawns, probably the biggest prawns I’ve been served in a long while. The macboos was excellent if somewhat lacking in spice levels (nothing a bit of salt n pepper won’t fix though! )

Oman Air First Class Lounge Muscat Spa

As mentioned before, the complex has a Spa by Shangri-la upstairs which can be used by both First and Business class customers..

First Class guests get to choose 1 complimentary treatment from a range of choices of massage, manicure/pedicure etc etc

On top of that, you can customise your treatments to add additional items or time, should you wish that you can pay for on top..

I had a quick look at the hydro therapy bed, which looked cool but I passed on for a real back massage..

I decided to book a full 45 minute neck and back massage, which I really needed..

The massage was incredible and almost put me to sleep! It was really elevated by the addition of some tiger balm like product that they sold as an add on

Oman Air First Class Lounge Shower Rooms

The first class restroom is discretely tucked away between the two main rooms..

The entire space and shower rooms are beautifully decorated with golden accents from the lighting to the actual faucets

When you want to have a shower, they provide you with packed set of towels and full set of amenities including shower gel, shampoo, lotions, combs etc

The central area has a couple of wash basins with some full sized Amouage handwash, lotion and fragrance.

Oman Air First Class Lounge Whiskey Tasting

After my Spa time, I decided to enjoy some drinks in the bar, and at this point there were two ladies working the bar, and me still the sole guest in the entire First lounge!

What a joy.

I had some lovely conversations with both the staff and exchanged some interesting travel anecdote

I started with a taster of the Woodford Reserve..

Followed by the Hennessy X.O Cognac

Then I remembered that there was a specific Glenmorangie 25 whiskey which was mentioned by another review I read, so enquired about that..

Unfortunately, it turned out they were out of stock of that item.

I eventually switched back to champers..

The crew were also being very playful with me and suggested taking a picture of me in the bar..

Oman Air First Class Lounge Muscat Sleep Facility

Now onto what is perhaps an anomaly of the whole First/Business Class lounge setup by Oman Air..

There is 2 private rooms available for First guests if they want to nap/relax in privacy

I thought I took a picture of it inside but appears not. The problem is they contain what is more like lounge chasers, so there was no way to lay flat on it. It was a rather bizarre use of private rooms which can easily be fixed with a proper bed.

When stated my actual desire to sleep, they recommended there are many beds within the Business Class lounge which are also completely private rooms! So I agreed to move there to get a few hours of sleep..

On picture this does not look at all but it was roughly the size of a single bed and when made up looked very proper indeed..

The room even had a desk with some snacks and refreshments so you can work if you wanted.

Another element of this room is they had some kind of spa like aromatherapy infuser that made the room smell so relaxing

When I tucked into bed, it felt so cosy but unfortunately I may had drank a few too many Cristal Champers in the night so I woke up within 2 hours with a headache :/ Be mindful of that if you plan to get some sleep!

Overall Thoughts

Despite spending over 8 hours in the lounge that when I was ready to be be escorted to my gate, I could not believe I had been there that long.

What a pleasure it was to be in this lounge! It is a far cry from most overcrowded Business lounge experiences across the world and in some cases even First lounges. Since I had a peak through the Business lounge as well, which is bigger in size also felt very relaxing with only a handful of guests, and looked to be equally excellent.

I absolutely loved my time in the Oman Air First Class Lounge. It was serene, calm and had all the hallmarks of a First Class environment. And what I am sure of is even if there were a dozen people in the lounge, your experience is unlikely to be much different.

The staff, service, food and beverage were all brilliant.

One thing to note regarding the sleeping situation is, I’ve been informed if you actually were in a connecting itinerary and your stopover was more than 6 hours, Oman Air would actually offer you a complimentary hotel room right across the lounge complex inside the airport.