Oman Air Business Studio on the 787-9 – Bangkok to Muscat in what used to be First Class

Let’s start with the thing nobody’s headline explains properly: the product you’re watching in this vlog is Oman Air’s former First Class cabin, sold from September 2024 onward under the name Business Studio. Same seats. Same physical hardware. Same Amouage amenity kit. Same sliding door that closes and gives you a private cabin. They just retired the First Class brand, dropped the price point, and started selling it as a premium business tier. So if you’re watching this thinking “that looks way too good for business class” — you’re not wrong, and that’s the whole story in one sentence.

This is Oman Air WY816, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Muscat on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, 4,595km, 6 hours 10 minutes, booked for 100,000 miles or approximately $2,100 in cash. The 787-9 only flies this route and the Muscat-London route in this configuration — two aircraft in the Oman Air fleet carry the Business Studio product. Here’s everything from check-in to landing.

What is Business Studio – and why does the name change matter?

Oman Air operated a genuine First Class product on two specific Boeing 787-9s for years — eight seats in a 1-2-1 configuration with a closing door, spans three windows per suite, its own dedicated cabin, caviar service, pajamas, the full luxury airline flagship treatment. It was one of the hidden gems of premium aviation and it got glowing reviews from virtually everyone who flew it. The problem: nobody was buying it. The route network (essentially Bangkok and London) meant it was competing directly against Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad, and Oman Air’s relative obscurity meant the first class cabin was frequently flying near-empty.

In September 2024, Oman Air’s CEO announced that the airline was retiring the First Class designation and relaunching the same physical product as Business Studio — a premium tier within business class rather than a separate cabin. The logic: “business class plus” is easier to sell than “first class on an airline you’ve maybe heard of.” The practical result for passengers: you get a product that by any objective measure would qualify as first class on most airlines, at a business class price point.

One nuance worth knowing: there are actually two different products flying under the Oman Air 787-9 business class umbrella. Six of the nine 787s in the fleet have standard 2-2-2 Apex Suite business class seats — very good, but conventional. The two aircraft with Business Studio have the enclosed suite configuration. When booking, confirm which aircraft variant is operating your specific flight. The Bangkok and London routes are the primary Business Studio routes.

Check-in at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

The vlog opens with the First Class check-in — still labelled “First Class” at the counter despite the product being marketed as Business Studio now, which tells you something about how recent this rebrand is. The check-in experience at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi is smooth; First Class / Business Studio passengers have a dedicated counter separate from the regular business class queue. The process is what you’d expect from a premium cabin check-in — quick, attentive, baggage handled without drama.

Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) itself: one of the better major international airports in Asia for general experience, though not in the same tier as Singapore Changi for amenities or design. The Oman Air business class lounge access at Bangkok is through a partner lounge — Oman Air doesn’t operate its own lounge at BKK — and the vlog covers it from the 03:31 mark.

The lounge at Suvarnabhumi

The business class lounge at Bangkok for Oman Air passengers is worth managing expectations on relative to what’s waiting onboard. Partner lounges at third-party airports are often the weakest link in any premium airline experience, and this is no exception — a reasonable pre-departure space, food and drinks, seating, but nothing that competes with dedicated first or business class lounges at home bases. The vlog spends about two minutes here from the 03:31 timestamp before boarding, which is the right editorial proportion — it’s fine, it serves its purpose, it’s not the story.

Context for Muscat arrivals: the Muscat International Airport (MCT) situation is considerably better. Oman Air’s home base lounge in Muscat is a world-class facility and connecting passengers on long layovers in Muscat have access to something genuinely impressive. For the Bangkok-Muscat direction you’re front-loading the airport experience at BKK and landing at a better product at the end.

Boarding and the seat

The boarding sequence from the 05:35 mark shows the physical Business Studio suite for the first time and this is where the “former first class” reality becomes immediately apparent. The suite has:

• 🚪 1.4-metre high walls with velvety soft lining on the interior surfaces — not just a shell divider but a properly enclosed vertical space that creates genuine visual and acoustic separation from the aisle
• 🚪 Sliding lattice door — the door that makes or breaks the privacy argument. It closes completely, it’s not just a partial privacy panel. When closed you’re in a private cabin at the front of a commercial aircraft
• 🪑 Seat to flat bed: the seat is enormous, converts to a fully flat 80-inch bed. At 5’10” you can’t touch the end of it. The mattress topper is thick and consistently praised across reviews as better than most competitors
• 🪟 Three window spans per suite — the suite is wide enough that you have three Dreamliner windows in your personal space rather than the typical two
• 🍾 In-seat minibar — stocked and kept topped up throughout the flight
• 📺 24-inch entertainment screen with a dedicated remote controller plus a touchscreen for seat and suite settings
• 💡 Dedicated air nozzle built into the wall — a touch that sounds minor and matters enormously on a long flight where cabin temperature control is otherwise the luck of where the overhead vents point
• 🧳 Storage — a concealed coat rack, multiple compartments, a deep cubby behind the seat for amenity kit and laptop storage, two USB ports and a power socket in the side compartment

The seat configuration is six Business Studio suites in two rows — four in the forward mini-cabin and two in a rear mini-row. The rear two-seat row is particularly coveted by solo travellers for its near-private feel. The middle pair suites have dividers between them but no external closing door on the aisle side — the privacy is comparable but the enclosed single-occupant feel is stronger in the window positions.

The Amouage amenity kit

The vlog spends meaningful time on the amenity kit from the 09:12 mark and it deserves the attention. Amouage is an Omani luxury perfume house and one of the more expensive fragrance brands globally — bottles retail for £200-400+ — and the Oman Air partnership makes the amenity kit one of the most upscale in commercial aviation. The Business Studio kit includes:

• Amouage hand and body lotion
• Amouage moisturiser
• Amouage perfume / fragrance
• Lip balm
• Dental kit (toothbrush and toothpaste)
• Shaving kit
• Mouthwash
• Eye shades
• Earplugs
• Socks (gold DVT socks that get specifically mentioned in reviews as a nice detail)
• Comb

Male and female editions are available. The female kit has the Amouage perfume and skincare; the male kit has the shaving gel and corresponding products. The kit comes in a quality branded pouch that’s noticeably better-made than most airline amenity bags. As a benchmark for airline amenity kits, this sits near the top of what any carrier offers in business class — comparable to Bulgari on Emirates or the Temperley London kit on British Airways First.

Pyjamas are offered separately on request, in multiple sizes, with matching slippers in a carry bag. The pyjama quality is consistently described as Qatar Airways-tier — which is a meaningful reference point given that Qatar’s are among the best in the sky.

The meal service

The food section of the vlog runs from the menu reveal at 13:29 through the meal service at 17:31. A few important notes on Oman Air’s approach:

The service is à la carte and on-demand in Business Studio — you tell the crew when you want to eat rather than the crew showing up with trays on a schedule. On a 6 hour 10 minute flight this is a meaningful advantage: you control whether you eat immediately after takeoff, sleep first and eat later, or skip a course entirely. The crew takes your preferences and executes accordingly.

The menu on the Bangkok-Muscat route reflects both the Thai departure point and Omani cuisine elements — regional touches at both ends rather than the generic “international” approach most airlines default to. Oman Air’s food quality across its premium cabins gets consistently positive reviews, with particular attention to the attention to detail in presentation and the quality of the ingredients relative to what the airline’s size would suggest.

What was listed on Oman Air’s Business Studio website as a “caviar service as an integral part of the experience” came up as not offered on the Bangkok-Muscat route in at least one documented review from around this period, so don’t build an entire flight decision around the caviar promise. The rest of the menu is genuinely good without needing that specific element to justify itself.

Wine and champagne service is included throughout. The drinks list is solid without being exceptional — Oman is a conservative Muslim country and the alcohol policy on Oman Air is nuanced, but Business Studio does serve alcohol on international routes.

Turndown service and the flat bed

The turndown service at 21:34 in the vlog is the visual confirmation that you’re in something that was First Class six months earlier. The crew sets up the mattress topper (thick, properly cushioned, meaningfully better than most airlines), turns down the duvet, arranges the pillow, and leaves you in an enclosed private suite to sleep. On a 6 hour 10 minute overnight-adjacent flight — WY816 departs Bangkok in the evening — the sleep opportunity covers a significant portion of the journey.

The 80-inch flat bed is fully horizontal with no angle. This matters: a lot of “flat bed” business class seats are technically flat but angled slightly because of cabin constraints or seat design compromises. The Oman Air 787-9 Business Studio bed is genuinely flat, the mattress topper is genuinely thick, and the enclosed door genuinely blocks aisle light and noise. Sleep quality reviews for this product are uniformly positive across documented flights.

One honest weakness that comes up in detailed reviews: the seat controls are positioned in a way that makes accidental activation during sleep fairly easy if you roll onto them. It’s not a dealbreaker but it’s worth knowing — tuck the controller away before you sleep if you’re a mover.

Entertainment system

The 24-inch screen is one of the larger personal IFE displays in business class globally — covered in the vlog from 16:54. The system is responsive and the content library is decent without being exceptional. If you’re flying out of Bangkok expecting a Netflix-style deep catalogue, temper expectations slightly; if you’re flying expecting a functional, large-screen system with enough content for a 6-hour flight, it delivers. Wi-Fi is available and paid for separately.

The lavatory at 22:55 in the vlog is a Dreamliner-standard business class lavatory — with bidet. This is relatively rare on non-Japanese airlines and it’s one of the recurring “wait, what?” moments for passengers encountering it for the first time. There are three lavatories for the business class cabin which gives a 10:1 passenger-to-toilet ratio — significantly better than most competitors (Emirates A380 business class runs much worse).

Landing and Muscat Airport

The landing at 24:53 and the Muscat Airport experience from 26:59 close the vlog. Muscat International Airport (new terminal, opened 2018) is a genuinely impressive facility — one of the better regional airports in the Middle East for design and passenger experience. The transit or arrival experience at MCT as a business class passenger is meaningfully better than most airport arrivals in the region. Oman Air’s home lounge in Muscat is world-class and available to connecting passengers with sufficient layover time.

The points and miles angle – now much more accessible

The vlog’s fare is 100,000 miles for a one-way Business Studio ticket. As of this writing, that’s changed significantly for the better due to one major development: Oman Air joined the Oneworld alliance in June 2025.

What that means in practice:

• 🎫 British Airways Avios — Bangkok to Muscat in business class starts from 26,000 Avios one-way as a Oneworld partner. That’s one of the better Asia-to-Middle East redemption values in the Avios program. Business Studio seats are bookable through this route
• 🎫 American Airlines AAdvantage — Oman Air business class now bookable for 70,000 AAdvantage miles one-way to Muscat. Cash fares on comparable routes run $4,000+, making the effective value around 5.7 cents per mile
• 🎫 Qantas Frequent Flyer — the Bangkok-Muscat route is redeemable with Qantas Points; Business Studio specifically was one of the first Oneworld partner products Qantas opened up
• 🎫 Etihad Guest miles — 34,000 Etihad Guest miles one-way for Muscat to Bangkok in business class, well below the Oneworld standard rate. Etihad Guest miles transfer from Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt, Capital One, Citi ThankYou, and Marriott Bonvoy
• 🎫 Alaska Mileage Plan — Oman Air now bookable through Alaska, which has been historically strong for partner business class redemption values
• 🎫 Oman Air Sindbad — the airline’s own loyalty program, now mapped to Oneworld Sapphire at Gold tier. Sindbad Gold gives Oneworld Sapphire benefits including global business class lounge access across the alliance

The Oneworld membership changes the Oman Air calculation entirely for points collectors. Before June 2025, reaching Oman Air Business Studio required either direct booking, Etihad Guest, or Sindbad miles. Post-Oneworld, the product is accessible via virtually every major transferable points currency. Given how competitive the Business Studio product is, and given that most casual travellers haven’t heard of Oman Air relative to Emirates or Qatar, redemption availability tends to be better than on the headline carriers.

The cash price benchmark from Executive Traveller’s 2025 data: Bangkok-Muscat Business Studio was AUD$2,169 one-way (approximately USD $1,400-1,500 depending on rate). That’s significantly cheaper than equivalent business class products on Emirates or Qatar for the same geography.

Is it worth it?

For a 6 hour 10 minute flight, Oman Air Business Studio is an exceptional product value. You’re getting a closing-door private suite, an Amouage amenity kit that outclasses what most business class cabins offer, a properly flat 80-inch bed with a mattress topper, on-demand dining, pyjamas, and a 10:1 toilet ratio on a quiet Dreamliner. The service is attentive rather than intrusive, which reflects Oman’s broader hospitality culture — present, warm, not performatively hovering.

The genuine caveats: the lounge at Bangkok is not the highlight. The entertainment library is functional rather than exceptional. The accidental seat control activation during sleep is a minor annoyance. The headphone quality in earlier reviews was described as underwhelming for the product tier. None of these are deal-breakers. They’re the honest texture of a product that’s very strong on the hardware and service side and slightly less polished on a few peripheral details.

The bigger picture: Oman Air is an underrated airline running a product that used to be marketed as First Class, now accessible via Oneworld partnerships at business class prices or reasonable redemption rates. The Bangkok-Muscat route serves as the gateway to Oman (genuinely worth visiting) or as a connection point to Europe via Muscat. As a standalone flight experience for the price, it’s one of the better business class products in Asia-Middle East aviation right now.

Frequently asked questions

📹 Video by Momo Travel