MUSCAT: Canadian expat Jordan Ross’s moving post written on popular Facebook community page What’s Happening Oman? (WHO) is now the talk of the town.

Ross whose husband was laid-off in April was trying to return home with their dog for the past three months but due to the restrictions in place for vets in repatriation flights, their efforts went in vain. “He’s not only my assistance dog but is also diabetic. He can only fly in the cabin which is not allowed on the repatriation flights,” Ross wrote on WHO.

“So we’ve been searching for another way home. I was losing hope. We were running out of money waiting for the airport to open. Then I found another American family who were in the same position. They had an assistance dog who couldn’t ride in the hold. So we put our heads together and thought it can’t hurt to approach SalamAir to organize a charter to Doha that would allow our dogs in cabin. From Doha we can transit to our home countries,” Ross explained.

SalamAir to the rescue
To their surprise, SalamAir agreed for the repatriation. “But we’d have to sell enough seats to make it feasible. Fair enough so we got to work. We had a strict deadline so for the next few days we worked to gather anyone interested in this charter. We had confirmation from 70 people. We submitted and it was accepted! A date and time was set,” she wrote.

“But when time came to book seats, many couldn’t commit due to the departure time, connection problems, costs, etc. We were devastated! We worked so hard to make this flight happen with our dogs on board,” she wrote.

However, to their surprise, a SalamAir employee named Majd came to their rescue. “Majd told us we were 20 tickets short of covering costs for this flight. We had one hour to sell 20 more seats,” she said.

Some desperate passengers offered to buy the extra seats. “My husband and I offered to buy 5 more seats! It would’ve emptied all our bank accounts but that’s how badly we needed this flight to happen. Majd recognized our commitment to this flight. So he said okay, hang on let me see what I can do.

“Majd got us an extension from Qatar and told us he would work to sell the remaining seats and give us the option to buy what we were still short. Then for the next 2 days Majd worked day and night to sell more seats on this flight. I cannot stress enough how hard Majd worked for us,” she said.

We will cherish the Omani kindness forever
“We all started to empty our bank accounts getting ready to pay SalamAir the rest of our savings. It was 2 days of the most stress and anxiety you’ve ever seen! Then in the final hour, Majd tells us he’s sold the remaining required seats. Told us to keep our money and that he’d see us all at check in on Thursday,” she said.

“I just started crying and crying. I know other passengers did too. How do we say thank you? SalamAir and Majd saved my family. They went above and beyond for us and other families who had no other way of getting home.

“I want to acknowledge their kindness and let everyone know how hard this airline worked to help people. I will be forever grateful to SalamAir and Majd. This is the Omani kindness I will cherish forever. They cared about us.” Ross wrote.

“Thank you Majd and SalamAir from this Canadian family. We are going home,” she added.