Just back from Prague and with new reviews to write :)
Just back from Prague and with new reviews to write :)
Member since:09.03.2007
Reviews:36
Members who trust:18
I recently flew from London Heathrow to Kathmandu (via Bahrain) and back again (via Muscat) using Gulf Air. The flights were booked by the holiday company I was travelling through and were probably the cheapest flights to the region. Cheap doesn’t necessarily mean poor quality though and Gulf Air impressed in some areas and failed to impress in others.
The flights ========
The first leg (Heathrow – Bahrain, departed on time) was in an Airbus A332. The plane seemed quite new and the Gulf Air livery (a lot of gold in it) and general decoration inside was very nice. The seat layout was 2-4-2 meaning that you were never more than 1 seat away from an aisle. Even in economy class each seat had its own seat back TV and plenty of legroom. You also got a welcome pack, which contained an eye cover for sleeping and various other things. The TV channel choice was not great, but Casino Royale was showing on the video channel, so I whiled away a couple of hours watching that after we took off. There was also an in-flight camera, which was quite impressive – especially when coming
in to land at Bahrain.
The stewardesses on this flight were neither particularly helpful nor attentive – the food and drinks were just sort of chucked at you, but to be fair when it came to drinks services there were plenty! The food was probably the low point of the flight – pretty much inedible “Middle Eastern” type food – I love trying new things, but this was just foul and I am sure not indicative of this type of cuisine.
The second leg from Bahrain to Kathmandu was on a much older Boeing 767 (once again in a 2-4-2 configuration and once again departing on time). This sector was on the (even cheaper) Gulf Traveller, which is a budget airline in the Middle East. Gone were the seatback TVs – replaced by one large screen at the front of the plane, which showed Bolllywood films for the entire 4hr flight. Bizarrely enough the food on this flight was much better than the first leg – chicken with veg and a chapatti.
The return flight involved a stopover in Muscat (Oman) that was going to be 7 hours. As it happened severe weather in Kathmandu delayed the planes inbound arrival by several hours (a lot of flights got cancelled, but ours was not one of them) and we were 4 hrs late in taking off. The take off was possible the scariest moment I have ever experienced – we had to wait for a “break” in the storm (for the purposes of this a break was where the lighting flashed less than once every two seconds and the rain was slightly less than a monsoonal torrent). Once this happened then we went quickly to the end of the runway and took off into the throat of the storm. I have to commend the pilot though because the initial ascent through the clouds was smoother than some flights I have undertaken in clear weather. Once we had broken through the clouds then it was amazing to see the lightning raging below you. Food was ok on this flight and the staff were very pleasant as well.
Final leg was on an Airbus A332 again (left on time). This plane seemed to be much older and was the noisiest plane I have ever been on. For the duration of the flight there were some extremely disconcerting noises including an hour or so when it sounded like something somewhere was burning! Luckily enough it wasn’t though! I can’t comment on the staff or food as I slept for a lot of the flight. Seatback entertainment was available again, but the choice was poor this time and I did not watch any of it.
The staff ======= A real mix of characters here – some were pleasant and treated you as a valued customer and some simply couldn’t be bothered. Gulf Air really needs to sort out their recruitment policy. The majority of the pilots seemed to be from the Gulf States (as you would expect), so little in-flight information was given apart from one American pilot on one of the sectors.
The food and drink ============== Again, this was a combination of good and bad experiences. Airline food is in my experience is generally a bit iffy, but some of the food served on these flights was worse than I have ever experienced on a plane before.
Drinks service was a highlight of the flights. I was worried that with it being a Gulf based airline that alcohol would not be served, but I need not have worried and portions were very generous.
The aircraft ========= By far the best one was the first flight, but all of the aircraft were ok – clean and tidy inside and the seatback TVs in the A332 were good. All of the planes seemed to have a lot of toilets, but on each flight there was at least one toilet that was out of order.
Other things ========= Gulf Airs website is excellent. They seem, now to be offering e-tickets only instead of standard printed tickets and you can view all of the details about your flight using the site, down to the aircraft you will be using! There is also an excellent section that shows you an interior layout of each of the planes in their fleet with specifications about what facilities you get offered. The website also allows the usual things such as checking for flights, making bookings etc.
Conversely the customer service telephone line is hopeless. It is obviously based somewhere like Bahrain and it is very difficult to make yourself understood. Avoid if at all possible.
The schedules for Gulf Air seem to need a bit of work. For instance on the outward journey we had 45 minutes between landing at Bahrain and taking off again, which meant we had to get through transit and all of our luggage had to be transferred in that time frame. They seem to have this down to a fine art though and we made it with time to spare. If, not for the delay in Kathmandu then we would have had an enjoyable 7 hrs wait in Muscat as well.
The business and first class areas for Gulf look absolutely fantastic and I have heard good reports about them, so if you have cash to spare then it could be worth a look.
Gulf Air also offers a frequent flyers scheme which seems to be quite good, but as I doubt I will ever be flying with them again it seemed pretty pointless for me to join it.
In conclusion Gulf Air aren’t bad, but nor are they great. The prices certainly seem to be cheaper than their sector competitors (Qatar and Emirates), but the service does suffer somewhat. If you need to get somewhere served by them then there is no reason I can think of to not use them, but I wouldn’t rush to use them again. If they can sort out their staffing problems then they could be an excellent airline – even if means charging a bit more.
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A very interesting review. I made the same journey with Gulf about 8 years ago. Then the food was quite reasonable but the transfer in Bharain was awful. We transited there on the way back too and it was a tad better. I do also remember the crew were less than responsive to the various grievences passengers had. It is useful to know some low cost associate operate the onward connections to Kathmandu. I think taking off from there is scary in normal circumstances so I can feel for you in adverse weather. Thanks for bringing back these memories, I will not rush to use Gulf again unless I can get work to pay for a business ticket - they apparently won rewards for their food in there!
eve6kicksass 06.06.2007 21:39
Think I will skip this airline (my favorite is Qantas anyway), but an awesome review there! Chris x
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Jun 6th, 2007
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