I have flown repeatedly with Gulf Air out to various places in Asia from India to South East Asia and the far east. These have always required a stop-off in the gulf area of the Middle East, almost always Bahrain which is the airlines hub. The airline has connections from London, Paris and Frankfurt out to Bahrain and from there there are plenty of connections out to Asia and to various places around the Middle East and Islamic countries such as Sudan and Iran. Thus it isn't the best connected airline for those trying to connect from Western Europe as it will almost always require a change over unless Bahrain is the final destination.

The main reason I have flown with Gulf Air is that they have consistently been the cheapest option on offer for flights out to Asia-perhaps because of the required change over. I have flown with them for 3 return trips (making that 12 flights given they all needed a change over) and for each of these Gulf Air was the cheapest available flight, twice when I had booked a good few months in advnace and once when I needed a relatively last minute flight. They are definitely a good option to check out if price is a pressing issue.

All bar one of my flights arrived within minutes of their designated landing time and so I would say the airline is very puntctual. One flight from New Delhi to Bahrain was delayed by around 3 hours and as a result I missed the connection from Bahrain to London. All passengers who were affeted were immediatel booked onto the next available flight which was in 12 hours time and given a free visa to Bahrain, a 4 star hotel room with 3 meals and transport to and from the hotel in the interim. Although irritating I felt that a delay can hit any airline and they did provide for us well in the meantime. The other frustration is that once in London I had missed my connection up to Scotland and as this was not with the same airline or group I had to fork out for it myself-this is very annoying and a constant frustration of having all intercontinental flights arrive in London but is not particular to Gulf Air so I can't criticise them personally for it.

The planes I have been on have always been clean with no obvious broken pieces or grubby and torn seats and carpets. The seats are also comfortable with reasonable leg room.

Staff were not the friendliest that I have come across but neither were they rude and would help out when asked. Food was served at reasonable intervals of every few hours and it was possible to request to be left sleeping or to be woken up for food during the flight. The food itself was offered with one western and one eastern dish with a vegetarian option-I would advise going for the eastern dish as I have consistently found it to be superior to the sometimes not very nice western dish. Alcohol is also served if requested despite being an Islamic airline.

The on-board entertainment I have always found to be of good quality. I have always had individual TV screens for each seat with personal control over what and when you watch films or TV. There has always been a good selection of recent films plus some classics and TV, music and games too.

Overall I am very happy with Gulf Air and providing time isn't a pressing problem and so a stopover is acceptable I would recommend them as a cheap way to get out to the east. I believe that they offer as good or a better service that many competitors and only have lower prices because of the lack of direct flights-so if you can take advantage of this!