GULF AIR review :  11 March 2009 : by Arnaud Humbert  (France)

CDG-BAH-KTM return with my wife and two daughters. Quick check-in, A330 on first leg and older A340 on second leg, good food, helpful and professionnal though cold staff, IFE not as good as on European airlines but okay. Upgraded in business on the trip back to Paris. Excellent service, top recline seats, excellent food.

GULF AIR review :  10 March 2009 : by David Watkins  (UK)

Gulf Air cattle class but not cattle class price, from Heathrow to Bankok via Bahrain on an Airbus that had clearly seen better days. We were not the only ones who found out early into the flight that we had no AVOD or reading light. No sympathy from cabin crew and the purser was quite rude when he eventually turned up 2 hours into the flight to tell us the obvious, they were "broken" and he would file a report. I did try to complain in Bahrain but the office was closed. The next leg was slightly better, our screens worked but there was no sound. Food edible, First leg home was operated by Jet Airways on an almost new aircraft, good service, food and AVOD. Last leg was on an old Airbus and our AVOD was not working! Cabin crew were sympathetic and told us that the fleet was slowly being updated - not much help to us who had suffered 3 medium haul flights with no entertainment and one of those was with no reading light either. Gulf Air will be our last choice in the future.

GULF AIR review :  1 March 2009 : by Mark Forster  (UK)

Economy class London-Bahrain and onward to Dubai. Seats and onboard entertainment are poor compared to other middle eastern airlines such as Emirates/Qatar/Etihad, and the Gulf Air fare was not really much cheaper. Food was okay, but staff service can best be described as lazy and uninspiring - particularly on the London flight, where after meal they disappeared to the galley. Flew them last in 2005, and while the plane were old and rather tatty then, the staff service has gotten worse. Transfering in Bahrain is okay, but the airport staff are unhelpful, and best described as being rude when you ask for any assistance. Have got to return with Gulf Air next week, and wishing I has chosen one of their neighbours now!

GULF AIR review :  28 February 2009 : by Robert Heard

Business Class LHR-BAH-BKK. Quick check-in at LHR, nice lounge, small but well catered. Superb lunch, choice of Arabic or western food. Seat very comfortable and great recline. Inflight entertainment system not as good as some carriers but satisfactory for 6 hr flight. The crew were friendly and efficient and spoke good English. BAH-BKK leg was on a Jet Airways aircraft with a Jet Airways crew - with just two Gulf Air cabin crew onboard. Jet Airways planes are more modern and inflight entertainment system was top notch, movies on demand. The business class seats were fully flat. Good few hours sleep followed by a nice breakfast and arrived in BKK 25 mins early. For the price (significantly lower than European airlines) I would give Gulf Air 10 out of 10.

GULF AIR review :  28 February 2009 : by Daniel Lobo

HYD-BAH-MCT economy class, travelled by Gulf Air after a gap of more than 10 years because of very bad experiences earlier - only to find out that the airline has got worse over the years. Flight was delayed by 4 hours in Hyderabad, then cancelled as crew exceeded duty time, given twin sharing accomodation at a very substandard hotel with transportation in a really bad bus. flight to Bahrain was then 12 hours later with very unfriendly crew who treated passengers like cattle. At Bahrain, was informed that I missed the connection to Muscat and the next connection was the following morning. Had to wait 9 hours with no lounge access, not even meal coupons, leave alone hotel accomodation for a delay that was a fault of their own. Ground staff very unfriendly. Flight to Muscat was equally bad, poor food and service could not get worse. It's sad to see Gulf Air in such a bad state.

GULF AIR review :  27 February 2009 : by K O'Neill

LCA-BAH-BKK rtn (with 12 hour stopover in BAH on rtn leg). LCA leg ok, BAH transfer not too troublesome. Leg to BKK on a Jet Airways aircraft - tiny legroom, really awful food, and IFE didn't work either - kept cutting out. Return leg back to BAH was with Gulf Aircraft. Staff not so surly as usual but service very slow and you had to go get anything you wanted yourself rather than wait. Again IFE didn't work. BAH stopover was dire. Loads of Gulf Air staff on duty at BAH but could anyone give a stuff about directing me to the right desk to collect my hotel voucher and then the transport - no! Got taken to BAH Int Hotel - a right dive. Had to wait an hour to get passport back from reception staff in morning while they were chatting away. BAH to LCA shambolic loading procedures and pax handling at BAH, a complete free for all - got told to move downstairs from gate 12b to board bus to aircraft and then the whole pax load were crammed into a stairwell for another 30 min standing wait. In the air back to surly staff and slow service with 1.5 hour wait to clear empty trays. So how do I rate Gulf Air? I would need much more space to tell what I really think about this shoddy service.

GULF AIR review :  27 February 2009 : by K Bennett

LHR-BAH-KUL return. We did get a free Business Class upgrade from London to Bahrain and the staff were wonderful as was food and champagne! Sadly no upgrade on second leg but food fine and it was a jet leased from Jet Airways which was good with entertainment on demand. Return again with a Jet Airways plane great food really good and well trained staff. Flight from BAH ok but not as good as the other flights but was full.

GULF AIR review :  27 February 2009 : by Vladimir Jovanovikj

Istanbul-Bahrain-Istanbul very nice, clean and comfortable Airbus 319. Leather seats, cabin crew nice, catering also. Bahrain-Muscat-Bahrain Airbus 320, bit old, with older seats. As it is a 1 hour and 10 minutes flight, it is ok. Also, cabin crew very fair.

GULF AIR review :  23 February 2009 : by David Allan

DXB-BAH round trip a couple of weeks ago. Old/shabby looking A320 aircraft both ways. Cabin crew sullen and disinterested; requesting a coffee (since the 'snack box' only came with prepackaged water and juice) was a hassle. At BAH on return, monitors and boarding pass both said Gate 16; monitor above Gate 16 however said KWI, not DXB. GF ground staff no help, since they had no information. Eventually announcements were made that the flight was to depart from Gate 36 - no explanation offered. Bussed to/from aircraft at DOH - not a nice experience. No chance of competing with the likes of EY or QR - or even EK.

GULF AIR review :  9 February 2009 : by R Mene

RUH-BAH-LHR in Business Class. The trip started off badly due to the chaos at RUH airport. GF check-in staff seemed to be totally inconsistent when it came to their hand luggage policy. I wasn't allowed to take my within-limits roll-on case with me whereas I saw many people with much larger bags taking them on board. I was impressed with the GF lounge at BAH and our flight to LHR was very good. The seat didn't extend into a fully flat bed, but it was close. Very good attention from the cabin crew on BAH-LHR.

GULF AIR review :  1 February 2009 : by C Parsons

RUH-BAH-LHR return. Was booked Business Class, but flight started off badly as I was told at check-in at RUH that I along with three others had been downgraded to Economy. On arrival at BAH I tried to speak with the Station manager who refused to see me and so I spoke with Customer Services. I explained what had happened and after a lot of persuasion I was upgraded to First. On the return flight I was upgraded to First when I reached the lounge.

GULF AIR review :  26 January 2009 : by C James

LHR-BKK over Christmas and New Year - awful flight, seatback TV's didn't work on both the outbound and inbound flights to Bahrain. I was sarcastically called "unlucky" by cabin crew. These cabin crew were terrible - not collecting food trays for two hours, not responding to the call bell - they are miles behind there competitors. My advice is go with Qatar, Etihad or Emirates, it may cost a little more but its big step up in terms of service and quality . The only good part was Bangkok to Bahrain flight on the way back, Jet Airways operated the flight and provided excellent service, AVOD, good food and space.

GULF AIR review :  24 January 2009 : by Petros Mantzouranis

Athens to Bangkok via Bahrain with layover in Bahrain 12 hrs. In my departure from Athens the flight was delayed for 2 hours. In Bahrain the company offers a hotel accommodation that was awful. First we had to wait for our transportation to the hotel, almost 1.5 hrs. The hotel was not a hotel, but a kind of guest house with toilet to share with people of other rooms. Very dirty. In our return from Bangkok to Athens via Bahrain with a layover in Bahrain 10 hrs, the hotel accommodation was awful too - an old hotel and in very bad condition. Better don't sleep than stay in a hotel like this.

GULF AIR review :  6 January 2009 : by K Segal

Flew Business Class Mumbai to Bahrain. Ground service is poor - connecting from Mumbai and waiting for 1.5hrs for our luggage. Onboard, the footrest was not working, nor were headphones. or overhead light. The food was not great - presentation very poor (cutlery in plastic wrapper and paper napkin was of cocktail size). Tea lukewarm and weak.

GULF AIR review :  6 January 2009 : by J Morani

We were to fly from Heathrow to Delhi (via Bahrain) with GF. We arrived 2 hours earlier to the check in, where there were no people at the desk - but a long queue in front of it. We went to the desk and on our way, 2 staff came to us and told us to go to the end of the queue. After standing in the queue for some considerable time, Gulf Air announced on the loudspeakers that the passengers for our flight should come to the check-in desk immediately. So we ran up there. As the staff member was beginning to weigh our baggage he tried to get the attention of another staff member who just could not be bothered, who was speaking with her cell and kept waving his colleague away. When he finally managed to stay that he had 2 more bags coming, the woman hissed that she was on a break and we should stop bothering her since we could not get on the plane today anyway, since we were not here earlier. As to our explanation that we were, but were sent to the end of the queue - no reaction. They sent us to ticket office where we started with our explanations again and where staff said something along the lines of if you keep this up I won't place you on tomorrow's flight at all. So, we spent 26 hours at the airport on the Christmas eve. Very poor customer service, will never fly GF again in my life. this messed up our travel plans for 3 days, not to mention the extra money we had to spend.

GULF AIR review :  24 November 2008 : by M Broderick

I have never encountered an airline as mercenary and ruthless in their treatment of passengers. I arrived at Delhi airport for my early morning flight to London only to be told, in a shockingly blunt and aggressive manner that I had no seat and should "try again tomorrow". At least six others were in the same situation. No apologies offered and no explanations given. We were told there was no guarantee whatsoever that we could travel next day or any other day. There was no help and certainly no compensation. People were confused and frightened and some were in tears. Gulf Air excuse was that we had not "re-confirmed". But I had tried over six times in the week leading up to the flight departure and not been able to find anyone who could speak English to accept the call. I can't speak Arabic and so I was not able to say "Please don't sell the seat I have paid for to someone else, because I need it to get home. That's why I booked it in the first place. Is that so difficult to understand?". Avoid Gulf Air like the plague.

GULF AIR review :  21 November 2008 : by K Param

London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi via Bahrain. Flight delayed for about an hour at LHR. On arrival at Bahrain, AUH connection missed, ground staff rebook on flight to Dubai which I agree. On arrival in Dubai, baggage did not arrive. After much argument supervisor authorised compensation of about £30 which is a joke. However she produces a hand written note for me to take to the duty officer of their baggage handlers (Dnata) to give me the cash. After two hours of trying and being sent from pillar to post I accept defeat and leave. Please be aware their customer service is shambolic and non exsistent! Will never fly them again.

GULF AIR review :  14 November 2008 : by Bijay Rai

We really had a hard time travelling with Gulf Air. I was travelling with my family from Kathmandu to Amsterdam. First the flight was delayed more than 6 hrs and when we boarded I asked to Gulf Air person about our connection flight - they said then there will be no problem and they will send telex to Bahrain airport and they will held the flight. There were 15 of us travelling to Frankfurt. When we arrived Bahrain airport the flight had already left and we don't have any option except waiting for another 24 hrs. The staff there in Bahrain airport told us that they didn't receive any telex from Kathmandu. After an hours debate with the staff in Bahrain airport they give us the flight to London and from there to Frankfurt. Again in Frankfurt when we arrived at 7 pm and check to KLM office about our connection flight they said that that the office is already closed and they didn't receive any information about our flight from Gulf Air personnel. When I call to Gulf Air office the following day, they told me to wrote email about our incident. I did write email still they are not responding.

GULF AIR review :  14 November 2008 : by D Gedye

We flew to Kathmandu with no problems. Staff helpful, food good and entertainment was fine. We were in business class but got upgraded to first class. We'll travel with Gulf again.

GULF AIR review :  13 November 2008 : by F Cheung

LHR-BAH-BKK for vacation. Avoid at all costs! Found out flight was overbooked by 40 passengers, our tickets had been booked 8+ months previously. Forced onto the Malaysia Airlines flight two hours later. Check-in took over an hour even though there could be no more than 25 people in the queue, useless Gulf Air duty manager who simply ran back and forth promising things she couldn't deliver. Rude staff who fobbed off several times and are past caring. Clearly they have decided that overbooking is better than having any customer service. Will be claiming compensation as I'd imagine this is the only way we can force change!

GULF AIR review :  12 November 2008 : by I Bardswell

London to Kathmandu return. I had delays of over 6hrs on both journeys. No apology or explanation. Seat allocation meant that I did not sit next to partner for outbound flight despite calling ahead to reserve seats together and with additional leg room. Legroom I had asked for was a distant dream. On the return flight check-in opened an hour late at Kathmandu with rude unhelpful staff in abundance. Then to top it all off the exit seats we were given at check-in turned out to be the smallest seats on the plane that did not recline. Terrible experience from start to finish. Avoid Gulf Air at all costs.

GULF AIR review :  12 November 2008 : by Mark Malmberg

My experience was soured from the start due to numerous delays and sub standard service in the air. However my major concern relates to my return travel from DAM-BKK. Upon check in at DAM airport I received boarding cards for both my DAM-BAH and BAH-BKK flights. However upon arrival in BAH I was offloaded along with a lot of other passengers who were booked to use the services of GF. The day before the flight I reconfirmed my booking in person at the Gulf Air office in Beirut. Exactly how I came to be offloaded after doing this is hard to comprehend. Upon being offloaded I was told to go to the GF office in BAH airport, which I had to fight my way to as nobody on the ground seemed to want to tell me where the office was. When I eventually found the GF office I was told I could not travel for another 24 hours, which was an unacceptable response, namely due to the fact I had a business meeting in BKK which I needed to go directly to from my originally booked flight. Upon telling the ground staff of this their response was one of laughter which is completely unacceptable. Eventually I was booked to travel on QR via DOH, a flight which departed 10 hours after my original flight on GF. I was told I was not entitled to an STPC (hotel) which simply isn’t the case. However I was happy to wait in the GF lounge but was told that this wasn’t possible either. Upon checking in with QR I discovered that the GF ground staff had booked me only as far as DOH and not on to BKK as I had been told. To make matters worse my bags are still missing 10 days after I travelled.

GULF AIR review :  7 November 2008 : by A Sanghvi

LHR to BAH, not bad if entertainment works. BAH to BOM was terrible (worse than low cost, seats were dirty, no seat entertainment). Same on way back, MAA to BAH was terrible. BAH to LHR was reasonable but entertainment did not work properly. All in all, they have a long way to go to compete with other middle eastern airlines (Qatar, Ethiad or Emirates). One good thing is that if you happen to be in BAH for more than 8 hours they will put you in a hotel and provide meals. Less then 8 hours you will get meals. Unfortunately, my stop was 7.5 hours so only got meals.

GULF AIR review :  5 November 2008 : by John Murphy

LHR-BOM via BAH : flight to BAH overnight no problems, inflight entertainment ok but we were asleep most of the trip. Return flights no problems. Food on all flights as good as other airlines, check in staff helpful and cabin crew good.

GULF AIR review :  31 October 2008 : by B Hanna

LHR-BAH-KWI, KWI-BAH-BKK and return to LHR via BAH. Outbound journey okay apart had to change my earphones three times and still only one channel works - films are rubbish. Arrived bahrain going to BKK and they say the flight is full - no apology (I got confirmed). Staff in BAH says hard luck mate, it is double booking - the airline is broke and needs the money so got dumped to a hotel waiting for evening flight. Back to the airport, this flight got delayed further 3 hours then finally they managed to get underway. Flight had no entertainment at all, service terrible, there was an argument between crew and passengers of bad service. Return flight a little better but all rush job at BAH for connection flight. I would never fly with Gulf Air again.

GULF AIR review :  27 October 2008 : by Jann Diedrichsen

LHR-BKK via BAH return economy. All check in and boarding procedures efficient. Nearly on time departures and arrivals. Ageing aircraft with only limited entertainment and poor seats to match. OK food and service. The service on the BAH-LHR flight got a little wanting. In all reasonable price performance.

GULF AIR review :  21 October 2008 : by Sri Narayan

Chennai-Muscat-Bahrain-Paris. Flight out of Chennai delayed 8 hours (mechanical fault). Was not told this during check-in. No passengers were allowed to leave the airport although several of us could have gone back home and relaxed. Served breakfast in airport. After 6 hours of no information, several passengers got irate and tried to leave the secure area to find Gulf Air staff. No staff was in sight however. Eventually everyone missed all their connections. Unscheduled stop made in Muscat because they needed the plane for some other route. Another 4 hours in Muscat without explanations. One staff to reschedule all passengers! Most people fought to get in to the front of the line to get some connecting flights the next day. Later in Bahrain, we were not given any hotel rooms or food vouchers. Paid for lounge access. Finally, to top it, they lost both my bags!! And the bags were delivered after 10 days! No apologies! Strongly suggest everyone to avoid Gulf Air unless you have plenty of time to spare to spend in random airports.

GULF AIR review :  16 October 2008 : by S Ganguly

CCU-BAH economy. I was scheduled to fly out of Calcutta on October 12 at 7pm. I received an email from the airline at 7am stating flight cancelled with no contact number. Tracing them to Calcutta Airport, I was told I could fly the next morning by a domestic carrier to Bombay and wait for 10 hours before catching a connecting Gulf Air flight to Bahrain from Bombay. I was refused accommodation or any meal voucher - and there was no one from Gulf Air at Bombay Airport till they opened the check in counter at 3pm. Even then, they were very unhelpful. This was my worst flight ever. The inflight catering is way below par.