GULF AIR review : 28 August 2008 : by J Critchley

Customer Rating : 3/5

Paris-Bangkok Business class. Very late check in - staff accommodating and got us on just in time, credit where its due. CDG airport though is not a very pleasant experience. Food from Paris was excellent, but only average BAH to BKK : also 2 hour delay departing from BAH. I do wish Gulf Air would pay a little more attention to general customer service.

GULF AIR review : 16 August 2008 : by D Hardcastle

Customer Rating : 3/5

Flew family (2 adults, 2 kids) from LHR to BKK via BAH. LHR-BAH leg was pretty good both ways, A330 plane was fairly modern and comfortable. A different matter BAH to BKK. On boarding the plane (old A340) very sad and delapidated fittings. Seating was dreadful, everything very worn out. My seat sagged through to the metal on the underside of the padding. Had to use several pillows to get any decent padding. And it's a 7 hour flight - not great for your behind! Kids complained no video in each seat, just a couple of screens in each area of the plane. And the usual problem of headsets not working. Cabin crew were pretty good on all flights; it would be harsh to criticise the service. Meals fair. Having said all that, all takeoffs were on time. Indeed, the boarding in BKK was excellent, starting about 50 minutes before scheduled departure. The result was no queuing anywhere, with a really relaxed feeling. Would I fly with them again? It would probably depend on the particular route, and (bearing in mind comments from others) whether I had a connecting flight. For the particular route we flew, I would probably give Emirates via Dubai the benefit of the business.

GULF AIR review : 14 August 2008 : by Antoine Melado

Customer Rating : 1/5

Company which very often has delays and do not inform customers. No information on the delays of 4:00hrs, even in transit between BKK and CDG. No responsibility or even offering a drink. Left and abandoned in airport of Bahrain without information.

GULF AIR review : 3 August 2008 : by A Amaladoss

Customer Rating : 4/5

LHR-BAH-KUL return, out in first, back in business. Easy check-in at LHR. Lounge a bit small, but adequate with a good range of newspapers and magazines. FAs reasonable; polite, but didn't call you by name. Excellent food prepared by sky chef. IFE average (not AVOD). Arrived in BAH ahead of schedule. Used 1st class lounge-again very nice food. Easy internet access. Last call made for flight in lounge, but ended up waiting for over an hour in aircraft for flight to KUL-crew apologetic, waiting for connecting passengers and their bags. Overnight flight to KUL. Slept well on the flat bed - nice pillows and duvet, pyjamas etc. Woke up about an hour before landing, and had the hot breakfast - freshly scrambled egss were delicious. Used limo service to get to city-driver was waiting for me. KLIA plaza lounge was fine. Arrived in BAH with 45 mins to connect to the LHR flight, but made it, as did my bags. Uneventful flight back. Bags took ages to arrive. My only criticism is that FAs can be a bit aloof and functional; they certainly don't do regular runs up and down the cabin; everything has to be asked for, but is brought to you quickly enough. Worth pointing out that the FFP is excellent, and points added to account almost immediately. Being able to access itinerary and FFP very convenient.

GULF AIR review : 26 July 2008 : by Sofia Shakil

Customer Rating : 1/5

Islamabad-Bahrain-Cairo return . We cannot stress how terrible the experience was - from the interior of the plane (water leaking from the cooling system in the overhead compartment), to staff attitudes (ground staff but also flight attendants). Consider this a budget airline with a bad attitude. In two out of the four legs, the drink service came after meals. Children's special meals (although pre-ordered and confirmed) were not available on 2 legs, and on the other 2 legs, they served after the adult meals were served and anyone with children can understand the inconvenience. If you request a blanket, you're lucky if you get one halfway through the flight. The staff think they are doing you a favor and have never heard of customer service. The boarding staff at Bahrain on the way back to Islamabad was especially rude - making one thank their blessings that this was the final couple of hours with this airline. Racist attitudes especially towards South Asians.

GULF AIR review : 15 July 2008 : by J Henson

Customer Rating : 3/5

LHR-BAH-BKK return Economy. Outbound check-in was excellent. Could not have been in the queue for more than 2 minutes. Boarding prompt and flight left on-time. Requested window seat which was not a problem. A330 in good condition with nice food. Inflight entertainment not AVOD but a wide selection of programmes. Flight delayed by an hour in Bahrain with no explanation. On BAH-BKK older A340 aircraft and service less attentive, but still fine. Return - Ok, but not as good as out. Check-in was very slow at BKK. Took 40 minutes and only about 10 people in front. It helps to have more than one desk open! However, my inflight entertainment did not work - nor did that of several other passengers. I told a flight attendant who said they would find out what the problem was. They never did. Just decided to move myself but then the headphones on that seat did not work and had to get a replacement. Also, only one meal - should there have been two? Or at least one meal and then a snack? Overall Gulf Air were decent. From previous comments maybe I was lucky. Timing worked, crew were polite and hardworking and Gulf Air were the cheapest on offer (£300 less than the direct BA and Thai alternatives!).

GULF AIR review : 5 July 2008 : by P Magill

Customer Rating : 3/5

LHR-BAH Business Class. Adequate lounge, slow boarding - long queue in tunnel, seat OK for the 6 hour flight but wouldn’t want to spend much longer in it. Poor selection of IFE and mediocre cabin service – drab service, drab food.

GULF AIR review : 30 June 2008 : by S Dyer

Customer Rating : 4/5

LHR-BAH-DXB return. I found the staff to be quite helpful and polite. Inflight entertainment was ok, with only a small problem on the way back from Bahrain. The meals were ok, and it was nice to have a snack provided between Bahrain and Dubai - it was only a short flight. I wouldn't have a problem flying with Gulf Air again!

GULF AIR review : 13 June 2008 : by S Babu

Customer Rating : 1/5

London-Bahrain-Chennai. The whole trip was terrible. The flight from London to Bahrain had some technical problems and had to return to the airport after it took off. They had to reroute us via thru SriLankan Airlines. Took an extra day to reach home. The return was a nightmare too. My advice - never fly Gulf Air.

GULF AIR review : 13 June 2008 : by A Chandrasekar

Customer Rating : 2/5

Chennai to Istanbul via Bahrain. Flights were on time, and there were no baggage problems. but inflight service was abysmal. The food varied between lousy and average. Though the in-flight magazine had a long and detailed write-up about the entertainment, on none of the 4 flights we took were the audio or video working - and no explanation was forthcoming either. The bizarre thing was that the service crew would go through the charade of handing out earphones and collecting them - knowing fully well that they were of no use! Water and juices did not come around, except at meal time. On flights that were full, ground staff did not ensure a control on hand baggage, and there was chaos on-flight as passengers tried to fit their oversize pieces in! For flights coming in to south India/Chennai, Hindi announcements are of no use, and if you want passengers to understand, co-operate and be more orderly, it would make more sense to have Tamil announcements.

GULF AIR review : 28 May 2008 : by Peter Rea

Customer Rating : 1/5

Have just arrived home after a nightmare journey with Gulf Air flying from Bangkok via Bahrain to London LHR with my wife and young son of two. The flight from Bangkok to Bahrain was notified as being 2 and a half hours late at check-in, already 3 hours before the proper departure time, so we knew that we would miss our onward connection from Bahrain to London at that stage. However, things got worse when we arrived at Bahrain. There was no organised meeting and greeting by Gulf Air at the Airport, so any passengers who needed to be informed of the arrangements for their stay at Bahrain did not get that information readily. Passengers went off in all directions; some to the baggage collection point, even though they did not need to collect it, some through immigration. I spoke to some later who had just stayed at the airport for 9 hours not knowing that they were entitled to hotel accomodation, food and drink paid by Gulf Air. The more dogged travellers who prevailed to enquire of anybody in a Gulf Air uniform, eventually made it to the arrivals exit to be bussed by several minibuses to their accommodation. But as far as I'm aware, nobody was installed into decent class hotels. Our minibus eventually arrived at the opposite side of town outside a rather grotty block of serviced apartments. Closed inspection revealed that three or four basically furnished rooms had to share a communal bathroom. Our room, containing a pair of twin beds, a stained carpet and nothing else, was supposed to suffice for me and my wife and two year old son. Several others in our group also decided that the accommodation was entirely unsuitable and we insisted to the reception that we speak to the manager of Gulf Air at the airport. He refused. We then told him that we rejected that accommodation and insisted that the minibus return to take us back to the airport. Eventually, after much harrying, the minibus did return an hour after it had dropped us off, only for the driver to attempt to fob us off on another serviced apartment building whose appearance did not seem much better than the first. By this stage, we were tired, thirsty and hungry and told him in no uncertain terms that unless we could stay at a decent hotel with ensuite facilities, we would like him to drive us back to the airport. Having arrived back there, we made a beeline to the customer services manager for Gulf Air and confronted him. He told us that the flight had arrived late at Bangkok because it had been undergoing maintenance at Vienna and had not completed the work on time. When confronted with the total lack of information provided when our flight arrived, he admitted that was bad. After all, they had had 9 hours notice in which to have made arrangements. Asked to explain why we were not sent to decent hotels, he said that there were not enough rooms available, as there were 300 or so passenger needing accomodation at that time, a rather damning indictment of the airline, I thought. We insisted that whilst at the airport, we be supplied with decent hot food and drink. We were sent to the Sky Bar upstairs which at first glance seemed to suggest a decent restaurant. Appearances were deceptive however. What was on offer was a choice between beef or chicken burgers, or lamb or chicken curry, Pepsi or water. None of our party of nine who had refused the accommodation had anything good to say about the food. Incidentally, likewise when we received vouchers for food and drink from Gulf Air at Bangkok, there was only 250 baht (about £4) to spend in either Burger King, the Pizza chain, Dairy Maid or an Italian Coffee place. The flight from Bahrain to London left and arrived on time, giving me suspicions that for whatever reason, like delaying a flight to fill it might be an option in Bahrain where they fob you off with this cheap and nasty accommodation, but there are no similar options in London where hotels are expensive, so flights arrive there on time. By the way, the flight out to Bangkok was delayed two hours also and we heard much anecdotal evidence from other passengers of past delays that they had suffered. The aircraft are tired and dated, especially on the Bahrain / Bangkok stage, the airline is a cheapskate outfit who treat their customers like cattle. I am amazed to learn that it is ranked as a four star airline on your site.

GULF AIR review : 22 May 2008 : by E Patterson

Customer Rating : 1/5

Very poor - planes old and we got delayed twice. First time round because the engine failed to start so they had to kick everyone off while they fixed it for a couple of hours - making us miss our connecting flight. The next time, on the way home we had to sit in Bahrain airport for 10 hours - all we got was a biscuit and 1 small cup of water. Would never fly this airline again even though it was the cheapest flight - pay more to have a more relaxed and better experience.

GULF AIR review : 16 May 2008 : by S Sahir

Customer Rating : 2/5

I have flown on GF between LHR-Mumbai many times. Lately the service has deteriorated to such an extent that last week I decided to purchase a new ticket on different airline on the return leg of my journey. The number of times they cancel and change your schedule is phenomenal. Dont fly on GF if you are working to tight schedule- they will screw you up without a doubt! And lets not even get started about the food and indifferent service.

GULF AIR review : 30 April 2008 : by Sandy Bedi

Customer Rating : 3/5

BKK-BAH-LHR business. Having flown on Gulf on many occasions, I have enjoyed the service provided, given the price of the ticket. LHR-BAH on the newer interior is good, and the second sector to Bangkok is very bad and needs to be upgraded as soon as possible.

GULF AIR review : 29 April 2008 : by M Kazmi

Customer Rating : 1/5

RUH-BAH-LHR-ORD, April 17th. Flight from Riyadh was delayed, then cancelled without any notification/announcement to passengers. Passengers had to track down GF phone number and call them for next steps. Was put on EY to LHR and reached ORD 24 hrs late. Flying Business did not mean anything, we were all treated like cattle. Have still not got my luggage.

GULF AIR review : 29 April 2008 : by S Mehlwal

Customer Rating : 4/5

LHR-BAH-DXB-BAH-LHR Economy. GF flights on LHR-BAH-LHR sector are quite good with modern Airbus A330 equipment and in-seat IFE in Economy. I have flown this sector a number of times in the past and one grudge I always have is that the IFE doesn't always work. Headphones given out are really bad quality. Food on this sector is quite good and GF service, while not what is used to be in the past, has stopped deteriorating and has improved recently. Cabin crew could be better groomed though. BAH- DXB-BAH sector is another story. Don't know why GF is still flying the Boeing 767s - they're old and show it. There was a water leak in the galley and the crew didn't seem to be able to fix it. Since this is a short flight, only a snack is served. Though serving it in a cardboard box seemed a bit tacky.

GULF AIR review : 28 April 2008 : by J Critchley

Customer Rating : 2/5

This airline is turning into a farce. My last trip was BKK-ATH via Bahrain - on arrival in Bahrain for the transfer, we were informed that the flight was delayed over twelve hours - this screwed up onward connections and no amount of dialogue with ground staff achieved anything. The lounge and the subsequent hotel was very nice, but how an international airline can change/cancel flights without any consideration for the passengers beggars belief. The planes are showing an awful lot of wear and tear and pretty poor IFE. All in all a very disappointing service. This was the fourth problem out of my last five flights with Gulf - I would recommend if considering flying them to be aware of possible problems, and expect a total lack of assistance from ground staff.

GULF AIR review : 1 April 2008 : by Noreen Giblin

Customer Rating : 2/5

Mumbai to London (via BAH) and the flight was with mixed results. My first 2 flights were cancelled and they put me on the next flights out (meaning instead of arriving in the evening, I had to spend the night in the air), although not the end of the world. Was a little annoyed that nobody contacted me at all. As we were about to take off from BAH, the electricity and engine power suddenly cut out for about 3-4 seconds while taxiing off towards the runway. No explanation by the captain nor anyone checking anything out. A little worrying just before takeoff. Other problems included the entertainment system not working in the last rows of seats and the toilet automatically flushing by itself every 10 seconds (which really annoyed some passengers) which I thoughts again was a little worrying. You get what you pay for folks.

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