Gulf Air

✅ Trip Verified | I was somewhat sceptical in picking Gulf Air for my Christmas trip to the Philippines. The reviews were not overly great, neither is their reputation (most I spoke to had not heard of this airline). The flight times were not great either. The price however was the sticking point and offered the cheapest method of flying to the Philippines for the Christmas period. The Gulf Air fleet is relatively modern. The dreamliner I rode in had plenty of foot-room and the interior was very pleasant to the eye. All my connecting flights were extremely comfortable. My return flight did have a slightly annoying whining noise from the toilet near the entrance to the plane. It sounded more like a technical issue with the bathroom flushing mechanism as it only stopped periodically when people went to the bathroom! The inflight entertainment was extremely responsive, more responsive than any other that I have used before. Regrettably the same cannot be said for the range of content available to watch. I found the offering limited. The staff on the plane were impeccable and worked extremely hard from start to finish. The food can only be described as very average. Certainly better than Etihad's atrocious recent food offering on their long haul product. It does not however meet the same level of standard that befits Qatar Airways or Singapore Airlines. A definite area to improve I think! The worst experience I had was the Bahrain terminal. You are forced to go through security upon arrival for your transit. If you have a tight connection there is no urgency to prioritise those customers, often most people were shoving their way past in the queue to try and meet the connection. Meanwhile the staff were somewhat carefree and very brazenly dismissed the concerns of those passengers. I know from experience it's likely the plane would not leave and be held back slightly, but that reassurance for other passengers was not there. Instead they are forced to queue in what is a seamlessly endless line in an non-air-conditioned room. With only 2 security checkpoints it was woefully inefficient. My return flight to London required a 2nd security check at the actual gate, whereas my first flight to Manila (or any other visible flight) did not, Why? If you are to have security at the gate, be consistent and do it for all gates (Like Changi airport) and at least make the transiting customers have a positive experience. Facilities at the Bahrain terminal are Ok. McDonalds, Costas, enough seating. The building aesthetically is not like any other big airline terminal, but it's okay for what it is. Ground staff - I found rude really and inefficient. My return flight to London insisted on a 2nd security check at the gate with a very forceful and intimidating manner against the passengers already present, the whole process was chaotic, to be herded into a separate section. They tore our boarding passes but we had not actually boarded. So we couldn't leave the closed off area to go to the toilet if needed. When we finally started boarding, it was not done in a Zoned manner. Which meant the boarding process took twice as long. It felt a very frustrating experience. My initial flight to Manila was nothing like this. Though the member of staff processing passengers onto the Manila flight from Bahrain did not actually open my passport to check against my boarding pass, which is frankly shocking. Workers from retail shops were extremely courteous and friendly.

✅ Trip Verified | Gulf Air is an underrated airline. At first I was hesitant in using Gulf Air since most of the reviews about them are not good. When I saw that they are using 787 on their MNL flight I told to myself why not try their airline. On board MNL flight I was surprised that they have a chef and nanny on board. On the ground they also distribute pyjamas with slippers. They are offering dinner for their 1st service and breakfast before landing, foods are tasty. I like their business class layout compared to Emirates, Etihad and Saudia (B777). Their seats are comfortable but they need to improve their in-flight entertainment at least add more movies. I enjoyed my flight and I was able to sleep during the flight. Highly recommended.

✅ Trip Verified | Bahrain to Kuwait. The flight was full and had a delay in departure. It was not a great experience this time as lots of passengers shouting in the plane. Even during take off & landing they were walking in the plane but cabin crew didn't do anything. In my view cabin crew could have done little more efficiency during the flight to make passengers comfortable. Seats were unclean.

✅ Trip Verified | Kuwait to Bahrain. Was a short flight of 50 minutes. Departed on time. Snacks and beverages served though it was low standard. Overall everything was in order, nothing to appreciate or to criticise.

✅ Trip Verified | Not recommended if its a transit flight. There is a lot of gate changes, you could miss your flight and they will make you pay for another ticket. Bahrain airport is a small and bad one.

✅ Trip Verified | London to New Delhi via Bahrain. Highly disappointed. We were not allowed to board the flight inspite of being 55 minutes before departure from London. We did not get any assistance and they said we cannot let you travel. The help desk at the airport also said we have to purchase another ticket from Gulf Air as our return ticket would be canceled if we board some other carrier to India. So we had to purchase another ticket and will travel tomorrow and pay charges for rescheduling and ticket price difference.

✅ Trip Verified | I've flown with them on 25 Sep 2019, when the plane suffered from technical failure. We have to wait on the plane for 2 hours and the gate (another 3 hours). They provided us with sandwiches and beverages (which not enough). Service on the plane was no problem though. We arrived at Bahrain 6 hours late, thus I have missed the connecting flight, at least they gave us a hotel and meals. We forced to stay in Bahrain for 22 hours. They do have a flight to BKK in the morning but didn't relocate the seats to us.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangalore to Amman via Bahrain. We reached the counter at 1 am. First the staff at the counter started asking me why I was going to Jordan and wanted to see my return tickets. I asked them why as neither were they immigration officers nor visa authorities. They refused to give me the boarding pass. My friends who were joining me for the holiday trip (two with US Passport) and 2 of us with Indian passport were subjected to the same questions. They wanted to see all the hotel bookings in Jordan, needed an explanation of why we had not booked the return tickets from Amman. Our travel was to Turkey after Jordan and not back to India. By then another Gulf Air staff said if you go to Jordan you will have to book tickets to and fro by Gulf. I told him no such thing was written in the policies of Visa Jordan or while booking Gulf Air. According to him Jordan visa on arrival can deport many Indians and Gulf airlines have to bring them back. I told him that by sheer chance if Jordan believes in deporting 4 ladies holidaying in Jordan then we have sufficient funds to buy tickets and come back. He also asked us how much money we were carrying? Whether we have a copy of our bank balance. We spent more than 1.5 hours arguing with this staff of Gulf Air, in this era and times. Later we realised that his issue was that he wanted us to book the ticket from Gulf Air. When we reached Jordan, the immigration officials didn't ask all the 4 of us a single question our visas were stamped in seconds.

✅ Trip Verified | After having an amazing discovery of Oman Air, I wanted to try Gulf Air’s business class as it was basically the same aircraft, same type of seats and additionally it had a Sky Chef on board. I was expecting even better service than Oman Air. Gulf Air has the same type of aircraft 787 and same type of seats. The seats are just amazing. Specially the window seats are private suites. This is where the good part ends with Gulf Air experience I had for the 4 business class trips I just completed. First of all no Champagne was served for the welcome drinks which is a standard for any airline on business class. I had to request it. With a strange look on her face, FA did bring me a glass. Then the food order came and I had to inform the sky chef I had ordered a special meal. He didn’t have on his manifesto. No one greeted or mentioned any passenger by name. Almost everyone had special meals and they all got mixed up. Sky Chef plus a purser plus 3 FA for 6 passenger (most of the seats were empty). They couldn’t figure out who and what. There isn’t a wine list. They ask you white or red. Italian or French. I requested Italian red and my partner French red. FA brought one bottle to everyone :)) and served. When I asked for a glass of water (a water glass was on my food tray yet empty) the old purser indicated a bottled water next to my bed. I informed him I rather use it if I wake up during the flight thirsty. He brought me another bottle. worse part comes before the landing. I requested just coffee no breakfast. Same for all other 5 passengers except one. The old male purser informed us that they closed the kitchen (60 min before landing?). Yet he did open a service and served a Bahraini customer. This is when it all went wrong as one passenger demanded breakfast as well. Purser was so rude that he informed us that this passenger was their special guest as he is a frequent traveller. Entertainment is a joke. There is just a few movies, few series - all very old. You must beg to get anything done. I had to demand for a pajamas and mattress for all my flights although this was what they have been advertising. Amenity kit is very cheap. After 4 flights which all had same issues, my advice is to use Oman Air as they also have similar price offers. I will never fly Gulf Air again. Avoid this airline by any means.

✅ Trip Verified | Bengaluru to Paris via Bahrain. Extremely unprofessional, incompetent staff. They held my husband up at Bahrain Airport on Sept 14 2018 during our transfer to Paris without giving any reason. There were no immigration or travel document problem or even luggage security. They just held him without telling him any reason. After being held up for about 7 hours at Bahrain Airport, he was cleared to board the next flight to Paris that night. Again, no reason was given when we asked why he was held. We were treated like criminals. They did not show us any official communication mentioning any reason as to why were being held up. We lost an entire day of our trip because of this. I have filed multiple complaints, no adequate response from them. I even emailed their CCO, but got no satisfactory response. They wouldn't tell us the reason and wouldn't respond. Pathetic customer care service. Do not fly with this airline ever.