Gulf Air

DOH-BAH-MXP return in May excellent cabin crew quality of food was also good (quantity is not) portable entertainment system which worked fine but without to many options both legs departures and arrivals were on time. Falcon Gold Lounge in Bahrain was a little bed cramped but fine for 2 hours connection flight.

Paris-Kuala Lumpur Economy class. One-way fare was the cheapest among airlines for last minute booking as cheap as AirAsiaX. Flight on time check in at CDG quick. Transit at the Bahrain hassle free. Seat quite comfortable passengers were provided with eye mask and socks. Inflight entertainment was OK around 20 video channels on 6.5" LCD screen. Inflight meals was average. Cabin crew quite attentive and friendly.

DXB-BAH-LHR. Onboard service adequate between BAH-LHR. IFE A330 outdated and frequently freezing. Been flying regularly with Gulf Air since early nineties. The service has certainly dipped in standards since then. They have a lot of room for improvement if they are to compete with the other carriers of the Gulf. Certainly rank as a 3 star carrier. LHR-BAH-DXB once again service pretty much average no IFE working on whole A330 flight to BAH. Staff were helpful and polite aircraft looking very tired and dilapidated.

London to Colombo via Bahrain. The staff were friendly food nothing special beverage selection was good. There was a problem with my seat on the first journey from London to Bahrain and I could not recline which was an annoyance. The entertainment system was not very good - a very old system. On the second journey however I got a free upgrade to Business class the service was very good. They really to cater to every need that you have in business class. The aircraft on first journey was an A330 and a nice aircraft Bahrain to Colombo an A320 very small.

Was supposed to be flying with Gulf Air from Isfahan to London via Bahrain. Gulf cancelled the flight and refused to make alternative arrangements. I won't be flying with them again.

ATH-BAH-KUL E190 was new and pleasant with great IFE. A330 was ok with no complaints. Service was good and the food tasty. In the A330 flight the service was adequate even though there was a long time that the staff was disappeared (after lunch till breakfast). I noticed that people were going to the back galley and returning with sandwiches and refreshment. We had a 10 hour stopover in BAH and provided hotel food visa support.

CMB-BAH. Arrived in CMB from Heathrow and stayed 7 days on a family holiday planned to fly to BAH on the early flight to be told that my family and myself had our tickets cancelled by Gulf Air - panic began to arrive as on further investigation Gulf had no record of myself and 3 extra passengers travelling. Felt totally abandoned following a visit to Colombo office for the second time - 3 hrs journey each way and a 2 hour wait in the offices. Having to prove that we are Gulf passengers by showing baggage tags and e-tickets - being the annual family holiday left us all drained and very upset.

BAH-JED This service is operated by A330-200 in short / medium haul configuration of Business and Economy with old-style arm-chair type seating in Business. The aircraft interior and seating had a tired look and feel about it - the panelling of the seats would appear to have been recently repainted by hand – and badly. IFE is AVOD but with limited choice of viewing. GF makes a big thing of having a chef onboard but in reality the food is standard medium haul Business fare that is reasonably presented but questionable quality. I had lamb steak which was inedible – a sharp knife was not able to cut through the steak. The cabin crew was multi-national as is normal in the Middle East – efficient and professional if not full of the joys of life. This was a 09h40 departure out of BAH supposedly but initially delayed to 10h45 due to the usual ”late arrival of the inbound aircraft”. At 10h45 when on-board we were advised that we would be further delayed until 11h15 whilst we awaited some connecting passengers who had been delayed due to their ”late arrival of the inbound aircraft”. Then we were told that a passenger had fallen ill and that we had to await the arrival of a doctor who eventually pitched up and treated the passenger on-board. That whole process took almost another hour – he was very lucky as most other airlines would have booted the passenger off. We eventually got away at 12h15 2h 35m late. GF used to be the dominant airline in the Gulf but is now up against some stiff local competition and trailing by a good margin.

DAM-BAH-KUL. Departure from Damascus on E170 - first time for me on Embraer aircraft and was surprised at the leg room and comfort for Y class. They upgraded me to J Class on the short flight. Arrived Bahrain and given a complimentary stay at the Golden Tulip. Just after midnight transferred back to the airport for 2am flight to Kuala Lumpur. The flight ended up to be 95% full and it was extremely painful to sit on the hard Y seats of their A330-200. Service and meal great. I just wonder why the 2nd meal service for all flight ex-Bahrain is much more appetizing as compared to those flight bound for Bahrain?

DXB-BAH-LHR return I bought this flight due to the fairly low price. The flight was awful on the way out really dated aircraft horrible food and I forgot about the old IFE system - felt like I was back in the 1990's! The return flight was okay not so different although this time we had a choice of meals and it was a bit more welcoming also frequent offers of drinks after meal. The cabin crew were good no complaints about them but what a shame for Gulf Air.