how do you rate gulf air?

wafc

hi,has anyone out there used gulf air for a flight to bombay? and how do you rate them?.

lotus blossom

i've never flown with them but there are several places to get reviews on the web. here's one for starters:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Spcl/flt_chk_352.htm

i recently did a search of airline options and found that there was a fair amount of both great and horrid reviews. seems so much depends upon the day and the flight.

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shere

Flew on Gulf Air in 2002 from Muscat to Delhi. Food was ok, staff were friendly & plane was clean. Overall it was a pleasant flight.

Merchant

I had one less than satisfactory flight and others that were just fine. I would fly them again.

Since we always talk about airline quality and service, here's the full story.

My Gulf Air flight to Chennai was delayed two hours leaving New York because of weather. We arrived in London late and then Kuwait late, missing the connection to Chennai.

They put us on another Gulf Air flight to Mumbai and said we would be flown to Chennai in the morning--our luggage was to be carried directly to Chennai by Air India, also in the morning (Air India is Gulf Air's baggage and logistics handler and many of the flights are code-share with AI).

We were met in Mumbai by a Jet Airways agent, who rounded up the Chennai passengers. We all waited the 4 hours or so in the airport and were flown by Jet to Chennai in the morning.

In Chennai, after lots of rigamarole, we were reunited with our luggage, which seemed rather miraculous, given the fact that no one seemed to know what was going on, and we were all trying to explain to the airport managers and whatnot, but in the end it worked out.

The less than satisfactory part of the Gulf experience was the Kuwait - Mumbai leg. The passengers were mostly Indian ex-pat laborers, Tamil and Malayali. The airline staff seemed to treat them with contempt. The announcements were in Arabic and Hindi, which did these poor guys no good. The derision the staff felt was palpable.

My other Gulf flights, including Chennai to New York, were all fine; the staff were pleasant and the derision was gone, so maybe I just had a sour crew that first time.

anandi

I was dissatisfied with my Gulf Air flight from Toronto to Dubai, Dubai to Delhi.
Firstly, we flew into Bahrain (completely unscheduled) and had to sit in the plane for 1.5 hours. We finally continued to Dubai and had to wait in Dubai for 5 more unscheduled hours, as the flight to Delhi was very much delayed. I had no way of getting in touch with my friend who was waiting and waiting at the delhi airport.
One more very irritating factor was the pesticide they sprayed on the plane before we flew into Delhi, practically killing us all!
More about pesticide on planes look here : http://www.pesticide.org/AirlineSpray.pdf

Coming home it was the same thing. Same unscheduled stop in Bahrain... it seems that once they land in the UAE they can stop wherever they wish! Same delays, missed my flight home actually. Had to get on the next one. A very, very irritating journey!

Merchant

The sprays are required by some countries upon landing. The airlines have no control. The only place I have ever seen this done is India. All the landing airlines have to spray.

crvlvr

your best bet, as lotus blossom has indicated, is to refer to the airline siveys that have a larger sample size. If you are dissatisified by the lack of commentary, try epinions. Just listening to a few IMer's gripes may distort your perception.

http://www.epinions.com/trvl-Airline...splay_~reviews

Peacefulplanet

In '97 I flew from Sydney to Frankfurt with Gulf Air...took me more than 80 hours, no kidding. We kept missing the connection flights, they paid for the hotel we had to stay those nights, but it was a mess. In Qatar for example, they waited two hours for a group of scheichs who obviously went to Qatar from Saudi Arabia or so to get pissed, which resulted in missing the connection.

Their prices are cheap and service on board was much better than expected, but I wouldn't recommend them.

fsg

I dont know how much price is a factor but personally I would choose Emirates every time. Have flown by Gulf, it was Ok

zak

Relatively speaking they are somewhere in the middle when it comes to service and quality but they are good value for money.

eater

Quote:

Originally Posted by fsg I dont know how much price is a factor but personally I would choose Emirates every time. Have flown by Gulf, it was Ok

I have flown Emirates (2005).....Montreal, Paris, Doha, Mumbai (both ways) very good experience.

Gulf Air....friends flew (also 2005)..(London - Mumbai) flight delays, mechanical problem in Dubai, change plane, unscheduled overnight stay...still they did not say "never again" Gulf Air, they were on vacation, take it as another experience...

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