I finally had the chance to try Gulf Air on its flagship route and I have to say…I was let down. While Gulf Air has great potential and the “Falcon Gold” business class cabin on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is stunning, the service was sadly a bit off.
Gulf Air 787-9 “Falcon Gold” Business Class – My First Impressions
First, a word on Bahrain Airport. I cannot believe how the airport has transformed since my last visit.
From 2015:
From 2022:
What a difference! It’s beautiful. I spent the night here and made a mistake…more on that in my trip report.
Upon boarding my flight to London I was really wowed by how amazing the cabin looked. From the color to the lighting to the accents, it was beautiful.
Believe it or not, this was first time flying on a B/E Apex suite and I thought the seat was excellent, with great privacy and comfort.
But there was something off with the soft product, particularly the service.
The purser onboard was friendly enough–I don’t think he meant any harm–but first he was curious why I was taking pictures, scolding me not to take any. I explained the it was my first time on the Gulf Dreamliner and he then encouraged me to take more…
Lunch was served after takeoff and instead of politely addressing each passenger by name or doing it himself, he marched through the cabin yelling at people to pull their tray tables up…it felt like I was dealing with a surly flight attendant on American or United.
The cabin was immediately darkened after takeoff even though it was morning. I opened my window during the meal service and he came over and said, “This is going to be a problem.” I explained that I like natural light but he admonished me (again, not so much in a cruel way but he was serious) for disturbing others.
Lunch was pretty good…soup, salad, chicken, and dessert..but little touches were missing. Like the casserole dish wasn’t wiped. And I was not asked if I wanted anything else to drink besides water.
I ordered cappuccino after lunch and the flight attendant forgot it (a different one). 40 minutes later I flagged her down and she was nice, but did not apologize for forgetting. The coffee did eventually show up and it was fine.
Before landing there was afternoon tea service with sandwiches, cakes, and scones. The sandwiches were horrible – stale and tasteless. A huge disappointment for a carrier from a country with a lovely cuisine.
It was also served two hours before landing…far too early, considering how fast the service went.
The headphones were also broken.
It wasn’t all bad, though. I appreciated the pajamas:
And as odd as it sounds, the service was well-intentioned, just not very well executed. It was far more casual than I would ever have expected on a Gulf carrier.
CONCLUSION
I’ll have much more to say about this flight, including the seat, IFE, amenity kit, lavatories, and food and beverages onboard in my full trip report. Interestingly, this flight makes me want to fly Gulf Air again, because I feel like I flew them on an off-day.
Sandwiches are particularly hard to pull off in the air. The cabin humidity will dry out the bread and the toppings will make it soggy. So you typically end up with bread that is too dry in spots and soggy in others. One way to make it work is to toast the sandwich. Somehow British Airways and Qatar make afternoon tea sandwiches work.
Airlines can offer made to order sandwiches with a selection of fillings and condiments. The only time I’ve ever had a that on a plane was on Lan Chile in First Class. It was offered as an in-flight snack on long haul flights b/w the U.S. and Santiago (presumably flights b/w SCL and AKL and MAD as well). It was also offered as an option on the SYD-AKL leg of their flight to SCL and as an option on their SCL-GRU flight. I assume it was also offered on the MAD-FRA-MAD legs of their SCL-MAD-FRA route.
Lan Chile had a very under-rated First Class.
Send a letter to Gulf Air.. praise them on they’re beautiful aircraft and ask them to retrain they’re FA on customer service. Ask for a response as well.
Finally! Been waiting for some reviews of Gulf as they have some pretty decent J fares these days. Seems ok actually. Kind of like Oman Air in being a bit quirky service wise. I can deal with that for the right price and I love Apex seats.
From where to where out of interest?
I’d like to try them too.
I like the apex suite but had an average experience on JAL due to absolutely complete lack of storage?! Such a minor thing but super annoying. Wish we could still transfer points to Korean 🙁
Stuart, are you a full time traveler ?
I am pretty much full time but my memory serves me as thinking from BKK-LHR was like a $1800 J fare in April? As well from CDG-BKK I saw was really at a good price point in June. I am U.S. based so the opportunity is not there normally for most where I am, but I tend to go to SE Asia/Australia with first stopping in Europe for meetings – so I see it there.
Thanks! Will keep an eye out!
Sad that Gulf Air is but a shadow of its former self. Some of us are old enough to remember the 70s, when the glamorous carrier’s VC10s were THE way to travel between Bahrain and Amman, Amsterdam, Athens, Baghdad, Bombay, Bangkok, Beirut, Cairo, Colombo, Delhi, Dhaka, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Karachi, Khartoum, Larnaca, London, Manila, Paris, Ras al-Khaimah and Sana’a.
Gulf Air’s beautiful female flight attendants, with their exotic ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ veils, turned heads in every airport they walked through.
You literally copied and pasted that destination list from Wikipedia lol
You should have also copied how in the 70s the governments of Oman, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar all became co-owners of Gulf Air. And that the airline served all of those cities as well.
Sorry, countries/emirates, not cities.
Yes, but I had to correct Wikipedia, because they left-out London, which was Gulf Air’s most important destination.
Are you and Kenneth the same person?
Yes, Kenneth and Super VC10 are the same person.
Have you ever heard of September 11th?? There’s a reason you were questioned about taking pictures of the cabin. But, you didn’t care to come to or even question that logical conclusion. And to start off by demeaning other airlines…really? Your article lacks depth and professionalism. Quite simply, it sucks
LOL.