At BAH, there is a seperate First and Business Class check-in area, complete with it's own setting down area. This is completely seperate from the main check-in area. Baggage is x-rayed before check-in and sealed with a piece of plastic 'ribbon', so you can't re-open the case again before checking it in.
The Premium check-in area at BAH is a semi-circular area of check-in desks which look more like regular low desks - and you sit down while you check-in! There's also a seating area so that you can sit down if you're having to wait for a desk to become free, I didn't have to wait, as someone was just finishing up.
When I checked in, I was told there would be a two hour delay on the flight, and was asked if I'd be leaving the airport after checking my bag in, because of the delay. I couldn't really be bothered leaving the airport, I didn't have anywhere else to go, no last minute shopping to do, so I knew I'd be spending the extra time in the airport.
There is a dedicated screening area for you and your cabin bags, on the exit from the check-in area to the main terminal, and the whole premium check-in process was very fast and smooth. Quite impressive, almost as good as drive-through check-in!
The Gulf Air lounge is quite a walk from the check-in though - you come out down at one end of the terminal, but the Gulf Air lounge is toward the other end. I could see my departure gate, Gate 13 (anyone superstitious?) which had an A330 sat at it - the right type of aircraft for the GF3 - so I wondered what the delay could be.
I had my orders for Duty Free, so I sorted those out on the way to the GF lounge, which is up an escalator, on the level above the main terminal.
The lounge has a seperate First Class area (which has food cooked to order), while the main area of the lounge offers a buffet of hot and cold foods. There is also a 'business centre' with Apple iMacs and an espresso/capuccino machine, and a 'creche' area staffed by a Gulf Air 'Sky Nanny'. The lounge in Bahrain is not dry, an alcoholic bar selection is available.
There are two main sorts of seating offered, two seats around a table, clustered in pairs around a divider containing mains sockets and lighting. The other sort is a raised plinth with low arabic cushions and covered with a fabric canopy. There are windows along one side giving good views of the runway and apron area. There is free wi-fi through a Batelco (the Bahraini PTT) provided hot-spot. I can think of far worse places to spend a 2 hour delay.
Showers, a quiet room (for relaxing and napping during layovers), and separate male and female prayer rooms are provided as well.
Had I bothered to check my email last night, or in the morning, I'd have seen a notification from Gulf Air saying that my flight would have a one hour delay. Oh well, an extra hour in bed missed.
While in the lounge, I found out the reason for the delay - our aircraft was here, it had been all morning, but half of the pax load for our flight was connecting from a flight from Delhi and Muscat which was running over 2 hours late, so GF had held our flight in order to maintain the connection - otherwise the pax from the delayed flight would have had to wait until 2200 for the next Heathrow flight.
The staff in the GF lounge seem to have their work cut out. The Arabs seem to run to their own schedule, and needed to frequently be herded to their gate. With Bahrain not being a huge place, it was noticeable that several people entering the lounge already knew other passengers already waiting, so they got talking and later had to be hustled to their flights.
Eventually, the flight was called, and I headed back down to gate 13 to join our A330, A4O-KA, which was Gulf's first A330. There was no boarding scrum, I'm guessing boarding had already been started, and there was just a small tailback up the jetway. It still had the older livery on the outside, but the cabin had been refurbished to the same standard as on the A340 on the outbound leg.
There are a few differences between the A330 and the A340 config - on the A340, the J cabin is bisected by the galley - two rows in front, two behind, and the crossover passage at the number 2 doors is through the galley on the A340. On the A330, the J cabin is entirely behind the number 2 doors, and there is a seperate crossover passage at the number 2 doors. The main noticeable difference for a passenger is that the seat-pitch on the A330 isn't quite as generous as on the 340, but definitely more generous than the pitch we had under J2000 on VS. Because the seat is closer, the video screen is in the back of the seat in front on the A330, as opposed to concealed in the armrest, underneath the cocktail table on the A340. The seats are otherwise the same - EADS Sogerma Evolys.
On the A330, one of the two lavs is very large - to provide changing room space - and has a window. As the loo is facing forward, toward the nose, this really is a loo with a view! The other loo, on the right hand side of the plane is just a normal loo. Only fabric hand-towels are provided in First and Business class, no paper towels. Tissues, packs of toothbrush and toothpaste, and shaving kits, were available in the lav.
Pre-departure drinks were offered with japanese crackers, and newspapers were available (took the Bahrain Tribune, the main local English language paper). I pulled out the menu, and thought it looked odd - it had breakfast on it as a second meal. I looked again, and it said 'Gulf-Manila' at the top. Whoops, had the wrong menu! I pointed this out to the flight attendant when she came to take my meal order (before we'd taken off), who looked very embarrassed and said 'I'll be back shortly'. She then went to check all the other menus in the cabin, and rounded up several other wrong menus! Again, it was pointed out by the crew that we could have what we wished from the menu, at a time of our choosing.
We were still waiting for some transferring pax from the Delhi flight, so Arabic coffee and dates were offered while we were still on the ground.
We eventually got away just over 2 hours late with about a <50% load in the J cabin, so plenty of space. We had a good view of the taxi and takeoff from the cameras fitted to the nose and belly of the plane. If only VS had this!
Nice G+T after takeoff, unfortunately the Amuse Bouche on this flight wasn't too good, some sort of glop on top of a thick slice of cucumber, so I avoided it.
The meal service is done partly from a cart (but not a galley cart, a small service cart draped with a tablecloth), partly by hand - tables are laid from a cart, and wine and drinks are offered from the cart. Breads and your dishes are hand-delivered to your table.
Starters were either a smoked salmon with nicoise salad, or an Arabic soup.
Had a nice roasted chicken breast which had been coated in black pepper, with a lemon infused rice timbale (they called it risotto - to me 'risotto' is the Italian-style in a thick sauce). It came with asparagus and sugar-snap peas, which had sadly been a bit overcooked for my liking.
Other choices were a pan-fried hammour, the ubiquitious Arabic fish which I must have eaten stacks of this week, or a vegetarian pasta.
This was all washed down with a couple of glasses of the 2004 Wente Livermore Chardonnay. UA had this for a bit a couple of years ago, and it was as good as I remembered it!
The video selections were pretty good, and I watched Miss Potter, Notes on a Scandal, and Little Children during the flight (they seemed to be on a bit of a Kate Winslet sesh here...). One comment about the entertainment system is that all the films are on tape, and cycle independantly (so rewind and reply when they finish), not as an entire set. So, it's hard to switch between programmes when you've finished watching one thing, as you might come in the middle of something. That said, I think I'd prefer it this way than everything having to wait until the longest film has finished, before rewinding and restarting the entire set (the UA system does this, and you end up with a cabin full of blank screens, all waiting for 'Titanic' to finish, for example).
Dessert was again a cheesecake, with a dessert wine, and a selection of cheeses were offered, followed by coffee and tea.
I didn't think the meal was quite as good as the one coming from London, but was still of a very high quality, and still better than many of the VS J meals I've had.
Routing took us over Saudi, staying west of Iraq, over Syria, onward to Turkey and Romania (passed directly over Bucharest), Hungary, Czech Republic and Germany. We started out at 36000ft, and climbed to 40000ft before we reached Syrian airspace.
Unfortunately, the laptop power sockets in the seating bay I was in were both broken, on my side (the K seat), the plug wouldn't go in all the way, and on the J seat, it wouldn't go in at all - like the socket was blocked with something. These are 110V US/EU compatible sockets, and I was using a US lead of my own.
I asked one of the crew members, who came back with the head flight attendant who had a look, and then found a working socket in the middle seating bay, which was also empty, in the same row. So, I moved over to the middle to get some work done.
About 2 hours before landing, I ordered the hot beef sandwich, which came on Turkish bread. Very good! There was also a vegetarian sandwich available, and a mezze plate. I saw someone else having the mezze plate, and thought that looked pretty good. It made Virgin's attempt at the mezze plate last year look particularly lame.
Moved back to the window before descent, and watched out of the forward-looking camera. No holding over Lambourne and we descended through the clear skies over London to set up for Runway 27L. Great views of Central London during the approach, and using the forward looking camera, you could see that there was a cross-wind from the Northwest. Right on the touchdown marks, we just kicked the nose straight for a perfect landing, about 2 hours late.
Taxied in to stand 325, where we were met by several Gulf Air staff, primarily to help expedite people to connections because of the delay. The escalator up into the arrivals level wasn't working. Typical Heathrow. Iris worked well - though I had to give it three goes because I couldn't get my eyes in the green circles, and the bags were out in no time.
I noticed that Gulf Air had a staff member with a radio right by the carousel to answer any questions - presumably because of the delay.
Came out into the arrivals area, which wasn't as mental as it is at about 9am, but I still couldn't find my driver, but I could find one other Gulf Air driver, who directed me toward the phone on the Burgundy cars desk, to get hold of their operator. The phone volume was very poor, could hardly hear them, but the driver was in the airport, so I got put through to him. It turns out he'd just popped to the loo, thinking I wouldn't be out so quickly!
Into a nice Merc, and I was home by 7pm, thanks to the light holiday traffic.
Overall, I would fly Gulf Air again. Excellent value for money (the ticket cost was 1700), and top quality service. The outbound flight must have been GF really on top form, with a great crew and fantastic food - on a par with the best VS experiences.
If the return flight was 'normal', then that is more than acceptable, certainly better than most other airlines, and definitely better than 'average' VS.
I'd say the only issue is the inconsistency between their premier routes, to LHR, FRA, etc., routes to India and Asia which don't always benefit from the reconfigured planes with the lie flat seats, and the intra-Gulf flights. But we're used to inconsistency from VS!
They have just changed CEO, and they are now run by Andre Dose, the former CEO of Crossair and Swiss. This was the guy who did away with free food in Y on European Swiss flights - only to be restored by Christoph Franz in 2005. I hope that he doesn't cut things back with Gulf, but works to make the 'standard' the level of service I recieved on the outbound flight.
Cheers,
Mike
