I did find some free wi-fi in the GF lounge in MCT, though it wasn't either of the 'GulfAir1' or 'GulfAir2' wireless nets (these seem to have a lot of IPX on them, apparently GF internal networks, from what I can tell). I found something called 'Enterprise wifi' or something, which seemed to give me some free wi-fi access which mostly worked.
Out to the gate to join the bus to the plane, to find the wonderful crew from the flight from London deadheading back to BAH on the GF17. One had already mentioned that they would see me later!
Despite the 2345 departure time, they were already making final calls just after the 2300 boarding time on the boarding card, and we were bussed out to another A340, A4O-LI, just after 2310.
This A340 was identically configured to the aircaft from the outward flight, understandable as it was the starting leg of the MCT-BAH-FRA flight, and the flight was not busy at all. I noticed the Captain off the inbound GF4 sat in the First Class cabin, with the First Officer and Skychef from that flight sat in J. I'm guessing the rest of the GF4 crew were sat in Y.
The welcome on board wasn't as professional as the leg from London, and I noticed that crew were predominantly male - I saw one female flight attendant, and the female 'Sky Nanny'. Pre-departure drinks out of MCT were non-alcoholic, and served with oriental rice crackers. The Arabic announcements were done by a male crew member, while English announcements were done by an Southern Asian looking female crew member. Newspapers were also offered. I noticed that the seats hadn't been 'set up' for international service - no blankets, no waterbottles, no amenity kits. I assume these were added during the stop in BAH.
Doors were shut and engines started just after 2330 Muscat time, about 15 minutes early, and we taxied out to depart to the west, climbing out and turning right to head back up the Gulf over Qatar to Bahrain.
A hot snack, consisting of a small place with marinated chicken kebabs, some ratatouille-ish vegetables, and a side of Arabic bread was served during the flight. A glass of water was already on the tray, and was spilled/slopped by the male flight attendant who served the meal. This was very simple, but still tasted good.
There was a noisy child sat nearby who whinged and whined for the whole flight. Even the Sky Nanny, who made a valiant effort, couldn't oppease the child.
The skymap was initially working after departure, and then when it was announced that the 'inflight entertainment is starting', it stopped working, in the sense that it just played a 'Welcome aboard Gulf Air, your entertainment will start shortly...' slideshow, and seemed to for the rest of the flight.
So, good excuse to look out of the window.... During the flight, while there was some cloud, there were also glimpses of the surface, and you could see flares from the refineries in the night sky.
We then descended gradually toward Bahrain, where we landed on time at 0015 Bahrain time, despite the early startup from Seeb.
It transpired there would be a crew change at Bahrain before the flight continued to Frankfurt, so it seems this was the Gulf Air equivalent of a 'domestic' crew that I flew with, maybe the reason that the service didn't seem quite as good as the outbound sector from LHR.
Not many people got off the flight at BAH, beside the GF4 crew and I, I estimate less than 10 people got off. The rest of the people who boarded at Seeb were continuing to FRA (hopefully with a nicer crew!).
Immigration wasn't a problem, there were no large queues, and I was through in just a couple of minutes, after parting with a 5 BD entry tax - even though British Citizens don't require a visa, we do still have to pay for our 3 month entry stamp.
However, the wait for baggage was terrible, considering the small number of people getting off the flight. We had to wait over 45 minutes for our bags to come - they arrived just after 0100. 'We' included the crew I'd flown down from London with on the GF4, who looked ready to go home. One of them even said to me that they were sorry it was taking so long, and had gone to give the baggage services desk a hard time. (They were a nice crew, the ones from the GF4...)
Evidently, your bags arrive, Insha'Allah, at Bahrain. I'm guessing that the ramp crew working our flight were preoccupied with loading the bags for the continuation of GF17 and getting that dispatched, only bringing our offloaded bags once the onward GF17 had actually closed up. The timing seems about right, but it seems very tardy and disorganised, with the 25 or so bags finally trickling out so late.
Thankfully, BAH isn't a big airport, and I found a driver from the hotel waiting to whisk me off to the Radisson Diplomat, where I recieved an upgrade from a regular room to a colossal apartment, on arrival. Ah, there must be karma somewhere for those late bags...
(Ironically, there was a chap from Van De Lande, the company who makes some of the baggage handling equipment at BAH, and many other airports world-wide, staying at our hotel. Met him coming in from the bar with some of my colleages, just as I was checking in.)
So, I didn't think this flight was of the same standard as the LHR-MCT flight, as it was more of a domestic-type 'Intra-Gulf' flight. It does add up with reports I've since had of some other short-haul Gulf Air flights. They are okay, but just don't shine as well as their premier International sectors.
Mike
