Friendly agent checked me in, and as the plane was rather full, with a number of connecting pax already checked on, all eight of the window seats in the 24-seat J cabin were gone, so I got 10H allocated.
Fast-track wasn't bad at all, the BAA chap on the front desk was friendly and talkative - I mentioned that I often fly VS, he laughed and said 'if you have any more than one person in front of you, we consider that a queue, there!'. He agreed the private security channel was a great feature and selling point for VS, and having worked for BAA for years, seemed quite apologetic about the queues common a couple of years ago, having seen nothing like it before, and hoping to see nothing like it again. Picked up some Dirhams from Amex (had a better exchange rate than Travelex) and headed off to the GF lounge, which is directly below the Clubhouse, and was greeted by name by a very friendly Gulf Air concierge who continued to refer to me by name throughout my stay in the small but comfortable lounge.
A decent choice of snack food was laid on, good choice of mezze things like kibbeh, falafels, skewered things, salads, tabbouleh, samosas. Warm things were served warm from a little glass cabinet. Swish looking Lavazza coffee machine thing too, though I didn't have coffee, because I was planning on sleeping. Booze choice a bit limited compared to the Clubhouse, but hey, at least it's not dry! Also, maybe it's unfair to compare any other airline lounge to a VS Clubhouse?
However, two negative comments about the lounge - one is that it's small. Once you've got the 24 J pax, the 8 F pax, and any GF Silvers/Golds who can use the lounge, it gets quite full. Once people start turning up for the 10-something pm flight, it's almost unbearably full (and I think they then overspill people into the AA Admirals Club). The only other downside is the lack of power points at the seats. There are these dividers, with lights on them, so they obviously have power in them, but no sockets. I noticed the equivalent lounge in BAH, done to the same style, does have sockets in the dividers, but even then, they are tucked away. Maybe the LHR lounge was one of the first in that style. Otherwise, it's a perfectly serviceable lounge in their own house style, when they could concieveably just opt for a shared lounge.
Flight was called about 1950, down at gate 29, where A330 A9C-KD was waiting to take us to BAH. No queuing at the gate, and no jetway scrummage. When I boarded the plane, I was directed to the far aisle where a male crew member then showed me to my seat and offered to hang my coat and stow bags. Pre-departure drinks (water, juice, champagne, all from glass) were offered with a bowl of cashew nuts, as were newspapers. In addition, the crew tried their best to get around the cabin before takeoff to get drink and meal orders, again, everyone addressed by name throughout.
Closed up and pushed on time at 2025, but then usual Heathrow sodding around and queueing meant we weren't on the roll until 2055, climbing off 27L into a clear sky and making an immediate left turn on the Dover departure routing. As soon as they were allowed up, the crew went back to their duties, and drinks started arriving just over 30 minutes after wheels up, with a delicious salmon amuse beuche.
Sadly, it looks like there have been some cutbacks since I last flew GF. It seems like the amenity kit (well, it was just socks, shades and earplugs) has gone by the wayside, and it seems there's slightly fewer cabin crew than 18 months ago. Also, the post-departure Arabic coffee and dates which were served on my trip last year were absent. I guess even the prosperous Gulf region also feels the squeeze, although Gulf Air itself has been through a tricky period of reorganisation, with both Abu Dhabi and Oman withdrawing from Gulf Air, this led to some contraction, but now 100% owned by Bahrain, it seems to be setting some longer term goals on expanding and re-establishing itself as a competitive leading carrier in the region.
It's now 1h15 after wheels up and our first courses are arriving, and it's great to see that standards have not slipped here. Now VS, take note, not only that meals can be served quickly, but they can be really tasty. I took the menu from the aircraft and I'll reproduce it here:
'Welcome to the finest cuisine in the skies, created by our award winning Sky Chefs. You can order anything from the menu at any time during the flight'
Amuse Bouche - varies from flight to flight, was a marinated salmon parcel this evening
Appetizers
* Arabic Mezze - hot and cold Middle Eastern dishes with arabic bread
* Smoked salmon with smoked chicken breast, with sliced mango and salsa
* Seasonal salad with vinaigrette dressing
* Forest mushroom soup
Main courses
* Western dish: Grilled beef fillet, roast potatoes, grilled peppers, beef jus
* Pan-fried plaice, pink grapefruit, green beans, basmati rice and citrus sauce
* Arabic dish: Char-grilled chicken, steamed vegetables, saffron potatoes and tomato sauce
* Vegetarian dish: Ricotta tortellini, on a bed of spinach, sauteed mushrooms, napolitano sauce, parmesan cheese
- All main courses can be accompanied by basmati rice on request
Dessert Trolley
* Passion fruit charlotte
* Chocolate explosion (a sort of chocolate cheesecake)
* Cheese and fresh fruit
* Ice cream
Tea selection and Coffee
I think the entire service was completed about 2 hours after wheels up, but it didn't feel rushed at all, the pace, and the gap between courses seemed good.
The tray setup was brought with your starter already on it - unless you had the soup or mezze, in which case, as your tray was being put down, a crew member would bring your food from the galley at that point. Water and wine were provided then, as were warm breads. The service is partly done from a cart, partly done by hand, which seems like a good compromise.
I went for the plaice, and this was a really nice meal. Good portion size, nicely prepared, a couple of fish bones snuck past, but very, very good flavours for airline food. Made VS UC food look rather shabby. The only thing that some people may have a moan at is the wine selection - there are only two reds and two whites, one French, one New World in each. The French white (something involving Marsanne and Sauvignon) was still quite acceptable, and a decent wine.
The lady sat next to me was on some sort of fast, and wasn't able to eat the dishes on the menu. The crew seemed genuinely concerned there was nothing on the menu that she wanted, and went and spoke with the Sky Chef who serves the 8 seat F cabin. He arranged some steamed vegetables for her. I think this is excellent service from GF.
There was the odd rough edge on the dinner service, I think largely because the order sheets aren't really adequate for such a large menu. It seemed very easy to read from the wrong row on the order form and during service get offered the wrong meal - though the beef did look good, and the female crew member was very sweet and apologetic about the mix up!
Entertainment on the GF A330s is MAS System 2000 (the system that is behind Odyssey on VS aircraft), with about 10 channels of films, all off tape media, no AVOD. The films didn't particularly grasp my attention. I was wondering why large captions were coming up on the screen, when changing channel, and I realised that the entire system is touch screen based, but you have a remote in F and J because the screen is so far away, whereas the touchscreen system is used to drive things in Y. There are nose and belly cams on the A330, though there seemed to be bad interference in the signal on this particular aircraft, lots of fuzzy lines on the pictures... still, it's good fun to be able to see the runway lights on takeoff and landing!
I'd got up to stretch my legs during the flight, and one of the crew addressed me by name and asked if I needed anything. I thanked them for doing a quick meal service, and he said 'Oh, I thought we were slow tonight, we didn't manage to get all the orders in before takeoff. I'm normally much quicker if I'm running the galley, but it is also a new menu which we haven't flown with before.' Wow.
I related to him my slow meal experience from the VS 20 only a couple of days previous, and he asked how big the cabin was, how many crew to pax, and if they were crew down or something?
He explained that by having the dinner orders in before takeoff means he can pre-load the ovens with the hot food required for the service, and then as soon as the crew are allowed to start service, the meals can be heated. I asked about how much of the food is pre-plated. Apparently, not much, just some of the cold appetisers. Everything else is prepared to order and assembled in flight in the galley, and he explained there was still enough of each meal choice in the chilled carts, untouched, that some pax could have another dinner if they wished!
VS really should look at taking drink and food orders before takeoff on their overnight sectors to speed up the meal service. They sit their crew down so early during the taxi out when compared to other airlines, and as a result waste a lot of time which could otherwise be used to improve the service for the pax.
There was also a full breakfast serviced offered before arrival in BAH. Service was started about 80-90 mins out from BAH with juice or a really good honey and yoghurt smoothie, followed by fruit, cereals, breads, and a choice of hot breakfast things, a full cooked breakfast, including scrambled eggs made fresh onboard by the Sky Chef, or a french toast and waffle combination, plus tea, coffee and all the other usual stuff.
Landing in BAH was pretty much on time, though we ended up with a remote gate and had to be bussed to the terminal - though a seperate bus was laid on for F/J pax. Bizarre getting on a bus and finding condensation on the outside of the bus windows! Another interesting datapoint for comparison against VS is that the aircraft was turned around in a little over an hour and heading off to Paris, and I'll bet it was clean and tidy inside when it did.
Despite often being labelled as the 'poor relation' of the Gulf airlines, when compared to Emirates, Etihad or Qatar, I think GF do a great job. Talking to a colleague who flew down to DXB on Emirates, it sounds like the GF service gives Emirates a run for it's money - he wasn't impressed with EK at all. Sure, the aircraft aren't as flash or blingy as some of the new EK machines and the IFE is a bit out dated, but the onboard service is of a good standard, which I think is more important than whizzy IFE.
Overall Verdict:
Check-in: Okay. Bit chaotic because of musical chairs with the desks, but the person doing check-in was friendly and efficient. However, my bag didn't get a business class tag put on it, which blew priority baggage after making the connection to DXB, so I had a bit of a wait for bags in DXB.
Seat: Very good. J2000 style slidy-down recliner. Outside arm can be dropped while in sleeping mode to increase width around the shoulder area. 110V AC laptop power. Good stowage space. Comfortable.
Entertainment: Just okay. Didn't fancy any of the films. Wobbly pics from nose and belly cams meant you couldn't see much as it was dark for the entire flight.
Food and Drink: Food excellent, drink selection a bit limited compared to others.
Cabin Crew: Excellent. They worked very hard, and were friendly and professional.
