Airline: Gulf Air
Flight Number: GF3
Plane: Boeing 787-9
Cabin: Business Class
Seat: 1D
The Flight
This is my review of my flight from Bahrain to London Heathrow on Gulf Air’s Boeing 787-9. I was flying in Falcon Gold, which is Gulf Air’s version of Business class.
Gulf Air operate two flights from Bahrain to Heathrow, GF7 which leaves at 02:00 and arrives at 06:55, and my flight, GF3 which leaves at 10:25 and lands at 15:25.
Both flights are operated by one of the 10 x Boeing 787-9’s in Gulf Air’s fleet.
Checking In
Having arrived on a connection from Dubai, I was already tickets and it was a short walk through Security to have my bags re-checked, before heading to the Lounge.
One thing I will say is that the pre-sell of Falcon Gold.
When selecting my seat, I was shown a picture of what my seat would look like – which was in ‘virtual tour’ format.
There was also the ability to pre-select items on the good menu.
All of this seemed to be a good sell of Gulf Air’s Falcon Gold!
The Lounge
Gulf Air operate their own Falcon Gold Lounge in Bahrain Airport. I have reviewed that here, and have to say it was quite impressive – and even came with ice cream parlous and candy floss machine!
The Plane
This flight was on Gulf Air’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, they have a total of 10 – which I believe are all configured the same.
Gulf Air’s 787’s are equipped with 26 Business Class (Falcon Gold) ‘suites’s and 256 Economy Seats. Gulf Air do not operate First Class or Premium Economy.
The Seat
I have done a detailed review of the Falcon Gold seat here.
The headlines are it is in 2-2-2 format and that it feels similar to JAL’s Sky Suite offering, but is lacking in storage and a few other comfort areas. It is, nevertheless, a good seat.
Food and Drink
As I mentioned above, it is possible to pre-order food via the website, although as I explain below, this was a pointless exercise.
Drinks
There were a good range of drinks available on this flight. The ‘bar menu’ is offered separately to the main good menu.
Before taking off, champagne was offered.
Once airborne, I was asked if I’d like a drink. I ordered am Amstel Light, and Heineken came back. I’m not a huge fan of Heineken – so asked where the Amstels was – to be told there wasn’t any loaded but they could check in Economy…. 2 minutes later I had an Amstels.
Over the course of dinner, I ordered a red wine. The wine was nice, but no refills offered.
I also ordered a cocktail. This never arrived.
Main Meal
As I explained earlier on the charm of selling Falcon Gold, was the pre-selection of food. In reality, this was completely pointless, as the Cabin Crew simply didn’t bother to check and took a new order.
On the menu for this flight was 3 courses – or possibly 4 if you wanted soup.
I am not sold on anything to do with cauliflowers, so went for the (only) alternative Starter, which was chicken salad. This was actually quite nice.
Mains for dinner included;
- Mixed Grill Platter
- Bahraini Chicken Biryani
- Cajun Salmon Fillet
- Gilled Polenta Cake
I went for the Chicken Biryani…..which had sultanas in it (yuck!), which I guess was the Bahraini twist. Having spent 10 minutes removing the sultanas, the chicken was quite nice – but missing the papadum it was promised to come with. When I asked about this, I was given a shrug.
Deserts came from the desert trolley. I didn’t fancy anything sweet, so went for the cheese. I was offered Port with this, which was served cold – but which I quite enjoyed.
Unlike Royal Jordanian, who offer a similar concept, the portions weren’t quite as generous!
Second Meal
There was a second meal offered around 90 minutes before landing. This was (what I call dreaded) Afternoon Tea. This as a trolley service – and I fancied none of it!
Amenities Kit
There is an Amenities Kit offered, which cam in a bag with a horse on it…….odd for a cabin called Falcon – but there you go!
Inside the Amenities Kit included:
- Eye Mask
- Socks
- Tooth Brush
- Mouth Wash
- Lip Balm
- Comb
- Perfume
- Hand cream
All in all, not a bad kit or contents — just totally off brand!
Entertainment
The entertainment system consisted of a reasonable sized screen, which is controlled from a sort of iPhone looking device.
This was fortunate, as because of the design of the seat, the screen (despite being touch screen) was far too far to each – especially with the table out.
As for the options themselves….. I’ll be honest, they were total crap.
The movies were certainly not the latest, the TV had about 3 options including Friends……..as for the Music – unless you like music in Arabic, seemingly by men who look very similar – you will be disappointed. No AC/DC, no Eagles, no Pink Floyd. In fact nothing seemingly outside Bahrain!
Even the moving map was pretty poor, and at times crashed!
Wifi
Interestingly, the flight had free Wifi…..the problem was it was for everyone. The Wifi system was quite good in showing active users – but the Wifi was pretty slow – probably because everyone was trying to stream something decent!
Cabin Crew
Hmmmm……the cabin crew.
I’ll start by saying the Cabin Crew appeared to be nice. They weren’t rude – but they certainly weren’t attentive.
Not checking if I pre-ordered my meal seemed like basic lack of attention to detail.
Then bringing me a Heineken when I ordered an Amstels, without apology or explanation seemed to me to be wrong. Then saying none had been put on the aircraft, before finding one in Economy was clearly lacking attention to detail.
No refills on the wine were offered during dinner.
The cocktail I ordered never turned up.
Even when I went to the Galley to ask for a Coke, I was told it would be brought to my seat – and it never arrived.
All in all, the Cabin Crew seemed indifferent.
Landing
Landing in Heathrow was quick and easy. My luggage came fairly quickly – where it was then off to the bus!
Conclusion
In many respects, I was quite excited about this flight. Gulf Air are a middle-eastern airline competing with the likes of Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates – so I had hoped my wish for great things may be met.
The ‘pre-sell’ was pretty good. The 3D tour, the pre-selection of food, even the lounge all gave me the hope good things were to come.
In reality, the onboard experience was below my hopes. The seat was pretty good – but food and drinks were lacking in detail and missing items. The entertainment was totally rubbish and something out of 1990’s Bahrain. The wifi was semi-useful, being free, but I’ve no idea why it wasn’t given just to those flying Flacon Gold.
All in all, Gulf Air is an OK airline and it’s Business Class offering is OK. It is probably better than Royal Jordanian, for example – but nowhere near as good as Etihad.
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