GF 1011/011 KHI-MCT-LHR

smarties · Post by **smarties** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:19 pm

There was no one at check in and immigration...and for the first time it was a breeze and no hastle at immigration. Their was a lady immigration officer. Made my way to gate 25 and their was a EK 773 standing there and one PIA 743 (AP BFU) to my delight my plane was standing there a A330 in new gold gulf colours! On my way to KHI both my flights to BAH and KHI both planes were in old colours. The flight was scheduled to take off at 1330 and the flight was called for boarding at 1300. The registration of the aircraft was A40-KC. We pushed back at 1325 and we took off at exactly 1330 from runway 7R. As we taxied to the runway i saw some old PIA A300 broken up and an Ex-ANA 747 with Air Universal written on it with a pakistani registration number. We cruised at 38,000 feet (FL380) and the flights time was 1.35, i thought we flew quite high for such a short flight. There were only about 50 pax on the flight, and my seat no was 22K and no one sitting next to me!

Landed at MCT at 1410, and my onward flight to LHR was at 1630. I had 2 and a half hours to kill. We were taken by bus to the terminal, as muscat airport does not have air bridges. There were 2 other GF planes standing there an A340 and a 767 Gulf Traveller. I found Muscat quite strange on one side i could see the sea with ship in the distance and the other side was full of mountains, looked rather like baluchistan. Anyway the airport was shit, a crappy duty free and nothing to do. Any airline with a stop more than 1.5 hours i will not be using again. I just sat next to the big window with the view of the airfield...and i saw many US military planes in such a short time, i didn't know America had such a big presence in Oman. I went down at 1600 to gate 9 and to my surprise there was a huge queue. We were taken by bus to the plane, ironically we boarded the same plane that we came from KHI (A40-KC) i could see 5 shell tanks being loaded into the wings there was a huge queue to get in the plane so i waited as i knew i would have to spend hours in the plane so i was the last one to get in the plane, i decided to gete some last minute hot sunshine before going to snowing London!

The whole plane was full and my seat was the second to last at the back 42A. CAPT Aziz and the crew welcomed us on board and told us that we would be delayed a little as a person from Pakistan had not turned up and they were off-loading their luggage, and told us that the flight time would be 7.55 and we would encounter strong turbulence on climb out and told us not to worry about it! The crew gave us blankets and a little pouch with socks and eye masks or whatever they are called. It was a very long take off run out from MCT and we did experience alot of of turbulance for 20 mins after take off, the wing was shaking like hell. We flew right over Dubai and i saw the "palm island" and the "world islands" it was stunning! I noticed that the wing at a quite a high angle i guess it was sue to the heavy weight.

Again, we cruised at 38,000 feet. Gulf Air and their crew did a hell of a lot for the passengers, i normally don't eat plane food but the food was excellent and they kept coming every 30 mins with drinks, coffee and food. There was an unaccompanied person sitting next to me, he was only 6 and was being looked after the sky nanny. They told me that Gulf AIr are the first airline to introduce "sky nanny" and "sky chef" you could see the sky chef in his uniform roaming around. We landed at 2045, 15mins before schedule. My head phones were not working there was a pin broken in the socket and the crew could not do anything about and all the other seats were full. However, i was happy with the airshow.

I highly reccommend people to travel on Gulf Air because it was excellent i give it 10/10. It is definetly better than Emirates. From the end of March they will fly daily to KHI from LHR and vv, with a 1 hour transit stop in MCT.

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:26 pm

From the end of March they will fly daily to KHI from LHR and vv, with a 1 hour transit stop in MCT.

Yes, we will be flying SAME PLANE SERVICES on the new A 330-200s KHI-MCT-LHR-MCT-KHI with as you correctly say 1 hour 5 minute transits at MCT.

AbdulAziz · Post by **AbdulAziz** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:42 pm

Asslam u alikum

smarties Thanks for ur trip report. I felt as I was travelling with u on the flight. The other thing that made me feeling like that is the a/c A40-KC is one of which I have flown on from Dubai to Bahrain last year.

As u said GF became very good airline. It is better than EK and SV aslo.
I am also giving them 10/10.

Allah hafiz
A.Aziz

AbdulAziz · Post by **AbdulAziz** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:00 pm

Asslam u alikum

smarties have to taken come pictures during ur trip??

A.Aziz

smarties · Post by **smarties** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:05 pm

AbdulAziz wrote:
smarties have to taken come pictures during ur trip??

Unfortunetly not. I forgot to take my camera to karachi! Anyways, inshallah next time. I joined their frequent flyer programme and your allowed an 10kgs extra allowance! They are really generous!! Even if you have the basic membership.

AbdulAziz · Post by **AbdulAziz** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:18 pm

Asslam u alikum

U can get ur membership number now by regestring with them through their website and then they will send by mail.

A.Aziz

pkjet · Post by **pkjet** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:06 pm

As a long time Gulf Air fan, I tottaly back cheetah's recommendation to fly with this Arabian gem of an airline.
There is no better way to fly.

atmalik · Post by **atmalik** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:11 am

Smarties, the captain actually said that a person from "Pakistan" had not shown up for the flight. Isnt that wrong? he could have just said a missing pax instaed of saying a person from Pakistan.

smarties · Post by **smarties** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:00 am

atmalik wrote:Smarties, the captain actually said that a person from "Pakistan" had not shown up for the flight. Isnt that wrong? he could have just said a missing pax instaed of saying a person from Pakistan.

Yea, i guess he was trying to demean us Pakistanis. I don't think Arabs like Pakistanis in general anyway.

AP-BGL · Post by **AP-BGL** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:14 am

And those Arabs dont know that out of 100, 50% or more of their labor force is from Pakistan contributing in a handsome share of work in their country's economy.

ord · Post by **ord** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:05 pm

Thanks for the trip report Smarties. So, was this the new GF Y class inflight service that they have been hyping for last several months.? They are marketing it as the best Y class meal service around. By the sound of your trip report, you were quite impressed. That's good to hear.

Behramjee,

behramjee wrote:Yes, we will be flying SAME PLANE SERVICES on the new A 330-200s KHI-MCT-LHR-MCT-KHI with as you correctly say 1 hour 5 minute transits at MCT.

Wow, that is a big time coup for you guys. A daily direct service from LHR to KHI, through the back door.

I have a feeling once the authorities find out what you are up to, they are going to stop this, as basically it sounds as though this flight is being operated as one flight, with a stop in MCT, which is clearly against the PAK-UK bilateral restricting services to LHR to 10x weekly per week.

I don't have exact details now, but I believe someone already tried this ploy with a stop in some Central Asian location and it ran for a couple of months before the authorities figured out that infact the service was not a connecing one, as was being claimed by the airline, but a direct service with a stopover.

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:24 pm

Wow, that is a big time coup for you guys. A daily direct service from LHR to KHI, through the back door.

No EK too has a KHI-DXB-LHR daily same plane afternoon flight with a B 773 with a 1 hour transit in DXB. As long as its NOT NONSTOP from KHI to LHR and involves a TRANSIT and not a TECH STOP enroute its ok...because we are filling the plane with more pax at MCT.

GF has the same thing for DEL-BAH-FRA services and EK has too for BOM-DXB-LHR daily A 332s.

EY has same plane A 332 service LHR-AUH-BKK.

ord · Post by **ord** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:35 pm

behramjee wrote:
Wow, that is a big time coup for you guys. A daily direct service from LHR to KHI, through the back door.
No EK too has a KHI-DXB-LHR daily same plane afternoon flight with a B 773 with a 1 hour transit in DXB. As long as its NOT NONSTOP from KHI to LHR and involves a TRANSIT and not a TECH STOP enroute its ok...because we are filling the plane with more pax at MCT.

GF has the same thing for DEL-BAH-FRA services and EK has too for BOM-DXB-LHR daily A 332s.

EY has same plane A 332 service LHR-AUH-BKK.

So, do all pax have to get off the plane at the airlines' respective hubs? Otherwise, it cannot really be classified as "transit".

DEL, BOM are not really applicable because of India-UK open skies pact. As I mentioned earlier, a Central Asia based carrier already tried this approach on PAK-UK sector and after a while the authorities figured it out.

smarties · Post by **smarties** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:52 pm

ord wrote:Thanks for the trip report Smarties. So, was this the new GF Y class inflight service that they have been hyping for last several months.? They are marketing it as the best Y class meal service around. By the sound of your trip report, you were quite impressed. That's good to hear.

Yes it was excellent. I def will be using GF next time when i go to Karachi or Bahrain. I won't be using EK again.

But the thing which bugged me a little with GF is that they did not let me leave my return reservation open. Like when ever i use PIA, they let me leave my return booking open, as if you leave your return booking "open" you do not have to pay for change of date fare. On my way i extended my stay in Bahrain and they charged me $50, and i had to change my date twice in KHI and i was charged $50 twice ($100) so altogether i had to pay $150 dollars on top of my ticket which i brought in peak season.

I remember when i was going to Bahrain, GF008 the flight was continuing to Dubai, and they announced that pax going to DXB can stay on the plane if they wish, or they can get off cuz the flight would depart in 45 mins; the pax had a choice. I wonder if they will do the same thing with this new flight to KHI?, they make it optional to get off and encourge pax to stay on if they are continuing to the onward destination.

GF also has daily LHR-BAH-DXB (GF008/1008) SAME PLANE
and also DXB-BAH-LHR (GF003/1003) SAME PLANE

sadiqhassan · Post by **sadiqhassan** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:03 pm

smarties wrote:
But the thing which bugged me a little with GF is that they did not let me leave my return reservation open. Like when ever i use PIA, they let me leave my return booking open, as if you leave your return booking "open" you do not have to pay for change of date fare. On my way i extended my stay in Bahrain and they charged me $50, and i had to change my date twice in KHI and i was charged $50 twice ($100) so altogether i had to pay $150 dollars on top of my ticket which i brought in peak season.

On Gulf Air, it seems that only the expensive tickets allow open return