Lufthansa747 From Finland, joined May 1999, 2960 posts, RR: 47 Posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 16567 times:
This is the first part of my F class trip to Sydney last week, Gulf Air GF 150 BKK-HKG. To have a comfortably long connection (separate tickets) at Hong Kong, my options for BKK-HKG were TG/CX/GF. The latter sold First for the price of full Y on TG/CX, so it was a no-brainer really. Unfortunately, as usual, it’s a case of you get what you pay for...
06 February 2007
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Intl (BKK/VTBS) – Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok (HKG/VHHH)
Gulf Air Company GF/GFA 150
Airbus A340-312
A4O-LF
1015-1405 – On Time
First Class, Seat 2A
I was a bit late getting to Suvarnabhumi as usual since it was an early morning when I left our apartment. Door 4 had a Gulf Air sign, so I told the driver to stop there, just to discover GF check-in was at the very other end of this so-called largest passenger terminal in the world. AOT can’t even get the signs right, so it’s no surprise it’s a packed, disorganized madhouse inside.
An agent wearing a GF uniform greeted me at the First Class counter, looking at my AA Platinum card like she had never seen one before. Good thing she noticed I had an F ticket, and checked me in. I was given my pre-assigned seat 1A, a generic GF boarding pass (no separate F stock) and an invite to the Louis Tavern First Class Lounge. Considering Priority Pass cardholders have access to this particular lounge, it’s obvious the place is a far cry from a proper F lounge.
Departure tax is nowadays included, and had been a week by this point. Yet, nobody had bothered to remove those tacky looking booths from near the passport control, taking space in the crowded terminal. There were rather long lines at passport control, but they moved rather quickly, so no major complaints. But as ridiculous as the whole Suvarnabhumi Airport fiasco, what’s of the point of bragging about having the most counters in Asia when half of them are not staffed? A new sign, such a beautiful Xerox copy, was posted instructing people to fill in the immigration form before reaching the counter. Tacky, extremely tacky.
I quickly made my way to the Louis Tavern, and truth to be told it was the worst lounge experience ever, anywhere. Last time it was empty, but this time absolutely packed with GF Economy passengers, shouting at the top of their lungs and behaving like pigs. They looked Chinese, spoke Thai and all had a crapload of high end duty free like Hennessy XO with them. It’s obviously not to hard to get access to this F lounge... None of these people were in Business, let alone First. I downed a glass of good old Black Label, and left early despite the lounge agent telling me the flight wasn’t boarding. The E gates were a quiet haven in comparison. Now, that isn’t much of a surprise considering half of them were unusable due to cracks on the tarmac...
Inedible pastries available in the Louis Tavern
The beautiful surroundings of a serene First Class Lounge
Deserted E-concourse, mostly unusable due to cracks found on the tarmac
Gulf Air Boarding Gate
I was greeted by the sight of an old-coloured GF A340, the website has only seatmaps of ex-SQ and newly refurbished machines available. Boarding was free for all, and I was greeted by the sight of an original Gulf Air F cabin with those ancient blue seats with silver stripes. An Asian F/A greeted me and said seat 1A is “right there”. No escorting to seats. Legroom was shocking to say the least, so I moved to 2A as soon as boarding was completed. In 1A, I couldn’t stretch my legs without hitting the bulkhead.
A very friendly Australian male F/A soon appeared with menus and offered a pre-departure drink. I opted for champagne as usual. A nicely presented hot towel and some dates were offered later, nice touch. Champagne was only refilled after I asked for it.
Champagne and some nuts/crackers
Hot Towel
Arabic coffee and the empty champagne glass
A Kuwaiti A340 next to us, going to either MNL or CGK
We were pushed back a few minutes early; this flight seems to be quite often late though. Takeoff was without much delay, all these daily appearing newspaper reports about Suvarnabhumi delays seem to be inaccurate in my experience.
A highway junction after takeoff
Snapped a few pics of the cabin after takeoff, load was 5/12 despite me having the only assigned seat the day before.
A pair of GF F seats
Cabin view – looks ancient IMHO
Old entertainment controls, not even headsets were given in First Class
Seat controls
Sabre’s Vitruallythere indicated a breakfast service for this flight, but thankfully it was actually a lunch as I very much dislike eating those rubbery eggs in premium cabins. Here’s the menu and wine list.
BANGKOK – HONG KONG
A selection to start
Asian delight
A variety of South East Asian hot dishes
of vegetable spring rolls, marinated prawns and fish parcels
served with chilli sauce
Fresh garden greens
green leaves, lollo rosso, endive and radicchio
combined with tomato, mixed bell peppers and cucumber
tossed in virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Main course
Poached fillet of garoupa
with sweet red chilli, ginger, spring onions, soya sauce
bok choy and steamed rice
Stir fried Pak-khing chicken
Chinese style casserole
with yellow bamee noodles and steamed asparagus
Vegetarian Massaman
potato, pumpkin and carrots in coconut curry sauce
rice and fried onions
A sweet to round off
White chocolate pannacotta
on sweet sticky rice
served with mango and mint salsa
Seasonal fresh fruit selected from the local market
To finish
Assorted teas
Camomile, English breakfast, Moroccan mint, Earl Grey, Ceylon black tea
Freshly brewed or decaffeinated coffee
WINE LIST
Champagne
Brut Mosaic Vintage 1998
White Wine
Poilly-Fume Les Genievres 2005, Guy Saget
Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 2005, Bouchard Anne
Bellingham Spitz Chardonnay 2003
Red Wine
Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge 2003, Bouchard Anne
Chateau Haut Lagrange, AC Pessat-Leognan 2000
Delheim Shiraz, Simonsberg 2003
Dessert Wine
De Bortoli Noble One 2004
From the bar
Aperitifs
Martini Sweet Vermouth
Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
Spirits
Beefeater Gin
Smirnoff Red Label Vodka
Smirnoff Silver Label Vodka
William Grant Whisky
Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 year old Scotch Whisky
Jack Daniels Tennessee Whisky
Bacardi Rum
Napoleon Brandy VSOP
Soft Drinks
Coca Cola
Coca Cola Light
Schweppes lemonade
Schweppes Soda Water
Schweppes Tonic Water
Schweppes Ginger Ale
Schweppes Sparkling Mineral Water
Juices
Orange
Tomato
Apple
The menus were nicely presented, but gone as soon as orders were taken... I managed to snag a pair for myself later. IMHO it’s ridiculous to collect menus in C, let alone in F to reuse them. Leather covers a la SQ I understand but paper menus not. Unfortunately, the menu looks like they ordered just about the cheapest stuff you can get from a local Bangkok caterer, and it tasted just that. I had the Asian delight, fish and the pannacotta which was actually decent. I was offered either the dessert or fruit, not both.
Service from the Asian F/A was poor, I had to order a set of cutlery in First Class because she didn’t bother to bring any cutlery whatsoever after clearing the starter. No drink refills either, and the bread selection consisted of simply one type of bread rolls. Presentation was fantastic I must say, and the Aussie guy tried to provide some service.
Table setup
Starter – try hard and you might find that one tiny prawn
Main course
Dessert
The champagne was decent, didn’t try the wines. The drink list has nothing to do with First, just for laughs TG for example offers JW Gold and Hennessy XO in Business. There was not even Perrier available.
After the meal, I reclined the seat and it was fairly comfortable at perhaps 170 degrees recline. Legroom in row 2 was pretty nice, but I wouldn’t suggest row 1 to my worst enemy if paying for First, legroom was less/equal than usual old Business Class such as AY in bulkhead rows.
View of the A340-300 engines
Airshow
Descent to Hong Kong started early, cabin prepared for landing
Nice views of parts of Hong Kong during descent
Final approach (Regal Airport Hotel IIRC)
Turning to gate
A shot of the almost empty Business Class cabin, legroom is very poor at about 40”
Overall, considering the ticket cost me same as full fare Y, I suppose I can’t complain too much. But this is clearly not an F product, and I’m not surprised anymore to see those ever-ongoing buy 1 get 1 free GF deals in Bangkok. The male F/A provided decent service, but there is only so much you can do with this sort of hardware/menu offerings.
Next reports (of some very nice flights...)
CX 111 HKG-SYD F A330-300 B-HLS
CX 100 SYD-HKG F A330-300 B-LAC
EK 387 HKG-BKK J B777-300ER A6-EBS
Luv767s From United States, joined Aug 2003, 245 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 16435 times:
I'm surprised that you had poor service. I was on this flight in July 06 and it was amazing, especially for the price. The HKG-BKK sector had only 4 people in First, but Business and Coach were quite full. The skychef was our personal FA for the flight. The flight was delayed and the captain and the FAs made every effort in HKG and in the air to make sure that we would make our connection in BKK and arranged for a Thai rep to personally take us to our plane to HKT.
Your BKK-HKG menu looks similar to what it was in July. My only complaint would be their on-time performance. The food was fine for the relatively short flight.
-"...never have I been a blue calm sea, I have always been a storm"
LTU932 From Germany, joined Jan 2006, 12245 posts, RR: 57 Reply 5, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 16365 times:
Nice trip report. I'm surpised about how GF First Class (if it can be called that) looks like. I would have expected much more if I were you. For today's standards and from the looks of it, GF's service is very LCC-ish when compared to the other major Middle East carriers like EK and EY. It's almost like being back in the late 80's.
Zu fettigem Käse und kalorienreicher Kunstmarmelade, nehme ich einen Doppelkorn.
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 6187 posts, RR: 52 Reply 6, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 16304 times:
Excellent report & photo's as always Lari!
Quoting Lufthansa747 (Thread starter): But as ridiculous as the whole Suvarnabhumi Airport fiasco, what’s of the point of bragging about having the most counters in Asia when half of them are not staffed?
- True, pointless if they don't have them open
Quoting Lufthansa747 (Thread starter): The E gates were a quiet haven in comparison. Now, that isn’t much of a surprise considering half of them were unusable due to cracks on the tarmac...
LH459 From United States, joined Aug 2005, 693 posts, RR: 2 Reply 9, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 16005 times:
Too bad GF hasn't upgraded their entire A340 fleet, because the new interiors are so much nicer than what you experienced! I wonder when (if?) that will happen...
"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is temporary; the evil it does is permanent" - Ghandi
BPS3458 From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 309 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 15515 times:
Great Report. Just decided TG won't be my choice going from BNE to FRA with my wife and infant. Sounds like to Suvarnabhumi still has a long way to go before it can be compared to airports like KUL/ICN/SIN/HKG.
SASDC8 From Norway, joined Mar 2006, 355 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 15322 times:
Great report again Lari.
Must say that the First Class you experienced is far cry from what Gulf Air portrays on the web page! I am too pretty disappointed with the look of this sub standard product, albeit the presentation of the food looked really good.
By the looks of it, I wondering if I get to experience Suvarnabhumi in April, or if they close down the whole thing for refurbishment. Judging by some of your pics, they actually need to do just that.
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4296 posts, RR: 28 Reply 12, posted (2 years 9 months 3 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 15081 times:
You got what you paid for indeed. After my last 2 ghastly flights with them, I have never been in a hurry again to fly with GF. Meals were horrible, crew very unfriendly, aircraft poorly maintained with rather tatty interior (and these were the ex-SQ A340s, mind you!).
It seems to me that the JCL seats looks the same as the PCL ones with the former ones having a tighter pitch.
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
A shot of the almost empty Business Class cabin, legroom is very poor at about 40”
Great report, as always! I flew on GF metal (L1011) LHR-JFK when they had the codeshare with TWA in C/Class and it wa horrible! Very cramped (2-3-2 layout).
SR 103 From United States, joined Sep 2000, 1533 posts, RR: 54 Reply 14, posted (2 years 9 months 2 weeks 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 14167 times:
Excellent trip report as usual. It is a shame you got the old Gulf Air seats.
I remember flying both GF and EK within a few months of each other to India back when I lived in Germany. At the time GF was flying 767's all over and EK was flying 300/313's. I found GF to surpass EK in every way except catering. 3 out of 4 flights we were placed in the First Class cabin despite being on a C Class ticket. Service on GF was far more personal and genuine than what I experienced on EK. DXB was small and crowded compared to AUH and BAH at the time.
Looks like EK has made some radical changes since then and GF seems to be stuck in limbo. Maybe you can try this flight again when all their aircraft have been re-fitted with the new cabins. You think you are up for that?
Lufthansa747 From Finland, joined May 1999, 2960 posts, RR: 47 Reply 16, posted (2 years 9 months 1 week 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 13212 times:
Quoting KL808 (Reply 3): Since this was a Middle Eastern Carrier I expected it to be very spectacular and up to par to EK/EY/QR, but I guess I over estimated. Its a shame.
I knew not to expect EK/EY/QR style product, but still this was disappointing.
Quoting 1stfl94 (Reply 4): Those interiors do scream 'Welcome to 1994', has GF done any upgrades since they got those planes?
I don't think so. What I don't understand is that they refurbished the ex-SQ planes with better F/C before doing there ancient things.
Quoting BA319-131 (Reply 6): Unusual, normally they are good, better than western counterparts.
I have found they quickly adjust to their environment. Had very poor service on AC and AY from Asian F/As.
Quoting Ryanair!!! (Reply 12): It seems to me that the JCL seats looks the same as the PCL ones with the former ones having a tighter pitch.
True, although F has a better legrest and electronic controls vs manual. And supposedly a video player somewhere in the seat.
Quoting SR 103 (Reply 14): Looks like EK has made some radical changes since then and GF seems to be stuck in limbo.
I suppose GF is in a very difficult situation after losing AUH to EY. Oman has Oman Air. Pretty much just BAH left for GF.
Just read in Business Traveller that EK was created after GF refused any more service in DXB in 1985... Quite shocking to see where EK is compared to GF are these days.
Quoting SR 103 (Reply 14): You think you are up for that?
Yeah I suppose so. The Skybeds look nice.
Quoting Bigvince76 (Reply 15): Can I just point out that this is a 3 hour flight! If only you could get that level of service on intra-European or US domestic!
This was an intra-Asia flight, so I don't see what your point is. On top of that, for example LH C food on FRA-HEL (2h30min) is quite comparable in quantity, just served on one tray.
BA787 From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2006, 2596 posts, RR: 11 Reply 17, posted (2 years 9 months 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 13167 times:
Nice report, if a bit skeptical. The food looked pretty good, you should see the Y pruduct on BY in comparison (see my TR) Look forward to reading the next part
A340600 From United Kingdom (England), joined Aug 2003, 3976 posts, RR: 60 Reply 18, posted (2 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 12464 times:
Quoting Bigvince76 (Reply 15): Can I just point out that this is a 3 hour flight! If only you could get that level of service on intra-European or US domestic!
This aircraft is set up for longhaul too, I believe. Also this is intra-Asia!
What a shocking F product, I swear I had more legroom in row 1 of Club Europe on BA than in that cabin and the food is tiny! You get more to eat from the likes of BA and LH in C intra-Europe,
UK_Dispatcher From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2001, 2231 posts, RR: 32 Reply 19, posted (2 years 9 months 1 week 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 11938 times:
Nice report and pics. I suspected when I saw it was an A343 that you were going to get the old interior. Still - better product than TG Y but not what you would want from a F Class product when there is intense competition in Asia for the best product. Having said that I have not seen the new GF interior - having only flown on one of their A332s and two A343s (including the same one you flew on).
I was in BKK myself the week after you and saw some of those cracks in the taxiway. Apparantly there are 15 gates out of use as a result of this. I was told when I was there that several low cost carriers are moving back to DMK (permanently) so Bangkok will continue to be served by two airports.
Lufthansa747 From Finland, joined May 1999, 2960 posts, RR: 47 Reply 20, posted (2 years 9 months 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 11504 times:
Quoting UK_Dispatcher (Reply 19): I was told when I was there that several low cost carriers are moving back to DMK (permanently) so Bangkok will continue to be served by two airports.
Latest rumor is TG is moving all domestic to DMK on 25MAR, apart from 6 flights to HKT/CNX/KBV that will stay at BKK. One-two-GO by Orient Thai (OG), PB Air (9Q) and Nok Air (DD) will also move domestic ops.
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