Gulf Air
Reviews and Complaints

My Family travelled to Lahore Pakistan from Canada. We took British airways to London and Gulf Air from London to Lahore. Gulf Air lost my Bags. Its been 4 months since I have filled a Lost Baggage Claim and no bodies got back to me. At every inquiry Gulf Air is saying we are looking in to it. So people if you loose your baggage with Gulf Air. That is it, they will not do anything. Useless Arabs

RE DENIED CONFIRMED FLIGHT / LOST LUGGAGE

II have the following complaint to lodge against the illegal and irresponsible behavior of Gulf air line
On 17 th of October 2013 my wife and I went to Bahrain airport at 10.30 pm to check in for our confirmed flight to Lahore Pakistan due at 12.55 AM .
My booking # ONWJDF and my wife booking # MCTQRG
We were told there that the confirmed seat was checked in by other passengers and that we have only one person seat available .I told them that my seats were confirmed and that I have only one week vacation .They told me that one of us can fly that day and the other in 3 days when the next flight is available .On my insistence due to the limited vacation time I had finally they got me a ticket to go to
Abu-dhabi on Gulf air and than Etihad Air to Lahore .There was 6 hour stay time at the Abu-dhabi airport .The staff of Gulf air at the Bahrain airport including there supervisor told me that they have arranged the lounge at the Abu-dhabi airport for me and I can stay and rest there for 6 hours and take the flight form there .
I flew to Abu-dhabi after 2 hours stay at Bahrain airport .when went to the transfer desk at Abu-dhabi airport I was surprise and shocked to find out that there was no reservation in the lounge .The lady there checked with the Gulf air people and both VIP lounges and there was no booking or message under my name .
I stayed 6 hours at the airport very tired and sleepy .Just to let you know that we came thru Etihad Air from Frankfurt the same day which is 17th .After 6 hour flight to Abu-dhabi and 2 hour stay at the
Abu-dhabi airport and than to Bahrain to catch our flight to Lahore Pakistan . Now you can imagine how much torture I went through almost awake for 2 days
I finally arrived at Lahore Pakistan 18th October 2013 2.30 pm .There my wife was desperately waiting for me to tell me that the luggage booked at the Bahrain airport was lost and she has not received any luggage .She was told that it probably will arrive 3 days later and we do have to come and pick up the luggage .
Our luggage had our regular daily medications and our daily wearing clothes .
We had to buy the medicine and clothes in Lahore Pakistan to survive next 3 days
According to my knowledge and I have traveled a lot internationally that the lost luggage is always delivered by the airline company .In July 2011 we flew to Egypt an there was a small flight form Cairo to Sherman shaikh where we lost the baggage the airline dropped the luggage to our hotel room very next day
I am very disappointed by the attitude and behavior of the Gulf air line .We have been a regular customer for the airline and we do travel a lot on the carrier but this time we are very disappointed and disgusted by these events
I would like to have a thorough investigation of the matter and to be compensated for my time loss, financial loss, pain and suffering due to the immature and unprofessional behavior of the airline I will wait for your response otherwise I will have no choice than to send a detail complaint to IATA and hire a legal counsel to take Gulf air to the court
I have been strong advocate of your airline and have always recommended Gulf air to my hospital colleagues but after this kind of attitude I will be actively discouraging every one at my hospital to use your airline

Hello at Gulf air

With this mail I would like to inform you on an unpleasant and unacceptable event incident that happened to me traveling with gulf air from larnaca to Bahrain.

Saturday January 12 I have booked to travel to Bahrain with gulf air flight xxxx, arriving at Bahrain at 17.30,
stay 23 hours at the hotel Phoenicia tower (booking confirmed and paid)
and travel to Dubai Sunday 13 January with flight ek xxx.
Before booking my flight with gulf air I have talked with a responsible lady employee of gulf air in Cyprus regarding the need for visa, ad I hold a passport form Cyprus. This was done on January 7.

After checking at the Internet site and the internal systems of air gulf, I was informed by gulf air office in cyprus that I can travel to Bahrain and get a visa for 24 hours upon arrival at the airport as I have a booking at a hotel and a flight to Dubai within 24 hours.

Based on this information I have booked my flight to Bahrain from larnaca traveling there from Athens Friday January 11.

I have travelled to larnaca paid the expenses to stay Friday on Nicosia and Saturday I was at the check in desk of gulf air to drop off my lag gauge and get the flight to Bahrain.

Again the check in lady together with the manager in charge checked the issue of visa, looked at their computer systems, phoned to other responsible people and confirmed that I will get a visa for 24 hours as I have the right documentation, eu passport, hotel voucher, ticket to Dubai next day, within the 24 hours.

The check in counter accepted my luggage and gave me my boarding pass.

Arriving at Bahrain airport I was in front of an unpleasant surprise!

Police control denied to let me pass, got my passport and with their behavior humiliated me as of I were a criminal! I was waiting for more than 30 minutes treated as a low class person, unacceptable for my age, education and experience!

After begging to the policemen to guide me and tell me what I should do, an officer told me that they need another hotel voucher to be issued by gulf air at the transfer desk.

I got my passport and traveling documents, waited more than 20 minutes at the transfer desk.

Arriving in front of gulf air desk I have explained what the police officer asked me, a new hotel voucher from gulf air so I can pay and get a visa for 24 hours.

To my surprise, the responsible lady from gulf air, when she saw my passport started shouting to me and saying that she will never give me a hotel voucher and will not allow entrance to Bahrain.

When I dared saying that I was allowed by gulf air officers and managers who have checked in the computer my issue and let me get the plane from larnaca to Bahrain, this same lady in an impolite and insulting way denied to give me the hotel voucher shouting that 'here is Bahrain, I do not allow you entrance to Bahrain even if mrs gulf air manager at the airport of larnaca comes to bahrain to beg for your entry to Bahrain'

Totally unacceptable, personal humiliation!

As I had no choice, I had to cancel my business meetings in Bahrain and asked at the counter of gulf air a ticket for Dubai the earliest possible.

Another humiliation, I was asked to pay cash 46 bad as credit cards are not accepted. I gave 100 euro, the lady manager n charge refused to accept euros and asked me to go at the arrivals floor find an exchange office and come back with local currency.

Humiliated, I run to the arrivals to change money. No employee was there, I was waiting for more than 15 minutes !

I decided to return to the transfer desk, after begging gulf air lady manager she accepted the payment on euro and issued my ticket.

Asking if this new booking and new ticket to Dubai will not affect my other bookings with emirates for my return to Athens Friday 18, I was ironically assured that there would not be any problem.

I travelled with gulf air and arrived to Dubai where I stayed until Friday 18th.

Thursday 18th another bad surprise!y booking to Athens with emirates had been cancelled!

I was obliged to rebook and pay a higher price ticket to return to Athens.

On summary because of the behavior of One lady manager of gulf air at the transfer desk at the airport:

I was humiliated and treated as a criminal
I did not get the 24 hour visa although I was entitled
I had to cancel business meetings and sales opportunities resulting to significant losses
I had to pay and stay on Nicosia on Friday 11 waiting for my flight to Bahrain on Saturday 13
I lost the money for the ticket bahrain Dubai with emirates
I lost the money for my booking at thd hotel in Bahrain
I had to pay for a new ticket from Dubai to Athens

Before I take legal action against gulf air and your manager at the transfer desk at the airport of Bahrain, i am demanding and asking from the management of gulf air:

A letter of apologies and excuses
Compensation for my time lost, my money lost and my lost business opportunities

This compensation should be a fair amount for damages and losses resulted from gulf air behavior and treatment to me!

Looking forward to your compliance to my demand

Sincerely yours
Dr Phaedon Hadjisavvas

I would like to complain on Gulfair Crew Faith Wanjiku( which is her facebook name). Miss Faith Wanjiku has been conducting illegal alcohol gatherings and parties during the month of Ramadan in Bahrain. Bahrain is a islamic country and we welcome expats who work and visit us. But we as Bahrainis would like the expats to respect our culture and religion. Crew such as Faith's ignorant mis behaviour posting bikini pictures with alcohol parties on facebook and putting captions such as i love ramadan with these misappropriate picture only shows her disrespect and lack of gratitudeness for the people of Bahrain who are observing fast and purification. I hope the management of Gulfair take serious actions on such crews and employ future crew with Bahrainis interest at heart. Expats who do not respect a country's value should be sent back to where they belong and not be rewarded with a good job.

I am really disappointed with the service of Gulf Air. On my way back from Karachi, Pakistan to Bahrain I faced issue with baggage weight. I was travelling with my wife and had two big suitcases which were overweight by 2 KGS only and two small cabin baggage which were overweight by 3 KGS. I also had a small bagpack with which I have been travelling for last 7 years and no airline has ever considered it as a cabin baggage. Unfortunately Gulf Air's dumb staff sitting there at Karachi airport charged me even for that small bagpack of 4 KG. So after too much argument and waste of time I had to pay PKR 8, 070 (BD34.789) for total 10KGS on all the baggage. Gulf Air expect customers to weigh their baggage before leaving for airport? I have been travelling through Emirates and they give enough margin on baggage weight and dont bother to charge for 2 or 3 kg bagpack. Anyhow on top of that Gulf Air's dumb staff at Karachi Airport charged my credit card twice. I will make sure that I am not going to travel through gulf air anymore in my life.

Registering complaint on this site in a hope to seek resolution to my complaint lodged more than 3 years back, even after enough follow-ups, there has not even been a single revert from the airline authorities. Now I am left with no resort other than to knock the doors of the Sharjah Courts in Dubai to seek resolution.

Below are the complaint details :

Complaint is regarding the cancellation of Flight No GF1007 on 27/01/2007 from Dubai to Bahrain supposed to depart at the scheduled time of 2350 hrs. From Bahrain we were supposed to take a connecting flight to reach back to New Delhi, India. I was on my back from a holiday trip to Dubai. I was accompanied with my elderly father, mother and sister, vide ticket No's : GF2636734220, 21, 22, 23.

We reached the Dubai International Airport at the 2100 hrs, well in time, to board the flight GF1007 supposed to depart at 2350 hrs for Bahrain. Upon reaching the check-in counter of Gulf Airlines, we were informed by the Ground duty staff that the flight GF1007 got cancelled due to unexpected fault in the Aircraft. The officer of the the Gulf Air claimed that the necessary intimation regarding this cancellation of flight and hence delay thereof in the departure through next flight (which was supposed to depart the next morning around 1100 hrs) was sent to each & every passenger. I and all of my 3 family members were shocked to know about this delay.

The officer, who apparently was feeling guilty of having not informed us about the cancellation of the said flight, asked us to wait. I, my parents & sister, kept on wiaiting at the Airport for almost 3 hours waiting for some resolution, but all in vain. We went on asking the concerned official about the fate of our flight, but no body even bothered to keep us informed. Finally after a lot of delay, alomost for 3 hours, we were asked at 2350 hrs to board flight of Qatar Airways leaving Dubai at 0010hrs hrs for Doha. It created a lot of anxiety, tension & botheration for all my family members to reach at Terminal No 1 at such a short notice of 20 min. I, my sister and elderly parents (aged over 55 years) wife struggled with so much of luggage to reach to the designated terminal within a span on just 10 mins. Both of my parents were harassed like dogs. At this elderly age they were made to run from pillar to post to catch the flight. We had to do all this because we had no other option and also that we didnt want to miss on our appointments. My mother, who runs a teaching academy, didnt want to miss on her lectures. My father, who is registered medical practitioner never wanted to miss out on his appointments for so many patients. Me and my sister had our own set of lectures/assignments for MBA which we never wanted to miss.

The Flight finally reached Delhi at 0930 hrs, as against the scheduled arrival time of 0635 hrs. As a result of this delay we missed out our trains to Chandigarh (Shatabdi express) which was suppose to depart at 0720 hrs from New Delhi Railway Station. We were put to a lot of inconvenience and caused my parents a lot financial loss apart from physical & mental harassment.

After coming back to India, we wrote a mail to customer care office of the Gulf Air at their registered email id on their site [protected]@gulfairco.com. Our complaint was finally acknowledged by the company in the form a holding response after 2 months. This was in the form of a letter recieved through normal post from Ms. Kavita S. Al Jassin (Manager - Customer Care & Monitoring) vide Reference No: CR/2A/[protected] dated 21st March’ 2007. She mentioned that our matter was being investigated and that once the same is complete, we shall be responded back.

However till date, inspite of so many reminders via email, we havent heard anything, neither from Ms Kavita nor from any one else responsible enough to address our issue from the Gulf Air. This is the level of seriousness given to the customer complaints. If this is the kind of attitude, what level of service can be expected from the flight / ground duty staff in normal course, one can well imagine.

Now I cant think of any alternative other than to knock the doors of Sharia court in Dubai to grant us justice and take necessary action against the airline for this phycial & mential harrasment and financial loss which we had to incur due to poor management & customer service exhibited by the Gulf Air Company officials & staff members.

I had intention to fly with Gulf Air from Mashhad to Mumbai via Bahrain to participating in an International Symposium with my husband. We had bought Return tickets including Mashhad-Bahrain, Bahrain-Mumbai and return as a four-fold ticket.
It was "OK" ticket but in profound shocking we couldn't board because of any reasonable argument, though we had boarding pass with seat numbers. How did they off-load us when our luggage went to Mumbai and we couldn't receive it in returning to Mashhad. Gulf Air staff who was in charge didn't try to suggest us any alternative via other Airlines to travel to Mumbai in contrast to common law of Airlines, Nevertheless I had to be in Mumbai before next day noon. Therefore we requested to return to Mashhad. They made us wait in transit hall for 27 hours without any properties or place to rest.
I expect them to compensate and I claim to refund ticket, visa and exit prices that you scathed us.

I purchased the Muscat to Delhi (via Bahrain) ticket of GulfAir flight from you travel agent The Travel City (Ph.# [protected]). It was clearly mentioned in the ticket that the flight GF 5655 will depart from Muscat to Bahrain on 28th December at 1940. Due to the GCC meeting traffic uncertainty, I reached airport at 1600 hrs. I asked at about 1800 hours for the Gulfair flight. I was told that the Gulfair counter will open at 1900 hours, at that time you can have the boarding card. When even at 1900 hours there was no GulfAir counter, I enquired further. Surprisingly, I came to know that passengers to Bahrains were to go by Oman air. I immediately rushed to the Oman air counter for the boarding card. They told me that the counter is closed and boarding is already going on. Even after my repeated requests, I was not allowed to board that flight. So, I missed my flight. I had no choice except to come out and talked with Gulfair staff. They advised me to take the subsequent flight to bahrin…….. When I reached Bahrain, the connecting flight from Bahrain to Delhi had already departed. The next flight to Delhi was at a gap of ten hours at 10.30……. After spending ten hours, the connecting flight to Delhi was further delayed by more than 4 hours. So I reached Delhi at …. instead of the scheduled …21.00 hrs….My old father who came to receive me at Delhi all the way from Chandigarh was also stranded at Delhi.
BEHAVIOUR OF GULFAIR STAFF WAS RUDE, NON COPERATIVE,
ADVICE PLEASE DONT TREAVEL BY GULFAIR

In the ticket issued it was mentioned that gulfair flightSubject: Missed flight due to wrong information by Gulfair

Dear Sir,

This is to bring in your kind notice that I am working in Khoula hospital in Muscat as a specialist doctor. I purchased the Muscat to Delhi (via Bahrain) ticket of GulfAir flight from you travel agent The Travel City (Ph.# [protected]). It was clearly mentioned in the ticket that the flight GF 5655 will depart from Muscat to Bahrain on 28th December at 1940. Due to the GCC meeting traffic uncertainty, I reached airport at 1600 hrs. I asked at about 1800 hours for the Gulfair flight. I was told that the Gulfair counter will open at 1900 hours, at that time you can have the boarding card. When even at 1900 hours there was no GulfAir counter, I enquired further. Surprisingly, I came to know that passengers to Bahrains were to go by Oman air. I immediately rushed to the Oman air counter for the boarding card. They told me that the counter is closed and boarding is already going on. Even after my repeated requests, I was not allowed to board that flight. So, I missed my flight. I had no choice except to come out and talked with Gulfair staff. They advised me to take the subsequent flight…….. When I reached Bahrain, the connecting flight from Bahrain to Delhi had already departed. The next flight to Delhi was at a gap of ten hours at ……. After spending ten hours, the connecting flight to Delhi was further delayed by more than 4 hours. So I reached Delhi at …. instead of the scheduled …….My old father who came to receive me at Delhi all the way from Chandigarh was also stranded at Delhi.

Sir, I faced a lot of mental torture for no fault of mine. My family was disturbed, no food to eat, no clothes to change, from Delhi ahead my all bookings gone, All my 29th December appointments were cancelled.
will take