Kuwait Airways LHR-KWI-BKK-MNL
Sep 22, 2011, 4:23 pm
#1
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: YLMQ
Programs: QF Gold, WY Gold
Posts: 682
Kuwait Airways LHR-KWI-BKK-MNL
Photos will be added later, a review of Kuwait Airways. It's probably a bit OTT a too much dribble, but if anyone is considering this airline, I'd recommend against it. I cancelled by inbound sector and flew Etihad.
LHR-KWI-BKK*-MNL *Technical Stop Bangkok September 2011
I don’t often do trip reports, however Kuwait Airways doesn’t feature often so thought this might be of interest.
Check-in
Check-in is available 24 hours before your flight, however if you have a flight with a transit, it will only allow you to check in at 24 hours prior to the last segment. After checking in online I received an ‘Internet Check-in Receipt’ and no boarding passes.
Arriving at the airport in the morning, there were two desks for First and Business and 4 desks for economy with a desk designated ‘online check-in’. However, despite the separate desk, you still had to join the same queue as the other four desks, and as such the desk was operating as just another economy desk.
Whilst I only had 5 people ahead of me, these people all well exceeded the 20kg baggage allowance, probably by about 100kg each, thus delaying the whole check-in process. This was followed by around 20 minutes of security queues in the mayhem that is Terminal 4.
First SectorLHR 10:30 KWI 18:35 Scheduled Flight Time 6h 5m Airbus A300-625R
Boarding
There was no dedicated Business/First class boarding agent, however they did make an announcement that passengers seated at the rear of the aircraft, children and business/first should board in the first instance (this wasn’t enforced). Boarding was surprisingly swift, and once the doors closed (10:36), people were permitted to shift seats as it was a quiet flight. Face towels were handed out, and pushback occurred at 10:37. With Heathrow being fairly busy we didn’t get airborne until 11:17 (40 minutes of taxying and holding short).
In Flight
The seats are leather, and in reasonable condition. The seat backs have small screens (around 4”x4”) for the IFE, however once airborne it was apparent that only around 1/3rd of these were working, and regardless it was a pretty basic and antiquated IFE system. The inflight magazine ’Alburaq’ described its aircraft as ‘…all equipped with the latest entertainment systems’, which may have been true in 1992, but not today. The Kuwait airways fleet are between 13 and 19 years old, mostly acquired after a major part of their fleet were destroyed by the Iraqi invasion during Gulf War 1, and haven’t seen any real upgrades in the seats or IFE. A brief glance at business class during boarding made that clearly apparent, as the seats were worse than Qantas Premium Economy seats, or a regional business class product.
Shortly after take-off menus were handed out (see photo) with a fairly tasty looking selection of food. The airline also offered a selection of soft drinks and juices, but no alcohol.
The meal was good, and far exceeded my expectations. The choices on the menu provided, which included Chicken Biryani and Pangasius Toss in Aromatic Korma, looked quite tasty as well, although admittedly I had to use the powers of Google to discover what that Pangasius is a form of catfish.
Refreshments during the flight were aplenty, with the crew regularly passing around the aircraft with a tray of drinks. The crew included a mixture of Lebanese, Filipina, Indonesian, Egyptian Tunisian and Kuwaiti nationalities. The Filipina crew tended to be the most helpful and friendly, with the Lebanese and Kuwaiti being a little cold and abrupt.
Having spent a while reading through the skytrax reviews for Kuwait Airways, a reoccurring theme was safety, specifically crew not doing thorough pre-departure checks ensuring passengers were properly seated and belted, or passengers using mobile phones at various stages of the flight. On this flight, the crew were quite professional, checks for departure were thorough and when turbulence occurred they did a complete check of passenger belts and suspended serving hot drinks. The safety demo on the other hand, was quite rushed and unclear; a blur of lifejackets, seatbelts and slurred lazy drawl of Arabic-English narrating over the PA. Pre-recorded or video based safety briefs would be much more beneficial for this airline.
Around an hour prior to arrival in Kuwait, the final service from the crew was a choice of tea or coffee with pure butter shortbread. This was shortly followed by face towels and cleaning of the cabin.
The landing was followed by a round of applause from the passengers and as was expected during taxying passengers started to stand up and collect bags, but were swiftly ordered back to their seats by the crew.
Once I’d switched my phone on, I received a welcome message from Kuwait Airways and a thank you for travelling with them. I thought this was a nice touch, although not sure how they ensure it only reaches Kuwait Airways passengers (maybe my phone number from my reservation? I don’t really know).
Walking off the aircraft via the forward most doors gave a quick opportunity to see First Class, which looked inferior to the KLM business class product.
Arrival / Transit Kuwait
When you walk up the jet way you enter immediately into the terminal, no security or further checks, you are ready to transfer. The terminal is fairly modern and bright inside, and was much more pleasant than I expected. In the terminal, airside, there is very little to keep you occupied with just a few places to eat and drink (Chilli’s, Cinnamonster, Carinos Italian Grill, The Coffee Bean) and a fairly poor and expensive selection of duty free shops. You also have to avoid and dodge the people sleeping on the floors, benches, chairs, tables etc. in the terminal.
I decided that I wanted to have a look landside, so went to a desk in the terminal area near the Chilis restaurant where I paid 3 Kuwaiti Dinars for a 3 month tourist visa. It involved completing a form, and going across to the cash machine as they didn’t accept card. It took around 5 minutes to arrange the visa, and then I walked down the escalator to the baggage claim area. There were long queues to pass through border control, however one of the staff came up to me and told me to walk to the front of the queue as I’d already got a visa and walked directly to the desk at the front where the border officer waved me through the gate. This was followed by putting my bags through the x-ray scanner for customs, before emerging into the arrivals hall. The entire arrivals hall was bustling with people, and it was a bit of a mission to push my through the crowds. On the landside you could find a lot more shops and restaurants (McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Express, Seattle Best Coffee, and Subway) as well as some familiar British high street shops including Debenhams and Boots.
I stayed for around an hour landside, having something to eat, before making me way back airside. The thing that struck me immediately was the difference in treatment between me and the Indian passengers, they were rudely stopped and shouted at, pushed around and scrutinised, whilst I was waved through without even a glance at my boarding pass or passport.
My only confusion was when I got to the border desk and was asked for my visa, which I assumed was the stamp in my passport. After a bit if debating, I discovered it was the sheet of paper I’d been given at the visa issuing desk.
After a little bit of shopping, I had a scout around for a plug socket which I eventually found near Gate 24. It was a British plug socket adjacent to a row of seats, so plugged in my laptop to charge it up. Within minutes people started approaching me and asking me if they could charge their phones, whilst I didn’t say no (what right do I have, it’s not my plug socket), I just explained I’d only just plugged my laptop in, so they left. I hope they found another plug socket.
I found 4 Wi-Fi networks, but couldn’t connect to any of them, so was left high and dry without internet and 2 more hours to kill.
I headed across to Carinos Italian Grill for a drink and tried again to connect to the Wi-Fi networks, but again couldn’t get connected to any of them.
The staff at Carinos suggested I connect to Zajil-DASMAN LOUNGE which did connect with full strength, but I couldn’t open any pages.
Something I noticed is that despite the terminal being a non-smoking area with announcements declaring that regularly, you find the occasional person lighting up regardless.
Second Sector
KWI 23:40 MNL 16:25 Scheduled Flight Time 11h 45m Airbus A340-323
Via Bangkok (scheduled 1h 10m turnaround)
Boarding
Pre-boarding started at around 10:50, with a brief security check (although no need to remove liquids etc.). At 23:10 boarding commenced, although there was absolutely no priority boarding of any kind, just another free for all.
In-Flight
On this flight the safety briefing was a video, however many passengers continued to use their mobile phones and had headphones on throughout the departure.
The meal service this time was without a menu, and no special meals appeared. The choice was chicken or fish.
I went for the Chicken, which was quite unappetising. I couldn’t work out exactly what it was, but you can see from the photo below what it looked like. It was served with a Salad and Italian Dressing, with a Sticky Toffee Sponge dessert.
The IFE on this leg was temperamental again, however the window blinds were closed and lights turned down so most passengers slept the entire trip.
About an hour and a half prior to arrival Bangkok, hot towels were handed out and then another meal was served. The choice was Quiche or Omelette. The Omelette was served with chicken sausage, potato wedges, strawberry yoghurt, orange juice, bread and strawberry jam.
About 20 minutes prior to arrival the crew went into a hurried fluster to prepare the cabin for landing, and were snapping, or in some cases barking orders at the passengers. The cabin crew were generally rude, with only a few nice ones amongst them.
The aircraft was on the ground by 10:45, where 70% of the passengers disembarked and a cleaning team came on board. We were asked to remain on board, whilst being attacked with vacuum cleaners. Around a dozen additional passengers boarded for the final leg from Bangkok to Manila. Refuelling and a full crew change took place as well.
We spent just over an hour on the ground and then departed for Manila. During this short flight, yet another meal was served.
The crew on this sector were clearly much friendlier, and most of them were Thai and Filipino.
Primary Flaws
• No Frequent Flyer Alliance
• Poor IFE
• Facilities for transfer at Kuwait Airport
• Business and First Class Seating
• Website (Booking/Online Check-in/Manage Booking)
• Customer Service lacking at times
LHR-KWI-BKK*-MNL *Technical Stop Bangkok September 2011
I don’t often do trip reports, however Kuwait Airways doesn’t feature often so thought this might be of interest.
Check-in
Check-in is available 24 hours before your flight, however if you have a flight with a transit, it will only allow you to check in at 24 hours prior to the last segment. After checking in online I received an ‘Internet Check-in Receipt’ and no boarding passes.
Arriving at the airport in the morning, there were two desks for First and Business and 4 desks for economy with a desk designated ‘online check-in’. However, despite the separate desk, you still had to join the same queue as the other four desks, and as such the desk was operating as just another economy desk.
Whilst I only had 5 people ahead of me, these people all well exceeded the 20kg baggage allowance, probably by about 100kg each, thus delaying the whole check-in process. This was followed by around 20 minutes of security queues in the mayhem that is Terminal 4.
First SectorLHR 10:30 KWI 18:35 Scheduled Flight Time 6h 5m Airbus A300-625R
Boarding
There was no dedicated Business/First class boarding agent, however they did make an announcement that passengers seated at the rear of the aircraft, children and business/first should board in the first instance (this wasn’t enforced). Boarding was surprisingly swift, and once the doors closed (10:36), people were permitted to shift seats as it was a quiet flight. Face towels were handed out, and pushback occurred at 10:37. With Heathrow being fairly busy we didn’t get airborne until 11:17 (40 minutes of taxying and holding short).
In Flight
The seats are leather, and in reasonable condition. The seat backs have small screens (around 4”x4”) for the IFE, however once airborne it was apparent that only around 1/3rd of these were working, and regardless it was a pretty basic and antiquated IFE system. The inflight magazine ’Alburaq’ described its aircraft as ‘…all equipped with the latest entertainment systems’, which may have been true in 1992, but not today. The Kuwait airways fleet are between 13 and 19 years old, mostly acquired after a major part of their fleet were destroyed by the Iraqi invasion during Gulf War 1, and haven’t seen any real upgrades in the seats or IFE. A brief glance at business class during boarding made that clearly apparent, as the seats were worse than Qantas Premium Economy seats, or a regional business class product.
Shortly after take-off menus were handed out (see photo) with a fairly tasty looking selection of food. The airline also offered a selection of soft drinks and juices, but no alcohol.
The meal was good, and far exceeded my expectations. The choices on the menu provided, which included Chicken Biryani and Pangasius Toss in Aromatic Korma, looked quite tasty as well, although admittedly I had to use the powers of Google to discover what that Pangasius is a form of catfish.
Refreshments during the flight were aplenty, with the crew regularly passing around the aircraft with a tray of drinks. The crew included a mixture of Lebanese, Filipina, Indonesian, Egyptian Tunisian and Kuwaiti nationalities. The Filipina crew tended to be the most helpful and friendly, with the Lebanese and Kuwaiti being a little cold and abrupt.
Having spent a while reading through the skytrax reviews for Kuwait Airways, a reoccurring theme was safety, specifically crew not doing thorough pre-departure checks ensuring passengers were properly seated and belted, or passengers using mobile phones at various stages of the flight. On this flight, the crew were quite professional, checks for departure were thorough and when turbulence occurred they did a complete check of passenger belts and suspended serving hot drinks. The safety demo on the other hand, was quite rushed and unclear; a blur of lifejackets, seatbelts and slurred lazy drawl of Arabic-English narrating over the PA. Pre-recorded or video based safety briefs would be much more beneficial for this airline.
Around an hour prior to arrival in Kuwait, the final service from the crew was a choice of tea or coffee with pure butter shortbread. This was shortly followed by face towels and cleaning of the cabin.
The landing was followed by a round of applause from the passengers and as was expected during taxying passengers started to stand up and collect bags, but were swiftly ordered back to their seats by the crew.
Once I’d switched my phone on, I received a welcome message from Kuwait Airways and a thank you for travelling with them. I thought this was a nice touch, although not sure how they ensure it only reaches Kuwait Airways passengers (maybe my phone number from my reservation? I don’t really know).
Walking off the aircraft via the forward most doors gave a quick opportunity to see First Class, which looked inferior to the KLM business class product.
Arrival / Transit Kuwait
When you walk up the jet way you enter immediately into the terminal, no security or further checks, you are ready to transfer. The terminal is fairly modern and bright inside, and was much more pleasant than I expected. In the terminal, airside, there is very little to keep you occupied with just a few places to eat and drink (Chilli’s, Cinnamonster, Carinos Italian Grill, The Coffee Bean) and a fairly poor and expensive selection of duty free shops. You also have to avoid and dodge the people sleeping on the floors, benches, chairs, tables etc. in the terminal.
I decided that I wanted to have a look landside, so went to a desk in the terminal area near the Chilis restaurant where I paid 3 Kuwaiti Dinars for a 3 month tourist visa. It involved completing a form, and going across to the cash machine as they didn’t accept card. It took around 5 minutes to arrange the visa, and then I walked down the escalator to the baggage claim area. There were long queues to pass through border control, however one of the staff came up to me and told me to walk to the front of the queue as I’d already got a visa and walked directly to the desk at the front where the border officer waved me through the gate. This was followed by putting my bags through the x-ray scanner for customs, before emerging into the arrivals hall. The entire arrivals hall was bustling with people, and it was a bit of a mission to push my through the crowds. On the landside you could find a lot more shops and restaurants (McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Express, Seattle Best Coffee, and Subway) as well as some familiar British high street shops including Debenhams and Boots.
I stayed for around an hour landside, having something to eat, before making me way back airside. The thing that struck me immediately was the difference in treatment between me and the Indian passengers, they were rudely stopped and shouted at, pushed around and scrutinised, whilst I was waved through without even a glance at my boarding pass or passport.
My only confusion was when I got to the border desk and was asked for my visa, which I assumed was the stamp in my passport. After a bit if debating, I discovered it was the sheet of paper I’d been given at the visa issuing desk.
After a little bit of shopping, I had a scout around for a plug socket which I eventually found near Gate 24. It was a British plug socket adjacent to a row of seats, so plugged in my laptop to charge it up. Within minutes people started approaching me and asking me if they could charge their phones, whilst I didn’t say no (what right do I have, it’s not my plug socket), I just explained I’d only just plugged my laptop in, so they left. I hope they found another plug socket.
I found 4 Wi-Fi networks, but couldn’t connect to any of them, so was left high and dry without internet and 2 more hours to kill.
I headed across to Carinos Italian Grill for a drink and tried again to connect to the Wi-Fi networks, but again couldn’t get connected to any of them.
The staff at Carinos suggested I connect to Zajil-DASMAN LOUNGE which did connect with full strength, but I couldn’t open any pages.
Something I noticed is that despite the terminal being a non-smoking area with announcements declaring that regularly, you find the occasional person lighting up regardless.
Second Sector
KWI 23:40 MNL 16:25 Scheduled Flight Time 11h 45m Airbus A340-323
Via Bangkok (scheduled 1h 10m turnaround)
Boarding
Pre-boarding started at around 10:50, with a brief security check (although no need to remove liquids etc.). At 23:10 boarding commenced, although there was absolutely no priority boarding of any kind, just another free for all.
In-Flight
On this flight the safety briefing was a video, however many passengers continued to use their mobile phones and had headphones on throughout the departure.
The meal service this time was without a menu, and no special meals appeared. The choice was chicken or fish.
I went for the Chicken, which was quite unappetising. I couldn’t work out exactly what it was, but you can see from the photo below what it looked like. It was served with a Salad and Italian Dressing, with a Sticky Toffee Sponge dessert.
The IFE on this leg was temperamental again, however the window blinds were closed and lights turned down so most passengers slept the entire trip.
About an hour and a half prior to arrival Bangkok, hot towels were handed out and then another meal was served. The choice was Quiche or Omelette. The Omelette was served with chicken sausage, potato wedges, strawberry yoghurt, orange juice, bread and strawberry jam.
About 20 minutes prior to arrival the crew went into a hurried fluster to prepare the cabin for landing, and were snapping, or in some cases barking orders at the passengers. The cabin crew were generally rude, with only a few nice ones amongst them.
The aircraft was on the ground by 10:45, where 70% of the passengers disembarked and a cleaning team came on board. We were asked to remain on board, whilst being attacked with vacuum cleaners. Around a dozen additional passengers boarded for the final leg from Bangkok to Manila. Refuelling and a full crew change took place as well.
We spent just over an hour on the ground and then departed for Manila. During this short flight, yet another meal was served.
The crew on this sector were clearly much friendlier, and most of them were Thai and Filipino.
Primary Flaws
• No Frequent Flyer Alliance
• Poor IFE
• Facilities for transfer at Kuwait Airport
• Business and First Class Seating
• Website (Booking/Online Check-in/Manage Booking)
• Customer Service lacking at times
Last edited by Yachtman; Sep 22, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Sep 22, 2011, 6:33 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Location: YLMQ
Programs: QF Gold, WY Gold
Posts: 682
Kuwait Airways - Cabin View A300 by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Economy - A340 by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Business Class by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Bangkok by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Meal by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Tea and biscuits by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Meal by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airways - Meal by , on Flickr
Last edited by Yachtman; Sep 22, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Sep 22, 2011, 6:43 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Location: YLMQ
Programs: QF Gold, WY Gold
Posts: 682
Sep 22, 2011, 6:50 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Location: YLMQ
Programs: QF Gold, WY Gold
Posts: 682
Kuwait Airport - Terminal 1 by , on Flickr
Kuwait Airport - Terminal 1 by , on Flickr
Visa issuing desk visible on the right.
Sep 22, 2011, 7:07 pm
#7
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: SAT / MAA / BOM
Programs: CO Plat; UA 1K; EK Gold
Posts: 5,110
Nice TR on a rarely reported airline.
You flew in Economy? right?
Their Business and first class prices are often way cheaper...no wonder why...
Also, is this flight the one coming in from JFK to LHR and onwards to KWI?
Glad you made it in one piece!!
I especially enjoyed the part where everyone wanted to use your plug socket!
You flew in Economy? right?
Their Business and first class prices are often way cheaper...no wonder why...
Also, is this flight the one coming in from JFK to LHR and onwards to KWI?
Glad you made it in one piece!!
I especially enjoyed the part where everyone wanted to use your plug socket!
Sep 22, 2011, 10:28 pm
#8
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: TSV, Australia
Posts: 2,401
Great TR. Thanks for posting. The thing about the way Indians were treated doesn't surprise me at all. It is pretty much the same everywhere in the Gulf.
I have a couple of questions. Firstly, how much was the Kuwaiti visa? Secondly, although the flights sounded crap, I didn't really get anything that was so awful I'd want to cancel my return. Did it cost you anything to do so?
I have a couple of questions. Firstly, how much was the Kuwaiti visa? Secondly, although the flights sounded crap, I didn't really get anything that was so awful I'd want to cancel my return. Did it cost you anything to do so?
Sep 22, 2011, 11:49 pm
#9
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: IHG Platinum
Posts: 1,198
Never been to the Gulf, but have heard that it's pretty shoddy treatment that's meted out to the Indians there. A lot of the Indians or rather the bulk of them head there as labourers/ semi skilled workers and for many of them it would be there first time in a plane and at a airport and stuff like that...
Thanks for sharing the trip report for Kuwait Airways.. Always good to read up on the lesser-known carriers that are certainly not first choice for most travelers.
Thanks for sharing the trip report for Kuwait Airways.. Always good to read up on the lesser-known carriers that are certainly not first choice for most travelers.
Sep 23, 2011, 1:22 am
#10
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: YLMQ
Programs: QF Gold, WY Gold
Posts: 682
Hi, thanks for the comments. Answers to the questions are;
1) Yes, flight was in Economy
2) I think the visa cost 3 Kuwait Dirhams (About 7 British Pounds / 11 US Dollar), and was well worth it
3) I changed my return flight back for several reasons, one was I didn't particularly find the airline safe (just a feeling, it probably is safe), and because of the IFE and for convenience. I'd paid for the ticket myself, however work paid for my Etihad ticket to Europe so in effect it didn't cost it.
Many thanks.
1) Yes, flight was in Economy
2) I think the visa cost 3 Kuwait Dirhams (About 7 British Pounds / 11 US Dollar), and was well worth it
3) I changed my return flight back for several reasons, one was I didn't particularly find the airline safe (just a feeling, it probably is safe), and because of the IFE and for convenience. I'd paid for the ticket myself, however work paid for my Etihad ticket to Europe so in effect it didn't cost it.
Many thanks.
Sep 23, 2011, 4:53 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Location: YLMQ
Programs: QF Gold, WY Gold
Posts: 682
Another report on Kuwait Airways from 2010, with a few more photos from someone else that seems to have similar experience to mine http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/...pic.php?t=9308
Sep 30, 2011, 2:54 am
#12
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: New York, Atlanta, Amsterdam, KSAV
Programs: QR Gold, EK, Accor, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold VIP, Delta
Posts: 422
Since we are all mechanics, the consensus I observed from others is about 100% NOT TO EVER fly Kuwait Airways. One coworker here for 12 years now flew them once or twice and has stated to me that he 'would rather walk to Australia and back before flying with KU ever again, even if they paid him.
That pretty much sums it up for me, and never allow KU to enter the equation when making travel plans.
As far as Indian nationalities at the KWI airport, every single one of my eight departures from there I have had problems with them in queues. They are totally impatient and will consistently push you as if that is going to make the line for passport control or boarding the aircraft make the aircraft depart any sooner. On two occasions I actually had to tell someone if they did it again they were at risk of getting their a$$ kicked. Once was done blatantly done in front of the police/military officer at a particular checkpoint spurring a talking to that was probably as rude as what the Indian was giving me. I ignored his pushing me at least ten times, but when he actually pushed me and tried going around me was when he got the rude response from me. You get what you give, and after awhile I gave back.
Oct 4, 2011, 9:08 pm
#13
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Cambodia
Programs: UA MP Gold
Posts: 193
Regarding the crowding & jostling by people from India, the sad matter of fact is that in India it's the only way to get anything (as the orderly way will never be adopted there). Unfortunately, it's then applied abroad as well.
For the full on treatment, book 3-tiered sleeper class in India and then join the train not at its point of origination but at a stop along the way. The amount of humanity trying to make their way into an already hopelessly full car has to seen to be believed. Just too bad if your "beds" are in the middle of the car.
For the full on treatment, book 3-tiered sleeper class in India and then join the train not at its point of origination but at a stop along the way. The amount of humanity trying to make their way into an already hopelessly full car has to seen to be believed. Just too bad if your "beds" are in the middle of the car.