Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
According to the GF website - quote from their 'Falcon Gold' product and service information (my bolding):
As part of its substantial fleet and product upgrade programme, from the end of 2011 Gulf Air will introduce a new state-of-the-art flat bed throughout the Falcon Gold cabins on long haul flights operating on routes over 4.5 hours. In the interim, customers travelling on a fully flexible Falcon Gold ticket will be granted the airline’s sleeper seats, positioned at the front of the aircraft, when available.
Passengers taking advantage of the excellent value, less flexible Falcon Gold fares will continue to enjoy Gulf Air’s lie-flat seats, available on the airline’s A330 and A340 aircraft which operate on Gulf Air’s long haul routes including, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and a number of regional routes on an ad-hoc basis.
From the clear terms and conditions accompanying the above:
Full fare paying Falcon Gold passengers will be granted priority for the sleeper seats where available (rows 1 & 2 on wide bodied aircraft A330-200 (332) and A340-300 (340).
Sleeper seats are not a guaranteed feature of the Falcon Gold cabin.
I don't think it could be any clearer...
full fare J gets you a sleeper seat (full flat), a lower fare gets you a 'lie-flat'.
I have flown the A330 in F a few years ago and can confirm full flat sleeper seats are available, in the front cabin only (2 rows).
Regular J class seating was the lie flat at an angle. Sounds like those were the seats you got.
It would be useful if you could quote me where in Gulf Air's terms and conditions and/or contract of carriage, is there a requirement that I read or even look or even know about their website, which has new additional rules imposed on people. And there is clearly conflicting info on their webiste which specifically states all flights to BKK will have lie-flat seats. I looked at their website pictures, to see what the lie flat seats look like. I had no obligation to even do that, or read anything further.
And what they really should have done is show a photo of the A330 non lie-flat seats, and state "this is what you'll get, but maybe you'll be lucky and get something better, but that's not guaranteed". They chose to do illegal "bait and switch" advertising.