raj208

Hello everyone,

I'm new here and was wondering if anyone can give me their experiences with the following airlines. I have heard really bad things about Kuwait and better things about Etihad and Qatar. I have posted the round trip prices below:

- Kuwait Airways ($810)
- Etihad Airways ($900)
- Qatar Airways ($1050)

Thank you.

aniruddh77

Welcome Raj208. I take it that at the prices you quoted, these are economy fares. Definitely not Kuwait, and to me, the best option seems to be Etihad. Qatar's J is good, not sure about Y. Plus your layover will be at Abu Dhabi which is probably a better bet than Doha...

jpatokal

I'll second Etihad. Qatar is also quite good, but Kuwait is terrible.

Check out the Trip Reports sticky in the Middle East forum, you'll find quite a few reviews for flights in Y there.

aniruddh77

jpatokal, thanks for the reference to the ME Forum...particularly loved this one trip report (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ey-photos.html)!

raj208

Thanks a bunch folks!

Avoided Kuwait based on your comments and booked on Qatar airways for $890 a pop for the whole family. I think it's agood deal..I never flew on Qatar but hope for the best since we paid a bit more.

Emirates and Jet airways were a bit more expensive, so avoided those..

I'm just wondering if anyone has any info on cancellation policies by airline, just in case there is a better deal within 24 hours...just wondering.

jpatokal

That's going to depend on your ticket's conditions, but since the fare was cheap, odds are you can't do it or, at best, would need to pay a punitive cancellation fee.

raj208

After purchasing Qatar airways - I mean we don't fly a lot and we are flying in Economy, and checking the internet a bit more, Qatar seems to have a bad reputation among Economy passengers.

Is this the consensus? If someone has flown with them consistently within this year, can you please comment on the quality of economy flights. I find the reviews hard to locate because most trip reports are regarding business class or first class accomodations.

I'm seriously considering re-booking somewhere else after reading some things. I heard that they treat the economy cabin passengers like crap.

hserus

The middle east airlines are all like that - especially on the India runs. Most of the pax on that route (and especially into Kerala) are plumbers, carpenters, laborers etc - first time fliers with well, cruder than usual habits. Plus the gulf planes into India are all crowded and if you're in Y, you have a long, long wait ahead of you in immigration at TRV.

If you can pay for J or upgrade your ticket into J, go right ahead.

Etihad seems to be the best of the middle eastern airlines, followed by Qatar, in economy.

jpatokal

As hserus says, all Gulf airlines to India are like that, perhaps understandably -- the crews have to deal day in, day out with people who have never been on a plane before, have no idea how anything works or what they're supposed to do, and don't speak English. (The last time I flew Etihad DEL-AUH, there was a constant chorus of "bong! bong! bong!" as people poked at the stewardess call buttons on the handsets by accident/out of curioisty, and my friendly seatmate chugged down the powdered coffee creamer like a packet of pan masala.) However, you'll stand out by clothing, accent etc, and will (probably) be treated better.

I wouldn't worry too much though, since service will be fine on the long JFK-Qatar haul, which is what really matters. Qatar-Trivandrum is comparatively only a short hop.

raj208

I should have mentioned that it was JFK-Doha-TRV and TRV-Doha-JFK

I'm taking a wild guess that the cruder portion of the flight will be the Doha-TRV leg and back. I unfortunately don't know anyone that flew these legs.

Kumaranyc

I have taken Kuwait Airways, long time ago. The flights are manageable - it is not the end. I was not impressed at all by the airport in Kuwait but that was ten years ago. I am not going to complain about the airport in Kuwait when the airport in Cochin has buildings that are abandoned or half constructed. Yes there are people who show, "cruder than usual habits," on these mid-east to India flights. I am thinking, as people take more flights, the habits will get more refined and the airports in India will be more grander.

BTW, have you thought about joining an airline frequent flier program and enjoy the benefits of flying with its alliance members.

aniruddh77

hserus and jpatokal have said it and I wouldn't normally do this (ie, repeat), but ME-India flights are exactly how they've described them. It doesn't seem to matter if you're flying into / out of Kerala (COK, TRV) or elsewhere in India. Its all the same.

hserus

Business class middle east to india is usually quite cheap so see if you can't buy an upgrade on the doha to cochin leg. Trust me, crude passengers or not, standing in line at immigration for 2 hours ++ at something like 3 AM in the morning will test the patience of a saint.

aniruddh77

Entirely agree, given the efficiency of our guys at immigration...

bosbiz

I've never had problems before flying in from the US to TRV via Dubai (usually UA to Emirates). Normally can get from landing to getting out with luggage in about 20 minutes.

However, this last time I took Kuwait Airways and we were behind about 200 people waiting for immigration. Luckily that took about 45 minutes. The real pain was waiting for luggage as it took over 2 hours.

Apparently this has become a problem in TRV with kuwait and air india complaining per a note in the local paper. Shashi Tharoor apparently brought it up saying there were 1/3rd the immigration staff needed at TRV at the moment.