Ok, first trip report for me. This is about a month or two old but what the heck, i'll post it anyway.

So I was travelling from MCT to LAX via LHR and IAD. I was suppose to get in on Friday night. My first mistake was making an important obligation on Saturday morning. I figured that my connections were pretty well spaced though and I'd be good. (I had a part in a film and had to be on set at 9:00am)

MCT is a pretty sparse airport to put it nicely. Even the locals think it's trashy. When I got to the airport there were so many Indians (real Indians not the American ones ) flying out that I couldn't get through to security/baggage Xray (security there is before the ticket counters and they xray everything as you go through). The line must have been and hour or two long. I went to one of the security gaurds to plead my case that I had a flight to catch without much thought that it would work. He looked at my passport and then ushered several Omani's and I through to the front. I asked a buddy of mine who is Omani what that was about and he said that they always do that for locals, europeans, and americans/canadians. Weird.

So I finally climbed aboard my now 2 hour late Gulf Air flight to LHR. As I settled into my lovely coach seat (no status on Gulf Air... yet) a big guy came on board, walked down the isle and tripped on an older ladies feet. I thought this guy was going to start hitting the lady right there but he opted to start pushing the husband. The son got up and started yelling and now things were out of control. The flight attendants and security tried to calm everyone down and I figured we'd take off soon. But no, the big guy jumped up and started shoving the son and the dad for no reason. Security came on AGAIN and it took six security guys to pull the big guy off the two passengers and out the door. He was screaming bloody murder about how he'd sue them etc. I have to say security did their job rather quickly though.

Ok, so we take off... finally now over three hours late. I'm good though I have a long layover in LHR. Funny, i start seeing the airplane circling on the big screen. We are just going round and round and round. And there was a bumping and wheezing noise below us. No announcement. Then someone says "hey there's fuel coming off the wings". Sure enough we get an announcement that we have to make an emergency landing due to a minor technical issue. Let me translate that:

Minor technical issue = landing gear won't lock up or down due to some sort of hydraulic switch failure

After an hour of circling and dumping fuel and no more announcements. They finally told us what the deal was and that we had to go land in Bahrain since that's where Gulf Air's base of operations are. We land. No air conditioning two hours, no one allowed off the plane. Hooray! The problem is fixed! We take off. Everyone is happy! I can still make my flight in LHR...

Now how they fixed the landing without actually testing it, i'll never know. Well, they didn't fix it because what do you know, we're circling again and dumping fuel.

After landing they again wouldn't let us off. The PAX literally overwhelmed the FA's and Security and got off anyway. It was like something out of a movie. I've never seen security and FA's look so bewildered. They got us another plane and after a few more hours we FINALLY took off.

Long story short, I missed all of my connections, missed my call time, they got another actor to take my part and that director will probably never want to see me again.

Here's the kicker: I saw the big guy that they kicked off in MCT. He got to LHR about two hours after our flight was originally suppose to get in. Oh the luck of some people.

What a FUN trip report! Sounds like you had an ADVENTURE! Always wanted to go to Muscat.

How hot was it in BAH? 2 hrs w/ no AC? Must have been insufferable.

Was this all in English or Arabic or Hindi or...?

Final question: since you had to dump fuel TWICE then fly to LHR, did they charge you triple the normal fuel surcharge?

I enjoyed myself immensly in Oman. If you ever get the chance to visit I'd say go. The hospitality was fantastic, the food is great! There is plenty to see and do. The markets are an excellent place to find inexpensive gold. Unfortunately I was there for work. One of these days I do want to vacation there.

Anyway, I think BAH was about 105 F which was cooler than usual. But it was ridiculously humid. There was some airflow but no AC. The airflow kept it ok and they had some fans on the jet bridge blowing the airport air into the aircraft. It was no picnic though. On the aircraft all the F/A's spoke English and Farsi very well. The pilots not so much though (they were British). It's rather interesting that even though there are a lot of Hindi speaking travellers none of the F/A's spoke it. They used english as the crossover language.
Yes, we couldn't get off the plane without giving them our credit card info!!

I loved this TR!!
I have had a couple of Gulf air adventures myself.

Brings back some "interesting" memories ...