AJO

The flights covered in this trip report are part of a bigger trip, consisting of 10 flights in 16 days time. The flights were: AMS-DUB on EI; DUB-LHR on BD; LHR-MCT-BKK on GF; USM-BKK on PG; BKK-REP-BKK on PG; BKK-BAH-DUB on GF; DUB-AMS on EI.
This report will primarily focus on the GF sectors, all flown in First Class. The Gulf Air flights were on a fare we'd like to refer to as The Gulf Air Special

I was going to Thailand with a mate of mine; both on separate tickets. His departure from DUB would've been in the early morning of Saturday April 21st, whilst I would be leaving that same Saturday in the late afternoon.

As you may know, GF has an old and a new First Class, depending on which aircraft you're on. Two of my flights were scheduled to be on the A330 with the new sleeper seats (or SkyBeds in GF lingo): LHR-MCT and BAH-DUB. The other two flights were scheduled to be on the A340 with old-style First Class seats. Some photos on the GF website:
A340 old-style and
A330 SkyBed.

My mate was travelling on the same flights back, but had booked different flights DUB-LHR-MCT-BKK. Due to the captain on his DUB-LHR flight being ill, he was rebooked DUB-LHR on a later BD flight, then First on QF002 LHR-BKK!!! I suppose this mistake fare has cost GF dearly

Enough about that, let's go to my flights. I've included some pix. For some reason, I can't get the thumbnails to work, so just click the links provided.

April 21st, 2007
GF006
LHR-MCT
A330-243 A4O-KA (old colors)
Seat: 1A
STD: 2030
STA: 0700 +1
ATD: about on time
ATA: 0640 +1

I was booked to fly on BD130, departing DUB at 1740 and arriving in LHR at 1900. Figuring this might be a tight connection, I approached the BD ticketing desk in DUB in the early afternoon of the 21st with my paper ticket, and asked if it would be possible to take BD128, departing 1535 and arriving in LHR 1650. "No problem at all, sir, please go to Fiona at the Business
Class check-in and she'll take care of things."
No queue at the Business Class check-in, and Fiona sorted everything in no time.
After the "instant criminalisation" at security (is putting liquids inside a plastic bag really helping to make the world a better place? I can still put C4 in my toothpaste package if I want to... ) I went to the BD gate. Nothing special to mention about BD128 (A320 G-MIDP operated the flight, which was almost full). We arrived in LHR about on time. BD arrives in T1, whilst my GF flight would depart from T3. I passed security in T1, and took the bus to T3. 35 minutes
after landing I was at the GF transfer desk in T3, only to find nobody there. A sign read something like "This desk will be manned within two hours of departure of our flights". Oh well, time to do some shopping then. After spending some money, I went back to the GF transfer desk. The friendly lady there ("Woody") changed my BD stock boarding pass to a GF stock boarding pass. I also received an invitation to the GF Business and First Class lounge.

pic 1
(this photo was made in Dublin, hence the BD ticket stock)

The lounge was just a short walk from the transfer desk. I settled and took a glass of Piper Heidsieck brut. The lounge was nice and quiet.

pic 2

The food on offer wasn't THAT impressive, just a buffet with fried rice and satay, as well as sandwiches, nuts, etc.
I took a plate of fried rice with satay; tasted very good so I took another one after that

The TVs were tuned to Sky Sports, for the match between Manchester United and Middlesbrough.

pic 3

I noticed I was the only one in the lounge drinking champagne; others were on Gin & Tonic, red wine, or soft drinks. Sometime after the football match, I finished the bottle of Piper Heidsieck.
It wasn't long before flight 6 to MCT was announced. "Sir, I'm calling a cart for you, the flight will be departing from [insert a gate far from the lounge here, I think it was either 42 or 44] and I'm not letting you walk all the way there". Well alright, why not, there's a first time for everything
After a five minute "drive", me and three other pax (one of whom was also in First, the others were in Business) arrived at the gate, just as the "Final boarding call" was made. The back of the plane was already loaded with pax, but it was a delight to turn left at the door of the aircraft (we came in through the door between First and Business Class). A friendly FA escorted me to seat 1A and took my jacket. An "amenity kit" was waiting at the seat, consisting of eye shades, a pair of
socks and a pair of ear plugs. Pretty appalling amenity kit, IMHO. I settled in the excellent seat, and was offered a drink immediately. "Champagne of course", I replied. Before long, a glass of Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle was brought to my seat, accompanied by a ramekin with hot almonds. A newspaper was offered, and I took the Financial Times.

pic 4

The SkyChef introduced himself (don't remember his name, he was arabic I think), and left a menu and a wine list with me. Shortly thereafter, the empty glass and bowl were collected, and the SkyChef offered me an arabic date and a cup of arabic coffee. Very nice! The cup was collected very shortly after, as we were about to depart. Load in First was 3 (out of 8 seats): myself in 1A, an Omani citizen in 1K and a British citizen in 2A. We had two people looking after us: the SkyChef,
and an Asian FA (female).

80 inch (!!) seat pitch:
pic 5

An attempt to show the overhead space in the aircraft (which was pretty impressive; no overhead bins in the center); notice yours truly on the right :
pic 6

After take off, the SkyChef took orders for food. All I wanted were the Arabic mezze; after that, I wanted to take the SkyBed
to the test.

Table being prepared for dinner (and another glass of Grand Siècle of course ).
pic 7

Bread basket
pic 8

Arabic mezze
pic 9

The food was just excellent! After finishing, the table was emptied, and I was told I could change in the washroom behind seat 2A. In there, I found GF pyjamas, size L (apparently, Large is the largest size available on GF). BTW, first time in my life seeing a washroom with a window on an airplane
When I returned to my seat, the bed was made. (it looked just like the picture on the website)
The 180 degrees flat bed looked very comfy, and it was! Even for a tall guy like myself, the 80 inch bed provided plenty of room to sleep (I'm 1.92m, or 6'5" for y'all Americans) I managed to sleep almost five hours (not bad, on a flight of less than seven hours). After I opened my eyes, the Asian FA was standing next to me within seconds, offering me a drink. I took a 1/2 liter bottle of water. I then ordered some plain yoghurt, fresh fruits and an energy drink (consisting of yoghurt,
strawberries and other ingredients). The breakfast was very good; the energy drink is highly recommended (sorry, forgot to take a picture of both the meal and the drink). Even though I didn't order them, the SkyChef included some pancakes; tasty but too much for me, I was still stuffed from the flight and the lounge.

I had to hurry to change into my normal clothing, because landing was imminent. One strange thing I noticed was that jackets were handed out BEFOFRE landing! "Why", is the question that arose?

Another thing I noticed, was the fact that GF FAs like to make very long announcements, especially in Arabic. A couple of times at the beginning and near the end of the flight, a short (maybe four-sentence) announcement was made in English, followed by a lengthy, multi-minute announcement in Arabic. I'm not a great fan of "general announcements" over the PA, so I
was a bit bothered by this.

Experienced the landing through the front camera; a very cool feature!
Very quiet apron in MCT, all-white Tri-Star, 3 UK Airforce Nimrods, Oman Air Force Hercules and a couple of Oman Air 737s. No jetways in MCT, so two sets of stairs were driven to the aircraft. One for the First pax at the front left door; after thanking the crew for the flight, we (the three F pax) walked down the stairs to find an entire coach just for us! Very extravagant!

Positives:
- Excellent seat / bed
- Friendly and attentive crew
- Great food and champagne

Negatives:
- Jacket handed back before landing in stead of after landing
- Long PA announcements
- Appalling amenity kit
(these negatives go four all four GF flights)

I was expecting a GF representative to pick me up at the terminal. As we arrived about 20 minutes early, there was no-one there. The whole terminal was deserted, so I just walked to the visa desk to buy an Oman visa, and then passed through immigration. (my mistake; in hindsight I should have gone to the transfer desk before immigration). I walked to the GF ticketing desk to ask what I was supposed to do. The agent was clueless, and sent me to check-in. Like in most Middle Eastern countries, one has to pass security before check-in in MCT. So after passing security again (no need to pack liquids separately; apparently, one is not a terrorist here if one wants to bring some water aboard), I approached the First Class check-in desk. The agent pointed at another GF employee, who took me to the GF crew offices (!)
Everybody was very friendly; one lady took my tickets to issue a boarding pass for my evening flight to BKK, while another lady went searching for her transfer desk colleague. Amazing to see the GF flight schedules, especially to see that a grand total of literally a handful of F pax was to travel on no less than 14 flights. (it's possible that some or more of those flights were A320 flights, on which GF only offers Business and Economy class)
After a while, a lady came in. "There you are, I was missing the transfering F class passenger!" Apparently, she missed me because of the early arrival (just as I suspected). After another 30 (!!) minutes in the crew room, I was handed a boarding pass for the MCT-BKK flight. "Why did everything take so long?" I asked. "I'm giving you the good hotel, sir" was the answer.
The lady took me to the taxi stand, and instructed a taxi driver (who looked like the brother of Jean Reno) to take me to the Radisson SAS hotel. At the hotel check-in, there appeared to be a problem. The lady behind the counter had to get a manager, who installed me in the hotel bar area whilst he was calling Gulf Air. I was offered a cup of tea in the meantime. After some
time, the manager came back and handed me his mobile phone; some Gulf Air rep on the other end who told me everything will be sorted. About 45 minutes after arriving at the Radisson SAS, I was finally in my room. Thumbs down to Gulf Air for not arranging things beforehand!

Standard room, Radisson SAS hotel MCT
pic 10

Boarding pass MCT-BKK
pic 11

Hotel room, lunch and dinner in the hotel were all courtesy of GF. Excellent food, should have taken photos of the brilliant dinner buffet.

OK, next flight.

April 22st, 2007
GF252
MCT-BKK
A340-312 A4O-LB (new colors)
Seat: 1A
STD: 2320
STA: 0830 +1
ATD: 0020 +1
ATA: About on time

Sadly, this flight was on an A340 with the old-style First Class seats.
I've included two links to airliners.net trip reports which have excellent pics of these old seats:
http://www.airliners.net/discussions...ad.main/98597/
http://www.airliners.net/discussions...ad.main/95155/

The Radisson SAS courtesy van dropped me off at the airport about two hours before the flight was supposed to leave. Wow, very busy all of a sudden, quite the contrast with my early morning arrival! Lots of international flights leave in the nighttime (BA and LX, to name but a few). Fast track security was a breeze, no hassle about liquids (and rightly so! I won't put toothpaste in the flight attendents' eyes ever again, I promise!). The lady "guarding" the lounge door bowed almost to
the ground when she saw my F Class boarding pass, and even took time to show me around the (shared Business and First Class) lounge. Pretty big lounge here in MCT, very comfy seats and pretty decent food on offer. Didn't take any though, apart from some fruits, because I was still stuffed from dinner at the Radisson SAS. Luckily, there was champagne (though it was just
"ordinary" Piper Heidsieck Brut (call me a cheap wh*re, but I actually like it very much)). After a while, the same agent who showed me 'round the lounge approached me to say: "Sir, I'm very sorry, but your flight is delayed by about an hour. I'll let you know when it's time to board." Some time later, an arabic man entered the lounge, escorted by two police officers who were carrying his carry-on luggage (believe me, two very large bags, very heavy judging by the efforts of the police
officers). Obviously an important man, as he was ordering the police officers what to do. (I'll just call him "Mr. Carry-on" next)

The thing I liked about this lounge was that all flights which had premium pax on it were announced in the lounge over the PA system. So no need to worry about missing your flight because of lounge personnel unable to locate you. At about midnight, I was getting really sleepy To stay awake, I left the lounge and started wandering around the airport. As MCT has just a small terminal, I soon walked past the BKK gate, and entered the small queue which had already formed. The
agent at the door was (literally!) pushing the passengers into a coach. When he saw my boarding pass, he took his walkie-talkie and called another coach. Ah, this one looked much more First Class, even though I had to share it with a couple of lowly Business class passengers . Mr. Carry-on also entered the bus, and was swearing at the GF agent because he had to carry his bags himself. I chatted a bit with Mr. Carry-on; to me, he was very friendly.
After a nice tour over the now busy MCT apron I was delighted to see that Mr. Carry-On was "only" in Business. I was to be the only passenger in First (so 12 seats for myself!).
Entering the aircraft, the SkyChef welcomed the First and Business Class passengers. The Business pax were just sent on their way, whilst I was escorted to seat 1A. Again, the same appalling amenity kit as on the LHR-MCT flight.

The SkyChef immediately introduced himself (can't remember his name, but he was definitely of Indian descent) and offered me a drink. "Champagne, of course", I replied. This time, it was the lovely Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque, accompanied by hot almonds. After that, he came with the menu. I immediately told him I wasn't planning to have dinner because of the time of night. The SkyChef was visibly disappointed with my choice. "What can I get you for breakfast then?" he asked. "Just a plain yoghurt, some fruits and the energy drink[listed on the menu]". "Just that?" "Yep, just that, I'm not a breakfast-type of guy". Again, I noticed the SkyChef was disappointed with my choice. Well, sometimes it be that way... The Captain came on the PA, and apologized for the delay. Flight time was announced as just 5 hours and 5 minutes (i.s.o. 6h10, as appears in the flight schedules). After departure and again some very long PA announcements, the cabin lights were
dimmed, the First Class washroom was made ready for me to change into GF pyjamas again. The First Class washroom in the A340 is really tiny, I doubt it's any bigger than the Economy washroom. When I returned to my seat, I found a blanket and pillow waiting for me. I reclined into the full flat (well, almost full flat) position, and slept for about three hours. During my sleep, I noticed a lot of walking through the First Class cabin. As the curtains between cabins were closed, I suspect that
GF FAs were walking up and down the aisles. Many times, people were walking through the aisle closest to my seat, and not making any effort to reduce noise because of the sleeping passenger. Please, guys, next time, at least be quiet(er)!!!

After about three hours, I woke up. As I didn't want to create a fuss, I thought "Let's wait until an FA shows up". Two people passed my seat, noticed I was awake, and... nothing! I decided to press the call button. After a while, the curtain between Business and First opened, and an FA entered First Class. He walked right past me! Nothing happened for the next 30 seconds, so I turned off the call light, and pressed the call button again. The same FA who just walked to the front came
back again, noticed I was awake and... again nothing!!! Hey, guys, I'd like to have some attention please! About 10 seconds later, another FA entered the First cabin from the back (she came from Business), switched off my call button light, and... walked to the front galley! Finally, some 30 seconds later, the SkyChef entered the First cabin and said "Good morning, what can I do for you?" I asked for a bottle of water and for my breakfast to be served. The bottle came immediately, and then my table was being set for breakfast. (sorry guys, no picture, completely forgot to take one )

Breakfast consisted of the stuff I ordered (plain yoghurt, fresh fruits and the energy drink, which tasted like a strawberry shake with mint; highly recommended!), as well as a small stack of pancakes. Again, very good food, even though it was pretty basic (but hey, I didn't order the full English brekkie, so I only have myself to blame!)

It was announced that the ground staff in MCT "forgot" to bring Thailand immigration forms; shame on GF for that. My jacket was again handed to me before landing, after I changed back into my normal clothing. Again, a long PA announcement. Approach to BKK was over the main highway to the city center, crossing the new SkyTrain link (under construction) to central Bangkok and landing on the runway to the right of the terminal building, which meant a long taxi around the terminal to the international part. BKK was very quiet, and immigration was relatively quick. My checked bag didn't make it though, which (obviously) sucked badly! The GF baggage agent handed me 2000 Baht and promised to keep me up to date as to when the bag would be with me again. She blamed BD for losing the bag.

Positives:
- Great food and champagne

Negatives:
- Pretty poor seat, even though I managed to sleep for a couple of hours
- The crew ignoring their own First passenger for some time after he woke up
- No immigration forms for Thailand on board
- Jacket handed back before landing in stead of after landing
- Long PA announcements
- Appalling amenity kit
- Losing my bag

Of course, the GF baggage agent never called to update me on my bag status. After many phone calls to BKK, I was told (two days later) that they had sent the bag to USM (the airport of Koh Samui island), and I should go there myself to pick it up. "No way", I said. By then, I was on the island of Koh Tao, which is pretty nearby when you look at a map, but because of boat
schedules it would mean a two-day trip to USM to pick up my bag. A day later, my dive resort informed me that my bag would arrive that day on one of the ferries from Koh Samui. It didn't, but another day later (four days after arrival!!!), I was finally re-united with my beloved bag. Thumbs down to GF baggage "service" in Thailand. But at least it was intact, so it could have been worse (like "lost forever" or something).

Still with me? Good. While in Thailand and Cambodia, we (me & my mate) had three flights with PG: USM-BKK, BKK-REP and

REP-BKK. The USM-BKK and BKK-REP flights were on a B717-200 and an A320-200 respectively, and had very low load factors. I was impressed that PG serves a meal and drink service on all flights, even very short ones like BKK-REP (maybe 30 minutes of cruise time). Above that, we were assigned exit row seats on two of three PG flights, without even having to ask (or beg :P)
for them. So thumbs up to PG, I'm looking forward to flying them again. By the way, the REP-BKK flight was near 100% full, I counted 3 empty seats in our B717-200. Also, these PG flights were my first flight on the 717, and I was impressed with this aircraft. Very passenger-friendly interior, with hand rails on the overhead bins, so people didn't have to grab headrests to find support whilst walking through the aisle. Also, the 2-3 seating meant plenty of shoulder room. Thumbs up to Boeing aircraft designers for the 717 interior!

As you may or may not know, our Dutch national holiday Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) is on the 30st of April. Of course, we went to the party organised by the Royal Dutch Embassy, and met some nice Dutch girls there (I'm not particularly fond of Asian girls, so it was nice to mingle with some of our fine countrywomen ). I discovered that the Q Bar in Bangkok has prices which are comparable to the Q Bar in other cities worldwide, so it turned out to be quite an expensive night (at least, by Thai standards )

View from room 7001 in the Baiyoke Sky Hotel ("Space Zone"):
pic 12
Apart from the view, the hotel was pretty unimpressive.

Anyways, let's go back to GF.

May 5th, 2007
GF151
BKK-BAH
A340-312 A4O-L? (didn't catch the registration; new colors aircraft)
Seat: 1H
STD: 1830
STA: 2130
ATD: Pushback on time
ATA: 2210

My mate and me were travelling on the same flights homebound (BKK-BAH-DUB on GF in First, then DUB-AMS on EI (separate ticket) in proletariat class (just kidding, most of the time I'm in the back of the aircraft as well)). After being ripped off by our taxi driver (400 Baht when we paid just 220 a couple of days before when we were going to REP), we went to the GF check-in desks, to find one person in front of us in the First Class queue. Handed the agent our paper tickets and passports,
as well as our updated itineraries, courtesy of the Gulf Air website (well, actually virtuallythere.com/gulfair). Our bags were tagged to DUB; "Gulf Air First" labels were attached to the bags. After receiving our boarding passes and invitations to the Louis Tavern First lounge, we were told to go to the last desk on the right of the GF check-in to pay our Thailand departure tax (700 Baht per person, IIRC). Funny (crazy?) thing is, nobody even checked if we paid later! What would've happend if we skipped the tax and went straight to immigration?
No Fast Track at BKK, so had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. Geez, the Louis Tavern First lounge really is a dump! (see the link posted above to on of the airliners.net reports). Shared with Priority Pass holders, so it's clear the lounge offers a pretty non-First Class experience. Just look at the roof!

pic 13

Did some duty free shopping and internetting (two computers available in the lounge with pretty fast internet connection). Soon enough, our flight was called (gate E8 IIRC). The gate was pretty close to the lounge; as we approached the gate area, we noticed "Final call" on the gate sign. IMHO, it's very nice of GF to call premium pax so close to boarding. We were escorted to our (old school) seats 1H (me) and 1K (my mate). Back to the bubbly again, along with hot cashews! Load
for this flight was 8 out of 12 First seats occupied.

pic 14
Jacquart Brut Mosaique 1998

After a top-up, our empty glasses were collected, and we pushed back roughly on time. However, by that time the weather had turned nasty. (later we learned that rainy season had started early this year). Pretty cool to see thunderstorms going directly over the airport, with lightning impact close to the aircraft a couple of times. As a result of this, we taxied to a sort of holding area, where we waited for quite some time. It was quite awesome to see the lightning strikes, and I honestly didn't have a clue how long we spent waiting there (in hindsight, it was probably about 45 minutes).

Finally, we took off. The SkyChef introduced himself (Jean from Corsica, very friendly guy) and handed out menus. Choices for food and drink were made, and soon, canapés were delivered to us (and I can't remember what they were ). As we both had different food: extra food pics for my beloved readers!

pic 15
"Mushroom soup, served with button mushrooms and green beans"

pic 16
"Arabic mezze, a variety of Middle Eastern hot and cold dishes or marinated artichoke, vine leaves, makdoos, hummus babaghanoush, warm falafel, samboosa potato kibbe, served with Arabic bread"

pic 17
"Grilled beef tenderloin served with roast potatoes, steamed long beans and Szechuan pepper sauce"
This was absolutely brilliant, best food I've ever had on an airplane!!!!!

pic 18
"Chef’s Recommendation"
Fresh prawns

pic 19
"Tatin tart - upside down apple tart with cinnamon cream sauce"

pic 20
"International cheese"

With my starter (the soup), I had the "Pouilly-Fume Les Genievres 2005, Guy Saget" white wine; with the main course (the beef), I had the "Chateau Haut Lagrange, AC Pressac-Leognan 2000".

After the meal, we probably had some 3.5 hours or so left. My mate went to sleep, while I wandered around the cabin a bit, had a chat with Jean in the galley (where I complimented him with the superb food), and just watched the airshow. Later on, I had another glass of champagne, and at some point during the flight, Haagen-Dazs ice cream was distributed to those still awake (which included yours truly). Time to play around with the IFE. IFE on the A340 is pretty basic, inside the center armrest between seats, there's even (still!) a VCR! No AVOD on this aircraft (just to make it clear, the A330s don't have AVOD either). There wasn't anything I liked on the PTV channels, so I read a bit in the GF magazine to kill time. Soon enough, cabin crew were preparing for landing. Once again, jackets were handed out before landing. Strange...

Alright, we arrived in BAH about 40 minutes late. Still plenty of time to kill, because GF23 to DUB would be leaving at 1:30 AM. After some checks, we were in the BAH departures area. Up an escalator and to the GF Business and First lounge. Pretty large lounge, most of it Business class. The First Class lounge is a separate part inside the Business lounge, with an attendant to make certain that the people who enter the lounge are allowed to do so.

Had some small sandwiches in the lounge, checked in online for our EI flight DUB-AMS (very nice that GF provides printers free of charge in the lounge). This was the only GF lounge with service; attendants (and a SkyChef, or GroundChef I suppose ) would come 'round and get you drinks and food. Feeling very tired, time crept towards 1:15 AM. At that time our flight was called, and we took the short walk to the gate. Inside the airbridge, there was a Bahraini gentleman checking boarding passes and passports. When he saw my Dutch passport, he wished me a good flight in Dutch! Very nice. Again we were among the last pax to board the aircraft.

May 65th, 2007
GF23
BAH-DUB
A330-243 A4O-KD
Seat: 1F
STD: 0130
STA: 0650 (??? I honestly don't remember)
ATD: Pushback on time
ATA: Arrival about 10 minutes early

Upon entering the aircraft, one of the girls at the door took us to our seats (1E and 1F), and introduced us to Naomi, our SkyChef for this flight. Just three passengers in First today, including one GF employee (not in uniform, but I would guess she was a flight attendant).

I opted for an orange juice, which was brought to my seat promptly. Menus were handed out; I told Naomi that I only wanted breakfast, as I had a pretty good dinner on the BKK-BAH flight and then some sandwiches in the BAH lounge. We had an on-time departure, and pretty soon, I found myself in GF pyjamas enjoying the SkyBed. After some four hours sleep, I awoke somewhere over Austria. Pretty soon, one of the FAs noticed I was awake, and I had the chance to order some water. I
changed into my normal clothes again, and soon enough, the breakfast I ordered before going to sleep was being prepared.

pic 21
"Seasonal fresh fruits (pineapple, grapefruit, watermelon) with yoghurt"
"Energy drink (coconut, pineapple etc. with fluid yoghurt)"
"Delicious French croissant with strawberry jam"

pic 22
"Bruschetta
Topped with tomato relish, avocado and Swiss cheese"
This was really brilliant!

Took a pic of the cabin too:

pic 23

Well, to make a long story short, once again we made it to the ground safely. Bags took some time in Dublin, but at least everything was there!

pic 24
Our plane A4O-KD

One last comment about Dublin airport: our flight to AMS was leaving from gate A69, which appeared to be somewhere halfway between Dublin and Waterford. Very depressing surroundings at the far A gates; endless hallways, and finally a big hall which looked very, very cheap.

Well, anyways, GF was pretty nice, especially considering what we paid

AJO

obviously exposing my computer skills, I apologize for the lay-out and for the lack of in-line clickable thumbnail pictures

Fliar

Great report, thanks for posting! Sounds like a great experience for a great price :-)

jetfan

Great report!
I've never been on GF but with such low loads in their premium cabin it's no wonder they are doing so badly financially and cutting many many routes!

AJO

and two guys travelling on Y-class priced tickets won't help either

ylwae

I'd find it strange if the jackets were handed out after landing.

couscous

Great report and great pics. Thanks.

TrayflowInUK

I see the OP's point; for an F cabin with only a few people in it, why not just wait until after landing? In J, I find it annoying when jackets are handed back as part of the standard pre-arrival procedure 20 minutes before touchdown.

Great TR! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

BiziBB

Thank you for such a detailed yet entertaining trip report - what a way to say goodbye to most of GF's network outside of the ME/Asia regions...

ylwae

In principle, it's a good point. But with whatever duties the FAs have after touchdown, and/or because of passengers and their personal effects in the aisles, it may not be practical. In every C/F cabin I've been in, regardless of passenger load, any clothing in a closet has been handed back to me before landing.

And yes, interesting TR--forgot to mention it before.

jacob_m

Great report and great pics!! Very nice to see a report of an airline rarely mentioned here.

I was thinking the same, that's the industry standard from my experience. The FAs are too busy after landing with the security checks and letting passengers off as quickly as possible

yow777

Great trip report^

LH738

Excellent picture report.

AJO

thanks for all the kind words, guys, I'll remember to make reports of future trips ^