I was very excited about visiting Kathmandu, why wouldn’t I be, last I was there was 4 years ago. Thank god my flight was in the morning, or else I would have died waiting due to excitement. Flight from Lafayette to Dallas was just 90 minutes long, but when I reached Frankfurt from Dallas after 10 straight hours of flight I was already lethargic. I had noticed few people frequently standing or roaming inside the aircraft, I had no idea what they were doing. I got the answer when I felt my knee was sore, those folks must be experienced travelers.
Understanding signs and finding boarding area for my next flight was real troublesome, not all people around the airport knew English (at least those I approached). I was glad I came to study in America, I can’t think of myself learning a new language again. My flight still had four more hours to go, so the display in the terminals won’t show them either. Finally with few hand signs and broken language I found the gate/terminal and the way to get there.
I had purchased my ticket as a package (involves American Airlines (AA) and Gulf Air). My remaining flights were from Gulf Air, for some reason the AA couldn’t get my luggage to travel till KTM (I had to claim them at Bahrain and recheck them again. I learnt later that this problem is common; when I tried calling AA they had no clue. If AA claims Gulf Air to be their partner airline they somehow need to sort this). I had about 16 hours of transit in Bahrain (that’s what you get if you look for cheap tickets) and the thoughts of carrying around those suitcases made me sick. Fortunately the Gulf Air representative in Frankfurt fixed that and issued me new boarding passes (now I can claim my luggage straight at KTM). However, he made me weigh my hand carry again. Like I said before, I purchased this fair as a package, so the rules for Gulf Air should be same as the rules for AA. AA allows 40 lb of hand carry and a personal item (I had a backpack with a laptop), but Gulf Air allows only 10kg of hand carry and no backpacks as personal item. The agent said it’s the European policy to have that limit on the hand carry (I’m not sure about that, I checked Gulf Air’s site later, they have even lesser limit on those). I was bemused, how you would call it a package when there are different set of rules at different stops. I had checked in just one luggage (two are allowed per person), so the agent was happy to let me carry my hand carry (however he made other people pay and check in their hand carry that was way beyond 10kg). He had wanted me to check in either my backpack or the hand carry (only one allowed); I couldn’t agree to that because both had very important stuffs that I wanted near me. Finally he let me take both when he learnt that I had laptop in my backpack. What kind of rule is that? If you have laptop you can carry a backpack if not you can’t. I strongly suggest Gulf Air to make similar rules as AA (or come up with a standard for passenger starting from USA and continuing through their airlines, and also make sure that the travel agent who sells tickets for them spell it clearly to their clients) if they continue using AA as their code share airlines for trips to/from USA and Canada. Though the in flight hospitality of any Airlines from America may be informal and limiting compared to Gulf Air, but I felt ease of information access is never lacking (may be I’m biased here as I am used to American ways). I was glad that everything was finally sorted.
I met five more Nepalese traveling to Nepal through the same flights, which was comforting as there would be no shortage for morale support. The flight time to Bahrain was 7 hours (not bad after what I had already endured). I was bit nervous about Bahrain: 16 hours of overnight transit, a rich country by virtue of oil, a completely foreign language, human rights issues in Middle East Countries, a hub for Nepalese labors, a post in Sajha about authorities in Bahrain locking up a Nepalese student traveler from USA ……………………………
To be continued………….
Doesn’t AA have a bad record in services etc etc ..’cause I’ve heard people making jokes of the airline.. or is it just an easy target for comedians ???
NNepali,
For domestic flights I personally haven’t seen much difference between them and others. But I was impressed with the politeness of stewards(ess) of Gulf Air compared to AA. I am unaware of any bad records though.
My experience was somewhat similar, in fact I had a longer flight from New Orleans to Chicago, then Chicago to Paris and then to Bahrain. I got my tickets late so didn’t get the best route to fly. Long flight always sucks. In addition, our flight from Bahrain to Kathmandu was delayed due to weather. You were lucky not to have witnessed the long lines we had to go through to receive hotel voucher and exit the Bahrain airport for transit. Some people (flying out of Gulf region) may have been stradted at the airport without accomodation. I was happy to get accomodation but it was a painful few hours trying to get it all straight with hotel and meal plans. Trying to board the plane in Bahrain was a mess, apparently the flights are almost always overbooked. I was concerned after looking at the long line to board the plane that I may not get to leave even after such a long delay. In the end I made it out of Bahrain but left me wondering if I should ever fly through there. Gulf air has terrible management. I believe I read an article about reshuffle in their administration due to losses in a recent quarter. Does not leave me surprised.
ARAryal Bro,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I too had to wait on the line on Gulf Air counter to get the voucher. But, I knew of that from the begining and was mentally prepared for that. Pragya flying through that route earlier was great help to me. However in your case it was sudden change of plan, and Gulf Air might not be prepared to accomodate extra people.
I won’t complain about the service though, it was the good for the price paid.