Kuwait Airways Review: Economy Class Frankfurt – Bangkok – Frankfurt

Review Kuwait Airways Economy Class Frankfurt – Bangkok

This review of Kuwait Airways is not from one flight Frankfurt to Bangkok and back. I used them for the last 3 years so you see more food than you would see on only one flight.

Before we start with the Review of Kuwait Airways we dive a bit into the history of the airline. You can skip right here to the Kuwait Airways review.

Kuwait Airways or in Arabic: الخطوط الجوية الكويتية‎, al-Xuṭūṭ al-Jawwiya al-Kuwaitiyah is the national carrier of Kuwait. Kuwait Airways is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.
In 1953 a group of Kuwaiti businessmen founded Kuwait National Airways. The government took a 50% interest. A five-year management contract was signed with British International Airlines (BIA) a BOAC subsidiary in Kuwait that operated charter flights and provided maintenance services. Operations started finally on the 16th of March in 1954. In July 1955, the name Kuwait Airways was adopted. BIA was taken over by Kuwait Airways in April 1959.
In February of 2017, the Government of Kuwait took over Kuwait Airways.

The original Logo and the new Logo

The Kuwait Airways logo was sketched in 1958 from the then acting CEO Harry Pusey. He was inspired by a bird ready to leave a tree branch.

The airline revamped its livery in October 2016.

A new paint scheme on the planes started with the first of 10 Boeing 777-300ERs they took over at Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ Headquarters, in Seattle, USA.

An official launch event for the new design was held at the same time. Kuwait Airways presented new Uniforms and an updated bird logo.

You can see the bird taking off on the back and tail of the new Boeing 777-300ER. The first delivery of the new 777-300ER touched down in Kuwait in December 2016. The total order was 10 planes and the last one was delivered in the Fall of 2017.
Further additions to the fleet will include 15 Airbus A320neo’s and 10 Airbus A350s. Their delivery is scheduled to start in 2019. Once the delivery of the new aircraft is concluded, Kuwait Airways said it will sport the youngest commercial airline fleet in the world.

Review Kuwait Airways Frankfurt – Bangkok – Frankfurt

This Kuwait Airways review is from my flight from Frankfurt to Kuwait and from Kuwait to Bangkok. And from Bankok over Kuwait back to Frankfurt.

Travel Dates:  December 17th, 2017 and May 3rd, 2018

Website and Booking Management

Let’s take a look at Kuwait Air’s website (https://www.kuwaitairways.com) first. I only review the part that you would use after you book your flight. If you book with the airline or not does of course not matter. You will get your 6 digit Booking Reference or your E-TICKET Number in the confirmation email. On the website, you will find the tab Manage Booking. From there you click on Manage Booking again. This brings you to a new page where you can book all the extras like Seat Selection, Meal Selection if you require or want a special meal like Vegetarian, Vegan or Halal and many more. You find another button for Special Service. This would be a Wheel Chair.

Now it is time to choose some seats and the meal if you do not want the food options they will have on the flight. In my case, it is a Vegetarian meal without dairy products. Let’s do that:

So far so good. There could be a button on the first tab of the Meal Selection to have the same meal for the trip. But if you like different food it only takes a minute to complete the whole trip.

As you can see – all of the above was free of charge which I do like a lot. Usually, a non-standard meal is free with every airline as long as you do not fly Low-Cost Carriers. But free seat selection – especially the seats with more legroom are long gone on a lot of airlines.

So far this is 5 Star!

The App

My screenshots are from an iPhone but I guess it does look similar on an Android phone.

The App works very well and is nice to look at. I got my flight with the iMac so I do not know how booking is all the way to the end. But if you want to choose seats or your meal you can do that easy with the App.
This is one of the best Apps from an airline I ever had on my iPhone!

Another 5 Stars

Baggage and Carry-On Luggage

The baggage allowance on Kuwait Airways:
Royal Class 3 pieces (32kgs each piece) Maximum dimension 300cm / 118inch
First Class 2 pieces (32kgs each piece) Maximum dimension 300cm / 118inch
Business Class 2 pieces (32kgs each piece) Maximum dimension 158cm / 65inch
Economy Class 2 pieces (23kgs each piece) Maximum dimension 158cm / 65inch
Infants on each class 1 (10kgs) not exceeding total dimensions 115 cms or 45 inches.
Maximum dimension: length + width + height

The normal CHECK-IN Bag should be within: Length 90cm / Width 65cm / Height 75cm. Everything bigger is considered cargo and you have to pay extra.

Free Carry-On Baggage
Royal, First, and Business Class 1 piece not to exceed 11 Kgs. One small Laptop Bag
Economy Class One piece not to exceed 7 Kgs. One small Laptop Bag to be placed under the seat in front.

This is 5 Stars!

Check-In & Boarding

Check-In
That is the same old Check-In as with every airline. You get to the airport and depending on the size of it have to walk, take a bus, the Skytrain or whatever kind of connection they offer between terminals. After that, you go to the counters and get in line with the other travelers.  When it is your turn you give your passport and put your bags on the scale. Do not forget to leave without your luggage receipt!

Boarding
Sometimes it works better and sometimes not. If you ever took a plane out of New Delhi you might remember that nobody cares about the lady at the desk. She can say “Now we like to invite our 1st Class and Business Class customers to board” as long as she wants. Everybody will run and block the gate.
Unless I really have an experience I remember the Check-In will not be part of the review.

Economy Cabin Seat Kuwait Airways

Kuwait Airways Boing 777-300ER Economy Class comes with a 3-3-3 seating configuration. 3 seats on the left, 3 seats in the middle and 3 seats on the right side of the plane. Personally, I prefer a 2-5-2 configuration. This way only the passenger in the middle of the plane has to climb over 2 other passengers to get to the toilet or get something out of his bag. Of course only if the plane is full. And if the plane is not full you leave the seats in the middle empty. Or let’s say you are a family traveling with two or three children. What is better than to have them between the parents? Both can attend to them which is not possible if you have 2 children in a 3-3-3 configuration.
The Economy Class seat has a width of 46cm (18″) and a pitch of 81cm (32-35″)
The Business Class seat has a width of 56cm (22″) and a pitch/bed length of 193cm (76″)
The First Class seat has a width of 61cm (24″) and a pitch/bed length of 203cm (80″)

The plane was less than a year old and the seats one of the latest ones on the market. Nothing to complain here.

The same goes for the lavatories.

Lets talk about legroom
I am 203 cm which is something like 6 Feet 8 Inches. Take a look at this picture how much space was left even for me in a standard seat!

I had the Exit Row on three of my 4 flights and one time I could switch from my seat in the first row of the cabin. Less space than Exit Row but still much better.

Strange – if you fly the plane is relatively quiet compared to other planes. But if you look at the numbers it is quite average

I give 5 Stars for Seating and the cabin!

Kuwait Airways Economy Class Meals

I choose the Vegetarian option without Dairy. Many more to choose from and of course they have regular meals as well.

Nothing to call home about if you ask me. The food was OK but that was it. Kuwait Airways is a Dry Airline so there was no Alcohol to choose.  I do not mind a Beer to sip while looking at clouds or a glass of Red with my food.

I can only give 3.5 stars for the food. With alcoholic beverages, it would be 4.5 stars. But I know that this is a dry airline when I book it – still I like to fly with them! And I guess it is healthy for a change 🙂

Kuwait Airways Economy Class In-Flight Entertainment System

The screen comes with a USB port to charge your device. The seat has another one if you need to charge your Phone and Tablet for example. If you play a game with your seat neighbor you can plug two headphones on the screen.

There are a few hundred movies to choose – plenty of them in English. On top of that TV-Series and Documentaries.

The screen shows you the time you have left till arriving at the airport. If your flight time is shorter than the movie you choose the in-flight system will give you a warning if you still want to see the movie.

This is a Vegetarian lunch and it was quite good.

I give 5 Stars for the entertainment system.

Customer Service

Service does not only mean the service you receive while in the air. It is the service you get while still on the ground as well. This part is about Customer Service on the ground.
Since I book 6-month tickets and I do book them fairly early the flight plan does change sometimes. I had this 2 times with Kuwait. The flight to Kuwait and Bangkok changed one hour back or forth which does not matter. But two times they booked me with a very inconvenient layover time in Kuwait on the way back. From 4 hours or less to 15 hours. I have no clue who does things like that.
Last year I called an agent in Kuwait since I was still in Thailand. That took some time but worked well.
This year I tried to call their service phone in Germany, Switzerland, Kuwait, and the USA. Was lucky in the USA but the connection dropped only a minute before we were done. The next agent could not understand my request and put me back in the loop. REALLY??
In the end, I reached somebody at the airport office of Kuwait Airways in Frankfurt. He gave me the email of the city office. Only hours later my flight was changed back to the same date with the 4 hours layover again. Reaching nobody on the phone in 3 out of 4 countries is not acceptable!

I can only give one star for the Customer Service of Kuwait Airlines

Cabin Crew

The cabin crew was always there when I needed them. The flight attendant working my aisle was walking the seats from time to time so there was no need to buzz them.
Service was friendly and I do not remember anything unpleasant.

Summary of my Review for Kuwait Airlines

My rating of Kuwait Airlines: 4.18 Stars

What do you think of Kuwait Airways? Please let me know in the comment section!

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I like to travel and I like to snap pictures! My mother got me an Eurorail ticket when I was 15 and together with 2 friends we adventured into France. This was the beginning of a new addiction. On this site, I want to share some tips and trips with you! Now I am on the road for more than 8 months every year. Visiting old friends and making new friends while exploring this big blue ball. My Blog with a lot of travel pictures: https://hastenteufel.name

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