Being born in Saudi Arabia, I feel obliged to write a review on it. Well my dad being a travel agent , I have got a lot of chances to fly on different airlines and this is no exception. Well lets talk about the pros first. Well - mainly SAUDI ARABIAN airlines flies direct to Chennai , which is our destination in India. And second of all - being a muslim, halal food helps. But basically thats as far as I can go on about the pros.
I really hate getting into the cons - but here goes. First of all - in all the flights that I have travelled with Saudi Arabian, one usually notices the cabin crew up front at the door right? well - they appear somber faced. In other airlines - there is an attempt to smile back when you smile at them, but lo! here - you can smile all you want - but hey - who do you think cares? They appear as if they are being forced to being serving the passengers and as if we are a pain.
Moving into the plane - you can find a hostess chewing gum and staring at you (reminds of the bar waitress scenes in movies LOL), And the males will be incessantly chatting away in the galley (who says ladies are the most talkative?). Ah hell! Who cares if they welcome u or not -lets move on shall we? The inflight prayer is said in a very beautiful way , and the plane takes off (duh!). The meal service comes on - and one would expect to be given menu cards (at least standard airlines do). The hostess comes (this time without the gum) and blurts Chicken, beef or fish conitnuosly.
I had made a habit of asking could you say that again please - and boy to see the flash of annoyance on their face - they would then BEND DOWN and say it all over again. LOL. After the meal trays are collected - you can forget there are hostesses to look after you because they dissappear. I have caught a hostess sleeping when I had to shake her up because my baby bro needed milk.And it was like as if she needed a sorry and when I still said sorry - she had to say its ok dont do it again. Im thinking DOnt do what again????? You have to the galley to get a glass of water and dont you DARE ask for another refill of seven up.
I did once - and was replied with a defiant NO. The plane lands and all of a sudden some faces light up with smiles as if to imply Youre leaving? Oh my wow!. But the rest are standing by the doors - chewing gum. And you would expect someone to wish you goodbye when you exit , But EACH AND EVERY time I have flown with them - I have seen two hostess (male and female) talking across the exit - not even caring about the people who are PAYING to fly on their aircraft. And of this is the general situation - never once different( well they did not chew gum on one flight, but if you consider that as a difference..........)
All in all - we would fly only because we had no other option. But then suddenly new airlines opened up: Gulf Air (sucked - but still), Kuwait Airways (oh well), Sri Lankan (after the political situation got better - our choice since then), and many many more