Category: Travel

I’ve only flown out of the new Jazeera Airways terminal once since it opened and it wasn’t that great of an experience. That was back when their terminal had access to the main terminal where all the restaurants and lounges were. But, shortly after I flew out of the Jazeera terminal, they closed off access to the main terminal which meant passengers could no longer use any of the lounges.

But last week Jazeera finally launched a new lounge for their business class passengers (and some credit card holders) inside their terminal. Not sure if the seating condition in the Jazeera terminal has improved vastly since I was last there, but if its anything close to how it was when I tried the terminal, then this is a much-needed lounge.

Photo by @bo.waleed1

The 2019 annual airline and airport ratings from AirHelp was released last week. Both Kuwait Airways and the Kuwait Airport scored extremely poorly on their list. Kuwait Airport was ranked as the second worst airport in the world, while Kuwait Airways ranked as the third worst airline.

AirHelp is an organization that specializes in air traveler rights. Their airline’s score is based off which airlines offer the best service, flies on time, and how they treat passengers if problems occur. The AirHelp airport’s score is based on punctuality, service quality and the food and shops options. Below are the top 10 lists for best and worst in each category:

Best Airlines of 2019
10. Emirates
9. Austrian Airlines
8. Luxair
7. WestJet
6. LATAM Airlines
5. Qantas
4. SAS Scandinavian Airlines
3. Aeromexico
2. American Airlines
1. Qatar Airways

Worst Airlines of 2019
10. Adria Airways
9. Aerolineas Argentinas
8. Transavia
7. Laudamotion
6. Norwegian
5. Ryanair
4. Korean Air
3. Kuwait Airways
2. EasyJet
1. Thomas Cook Airlines

Here is a link to the full list.

Best Airports of 2019
10. Viracopos/Campinas International Airport, Brazil
9. Tenerife North Airport, Spain
8. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, India
7. Changi Airport Singapore, Singapore
6. Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia
5. Gdansk Lech Wałęsa Airport, Poland
4. Afonso Pena International Airport, Brazil
3. Athens International Airport, Greece
2. Tokyo International Airport, Japan
1. Hamad International Airport, Qatar

Worst Airports of 2019
10. London Gatwick Airport, United Kingdom
9. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Canada
8. Porto Airport, Portugal
7. Paris Orly Airport, France
6. Manchester Airport, United Kingdom
5. Malta International Airport, Malta
4. Henri Coanda International Airport, Romania
3. Eindhoven Airport, Netherlands
2. Kuwait International Airport, Kuwait
1. Lisbon Portela Airport, Portugal

Here is a link to the full list.

I’ve already mentioned this before but I think it’s pretty harsh having our airport and airline rank that bad. Yeah, they’re not great but I wouldn’t consider them the worst in the world. On the other hand, Qatar Airways and Qatar’s airport both came in first place on both lists. This I can agree on.

I’m currently in Dubai courtesy of Ferrari. They’ve put me up in the gorgeous and very lavish Bvlgari Resort, and they’ve given me access to two cars to drive, their new Ferrari Portofino and the Ferrari 812 SuperFast. I actually have a lot of work back in Kuwait and shouldn’t really be here, but how could I say no to this right? When they first got in touch with me about this trip I was excited obviously but in my head I was also thinking, ok so I’ve already test driven these two cars, and I’ve already posted them on the blog, so how can I post about them again? Then it hit me, I could do Jebel Jais!

Jebel Jais is a mountain in the UAE with an elevation of nearly 2,000m. I found out about it from the popular car show Top Gear, (or maybe it was The Grand Tour?) and ever since I’ve wanted to drive it. The mountain has an incredible 3-lane winding road that takes you to the very top and is usually featured in “Top Roads You Need to Drive on Before You Die” style of lists. There isn’t anything on top, the bottom or along the way to the top, it’s just an empty beautiful road to nowhere.

I’ve contemplated shipping my Lotus to Dubai before so I could do the Jebel Jais drive but it was just too costly. I even considered maybe including it as part of a Oman drive where I’d ship my car to Dubai, do the Jebel Jais drive and then drive to Oman and do a drive there before sending my car back to Kuwait. It never materialized so when Ferrari told me I’d have access to the Portofino for a day I thought to myself, that would be a great car to drive up the mountain. So I accepted their invitation and here I am in Dubai.

Ferrari dropped off the Portofino yesterday morning to my hotel at around 10AM. I had two conditions, the first is I needed to have the car back by 5:30PM, the second is I could only do a maximum mileage of 350KM. Both weren’t going to be an issue. Before coming to Dubai I had already figured everything out, the drive from my hotel to the top of Jebel Jais was 160KM and it would take just over 2 hours. So, 160+160 is 320KM and say a 5 hour total journey time, that would still leave me with time to spare. The calculations worked, I was able to take the car to Jebel Jais, come back to the city, grab and lunch and have the car back at my hotel before 5:30 with around 15KM mileage to spare. It was close, but good enough.

The drive to Jebel Jais was pretty uneventful and boring, but I had a bunch of podcast episodes of Business Wars lined up and that made the time pass by quickly. There were also a ton of cameras along the way so I just put the cruise-control on the highway limit of 120KM and just cruised to Jebel Jais. Once I got to the bottom of Jebel Jais, I dropped the top down, put my favorite Spotify music playlist on and just blasted my way up the mountain.

There was no one, just me, the mountain and the incredible 3-lane winding road with no speed cameras all the way to the top. I loved the drive and the Portofino was just insane on that road. It’s such a fast car and it sounded amazing and aggressive all the way to the top. The temperature was around 28 degrees so it was perfect to drive with the roof down and I think I got a bit of tan as well. The drive up the mountain is around 16KM long and it took me around 20 minutes give or take. I stopped a bit on the way up just to check out the view, but I stopped a lot more on the way down to take some photos of the car.

Once I was back down the mountain I really wanted to just U-turn and make my way up again, but I knew if I did that I would end up exceeding the allotted mileage given to me by Ferrari, and I didn’t want to do that. So I put the roof back up and headed back to the city.

I finally got this drive off my bucket list and I couldn’t have asked for a better car to do it in. It was a difficult choice choosing between the Portofino and 812 SuperFast for the Jebel Jais drive, but I made the right choice because it doesn’t get better than flying up the mountain in a fast loud red Ferrari convertible. Ferrari are now dropping off the 812 SuperFast in a few minutes so if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, sorry but I’m in a rush!

Jazeera Airways will begin flights from Kuwait City to London Gatwick using an Airbus A320neo this year. The Kuwait-based carrier said. Thanks to the aircraft’s additional range, the flying radius from Kuwait has increased to 6.5 hrs. [Source]

I wonder how much cheaper the flight would be with Jazeera compared to British Airways and Kuwait Airways? I just found a ticket for KD113 on Kuwait Airways and KD118 with British Airways, so I’m assuming a ticket with Jazeera would be less than KD100.

This past Thursday I flew in and out of Terminal 4 with Kuwait Airways. The last time I flew out was around 6 months ago and when I did I posted about it. Since then, some things have changed, so here is an update on the airport today:

Firstly parking, I previously posted that parking is no longer free at T4. But, what you need to make sure of is that you don’t park your car in the short term parking lot by mistake when traveling, even if it’s just for a day. The tricky part is the entrances to all the parking lots look the same except for a small sign at the gate that mentions if its short term or long term. There are also multiple entries to the short term lot but just one for the long term, so it’s easy to park in the wrong lot. If you look at the map below I’ve highlighted the location of the long term lot.

The first time I flew out of T4, the self-check-in machines weren’t working. They work now and I was able to check in and print my boarding pass from one of the self-check-in machines, and then just head towards passport control directly.

Terminal 4 was packed when I was there Thursday morning. I think I actually prefer flying out of the main terminal because it no longer feels busy with Kuwait Airways no longer operating from there. T4 doesn’t have enough seating and the airport feels super packed because it’s so small and busy.

Right now the terminal duty-free area is going under major construction (pictured on top), but the following places are open:

Small temporary duty-free shop
WHSmith (a really nice one)
Blend It Kiosk
Costa kiosk
Starbucks kiosk

The following restaurants and cafes are planning to open up soon based on the hoardings I saw:

Cafe Coco
Caribou Coffee
Le Pain Quotidien
McCafe
McDonald’s

I spotted three lounges this time at the airport. Bayan Lounge, Al-Mubarakiya Lounge and a Transit Lounge. Previously the Al-Mubarakiya lounge was only for business class passengers, I think that’s changed now because there was a long queue outside the Al-Mubarakiya lounge when I passed by. I couldn’t check and see what cards would get you into the lounge but according to the Kuwait Airways page, it costs KD9 to enter it if you don’t have a card.

On arrival, the airport was empty since we were the only plane that had arrived at the time. So passport control was a breeze and it didn’t take long for me to be back at my car. This is really the biggest plus for me over the main terminal, a much nicer arrival hall.

Overall not a terrible experience, I just wish the airport had more seating areas (or preferably, a lot fewer people).

According to OAG, the air travel intelligence company, the Dubai to Kuwait City route is the 10th busiest international air travel route in the world with 14,581 flights between March 2018 to February 2019. That’s pretty crazy considering how small the population of Kuwait is.

The #1 spot on the other hand went to the Kuala Lumpur to Singapore route with 30,187 flights during the same period.

1 Kuala Lumpur – Singapore 30,187
2 Hong Kong – Taipei 28,447
3 Jakarta – Singapore 27,046
4 Hong Kong – Shanghai 20,678
5 Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur 19,741
6 Seoul – Osaka 19,711
7 New York City – Toronto 17,038
8 Hong Kong – Seoul 15,770
9 Bangkok – Singapore 14,698
10 Dubai – Kuwait City 14,581

For more details and the full lists, visit the OAG Website.

Recently a decision was made to cancel the use of residency stickers inside passports. Instead, you’ll need to have a valid Civil ID card when traveling as a means of verifying your residency. The name on the Civil ID card has to match your name in your passport or you’ll risk being denied travel in or out of Kuwait. Having weird spellings or incorrect data on the Civil ID is pretty common, so if your info doesn’t match your passport, you now have to fix it. Yesterday someone on Reddit posted the steps below on how to go about doing this:

Step 1) Go to the PACI eEnvelope system website, if the website is in Arabic you can change the language to English, there’s an option at the top of the page

Step 2) Click on non-Kuwaiti Renewal

Step 3) Enter your Civil ID and serial no. which is shown on the back

Step 4) You’ll have to verify your mobile no. so they’ll send you a verification SMS

Step 5) Enter all data required (blood type is optional but if that needs changing too then you’ll need to also upload a lab report)

Step 6) Upload the required documents

Step 7) You’ll be sent an application’s reference number to your registered mobile no., which you can use to track your application’s progress

Step 8) Wait and wait, this will take a few days as your application needs to be checked manually, once it’s approved you’ll be sent a link on your mobile to make the payment of KD5, after that you’ll just go have to go to South Surra to replace your old ID with the new one

Thanks Stafa!

Now that Kuwait Airways has new planes and a new terminal, they’re finally catching up to other airlines and adding more destinations. They’re starting off with two right now, Guangzhou (China) and Sabiha (Turkey). Bizarre destinations but I guess there must be high demand for them. They’ll also soon be adding flights to:

Casablanca, Morocco
Nice, France (via Paris)
Larnaca, Cyprus (via Beirut)
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Baku, Azerbajan
Tbilisi, Georgia

I’d personally want to see European destinations like Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow and Zagreb, but direct flights to Morocco is actually pretty cool.

Has anyone flown Kuwait Airways recently? The main old terminal never has any traffic anymore, but I’ve heard the Kuwait Airways Terminal now gets super busy with long queues at passport control. Also did anything new open up there, or is it still just Costa?

Since I’m in Qatar for the week I asked my followers on Instagram to recommend restaurants for me to try out. Below is the list I’ve compiled of all the recommendations. I haven’t tried them all so can’t vouch if they’re any good or not, but at least it’s a starting point for when you’re ever in Qatar:

CUT by Wolfgang Puck
Flat White (coffee)
Gastronomy (dessert)
Graze (grand & go)
Hakkasan
Halo (dessert)
Kava (coffee)
La Mar
Market by Jean Georges
Morimoto
Nobu
Novikov
Opal by Gordon Ramsay
Spice Market
Sugar & Spice (dessert)
Toro Toro

If there is a place I missed that you think should be on the list, let me know in the comments below.

One of the advantages of flying out of the new Kuwait Airways terminal was the fact that their parking was free since they hadn’t installed the parking gates yet. But, that isn’t the case anymore. Here are the new T4 parking rates:

Short Term Parking
500fils for the first hour
500fils for the second hour
1KD per hour after that

Long Term Parking
2KD per day

Long term parking cost is the same in both the main terminal and the Kuwait Airways terminal. The short term parking, on the other hand, is different. Short term parking at the main terminal is 200 fils for the first hour and 400 fils per hour subsequently. It’s also a maximum (if I remember correctly) 5KD a day.

I got a WhatsApp forward of someone’s parking bill at the Kuwait Airways terminal, they had accidentally parked in the short term lot for 2 days and 9 hours and ended up with a bill of 55KD. So if you do fly out of T4, make sure you park your car in the correct lot.

Last month I posted about how you can skip airport queues with the Pearl Assist meet & assist service. I had previously tried Pearl Assist on arrival but these past two weekends I used them for both departure and arrival and I loved it.

Pearl Assist on Departure
I hadn’t tried Pearl Assist when departing before so I was curious to see how useful it would be. When you arrive to the airport the first thing you need to do is head to the Pearl Assist kiosk in the arrival section. There you hand over your passport to the employee who will then take you to your airline check-in area, skip to the front of the line and get you checked in at the first available check-in desk. This could be super useful on a very busy flight. Once you’re checked in the employee will then take you through the fast track security check and passport control area. After you’re done with passport control and enter the duty-free hall, they’ll hand you back your passport and you’re done. If you tend to travel during busy seasons or during holidays, this will save you so much time since you will avoid all the long lines.

Pearl Assist on Arrival
Once you land and get off the plane you’ll find a Pearl Assist employee waiting for you outside the gate, you hand them your passport and follow them to passport control. Kuwaitis might not benefit much from arrival since the passport control lines for Kuwaitis is pretty organized, but for expats it’s a completely different story. Expats are squeezed to the side of the passport control hall in a messy crooked line that’s long and packed (pictured above). It doesn’t matter if you flew in business or economy, you don’t get to fast track and everyone has to stand in this line, it gives me anxiety and I hate it. But with Pearl Assist you get to skip all that mess and head to the front of this line, it really makes the airport experience on arrival a million times better.

So how much does this cost? You have two options, the first is to pay for this service per use and that costs KD11. It’s what I did and it cost me KD22 for departure and arrival. The other option which I’m going to sign up with is their unlimited use membership. This costs KD110 for the year and you can use them as many times as you want. So if you travel more than 5 times a year then really this is the way to go.

If you’re interested in signing up to their membership plan or to try them out, here is the link to their [Website]

Update: I was just informed by Pearl Assist that they’re running a promo that expires at the end of the year (tomorrow night basically). If you sign up to their unlimited service before the end of 2018 you get extra benefits including 50% discount on your +1’s and 15% discount on their global services (over 200 airports). To get these benefits you just need to sign up from the same link I’ve posted above.

Starting January 1st, Kuwait Airways will start flying to New York again non-stop. Kuwait Airways used to fly non-stop a few years ago but due to our airport’s weak security, flights to NY started stopping in Ireland for one more final security check. A non-stop flight to New York obviously makes the journey a lot quicker and practical, but with the new Kuwait Airways planes and terminal, it could also potentially be the best way to get to NY from Kuwait. [Link]

After getting their operation suspended back in September, the civil aviation authority have now pulled the license for Wataniya Airways. They were originally suspended because of recurring flights’ delays and cancellations and were given three months to get their act together. Seems like they weren’t able to do that so for the second time in the airline’s history, they’ve had to shut down.

This is pretty disappointing news since Wataniya Airlines were flying to some interesting destinations and more competition in the market is always a good thing. [Link]

Pearl Assist have a new membership option where for KD110 a year you get unlimited meet and assist services at the airport. I’ve tried them before and they’re really a great way to skip the long passport control queues at the airport. The GCC lines aren’t that bad but the expat lines are usually a disaster.

Pearl Assist charge KD10 for a one time meet and assist so at KD110 a year, it could be worth it if you travel a lot and want to get out of the airport as quickly as possible. If you’re interested in this service you can get more information [Here]

Update: I originally wrote it was KD100 per year but turns out they increased it to KD110 two weeks ago so updated the post accordingly.

Just a quick update to my Kuwait Airport Terminal 4 post from last week. In addition to Kuwait Airways GCC and Middle East flights, Kuwait Airways flights to and from Europe (excluding London) now also use the new terminal.

If you missed my previous post check it out [Here]