Emirates Staff Singling Out Bangladeshi Passengers For Humiliating Them
nkdat...@bigmailbox.net
Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Double standards
By Ali Sheikholeslami
IT was in summer 2005 that I first flew Emirates. The airline had
already been decorated a couple of times as the world's best. And it,
indeed, provided great quality service. The wait at Dubai airport was
pleasant and the flight to London was smooth, with an array of polite
and helpful crew members.
Over time, Emirates has grown from a small regional airline to a giant
in aviation; Dubai airport has become the ultimate hub in the Middle
East. Over the past few years, I have become an Emirates frequent
flyer, with a Skywards membership card and quite a number of miles
credited to it. In fact, I have rarely flown another airline, and if I
have, the reason was that I hadn't been able to find the right booking
on Emirates.
But it's been over these years that I've come to the realisation that
I should mentally prepare myself for every Emirates flight according
to my destination. I've learnt that London-Tehran journeys will
inevitably have a totally different kind of service from the London-
Dubai leg or the Dubai-Tehran leg. It is the same when you are on the
Dubai-Osaka flight, and compare it to your earlier Tehran-Dubai
journey.
But this is only about Bangladesh. I was privileged to be invited to a
workshop in Dhaka, where I was exposed to so much hospitality,
generosity and kindness by my Bengali friends. These people were not
friends from past acquaintance or shared history. I met them on the
first day of our workshop, and came to share a lot, both
professionally and socially, in 10 days. We're getting to the main
point: Yes, Bangladeshis are amazing people.
But my Dubai-Dhaka and Dhaka-Dubai flights were definitely my
bitterest experience with the airline. Personally, I have been treated
well, but their behaviour with the Bangladeshi passengers was
intolerable. Our hosts talked to the Bangladeshi passengers with zero
tolerance, frowned as a normal facial exercise, and never listened to
the gentleman who sat beside me with a broken entertainment unit.
I wish I could say that was all. It was the last straw when the man to
my right, who occupied an aisle seat, took the handset and asked his
friend in the back row, instead of the unhelpful hostess, to help him.
The stewardess, who was red with anger, or with chicken pox, or with
flying to Dhaka, was marching down that aisle at that precise moment.
With no warning, she took the handset from the man in the back and
threw it to the man on my right.
I have never seen such rudeness on a plane. I had never imagined that
cabin crew would humiliate their guests, the passengers whom they
ought to help and be hospitable to, and who are providing the funds
for their salaries. Seeing is believing, though.
I would like to raise a few simple questions. Is this rudeness and
humiliating behaviour towards Bangladeshi passengers coming from the
fact that Bangladesh is a poor country, with a poor population? Who
pays the airfare, or have Emirates or their crew subsidised the fare
to help the Bangladeshi economy? Of course not, I paid more for this
trip compared to my flights to London, which is a longer journey. Or
is it by any chance these passengers' language that tries the crew's
patience, because some of them do not speak English?
But isn't it the Bangladeshi people who fought a revolution for
language, their language? And who says English is the sole criteria?
Why not employ Bangla-speaking crew who would be able to provide
better service? Or maybe the colour of skin is still an issue with the
respectable airline. I hope it isn't.
Will I ever travel on Emirates again? I think I will, but I will be
acutely conscious of what I'm doing and I will no more advocate for
the decorated airline. Word of mouth from loyal customers is an asset,
Mr. Emirates, and I'm afraid you're losing out on that.