May 10, 2007 : Aviation Woes - Is this not RACISM?

I just returned last night from a 2 week trip to US. Everytime I return back home, at the end of travel, a sense of sadness continues to loom in my heart. This sadness is about the travel experience. The way treatment is meted out to passengers. Well, the pain is still afresh. It used to be afresh in the past and I would just forget it. But these days, I loudly rant with optimism that atleast few will agree with me and take initiative in their own way to let the airline agencies know that they cannot afford to treat certain passengers in a way that they have taken granted.

OK here I begin my narration. For this trip, I got to travel by Lufthansa. It was Bangalore-Frankfurt-Denver-Austin onward and New York-Frankfurt-Bangalore return.

Lufthansa is just not good. Their entertainment is so frustrating. You listen to same audio for 8 hours journey. Video entertainment is through some remote monitors that look like ancient age computer screens (remember 13 inch screens?). Food is mediocre.

Alright, the above was the usual rant. Now comes the sensitive part. I personally think they treat the passengers of the last leg (while returning to India) as shit. They simply do not have respect for passengers. Does it have to do with the fact that many are Indians? Well we have to honestly ask this question and see what is the answer? Does "Victim of Racism" lie somewhere hidden in the answer ?

And in the case of my journey that I am talking about, what makes it more shameful is the fact that you get such behavior from a fellow India air hostess. Yeah thats true. I see a stink of slavery and lack of self respect here. When the self respect lack, how can you respect your fellow citizens? This happens in every phase of our life in India. Go to USA and you will see special treatment for US citizens. Go to Europe and you will see special treatment for EU nationals. You come to India and you will realize that you are treated worse than visitors. So there you are. Screwed from both sides. The only solution to this is self respect and pride. Are we trying to gain our self respect by trying to prove to others ? Here is a real experience on board Lufthansa. They claim themselves to be international flight. And here this is this flight attendant (Indian by the way) who tries to create her own nomenclature. Everywhere "Vegetarian Meal" and Asian Vegetarian Meal (AVML) mean two different things. While own our way to India, suddenly this air hostess thinks both are same. She asks us "Vegetarian" or "Non-vegetarian", we say, we want AVML. Immediately she makes a face displaying obvious displeasure and says "It is all same since we are going to India". Wow. Is it soo obvious? Are there no non-Indian travellers? Then after 2 mins she tries to explain to me. Well, it has already created an impression on my mind about the low quality and lack of professionalism of this individual which in turn reflects poorly on Lufthansa.

I understand that every individual has his/her own perceptions of treatment they expect or they deserve.

But I definitely feel that Indians are treated with utter disrespect when they deserve much more. Ironically, I heard from my friends that even AIR India treats the predominantly Indian passengers poorly. Though I must say I have not travelled by Air India and dont intend either because of these feedbacks from friends. This kind of behavior towards Indians is unacceptable. But well we have to grab it and not beg for it.

I am going to first contact Lufthansa on this and send to all my friends dissuading them from flying by Lufthansa.

I hope every individual who felt they deserved better treatment does not let go of it. I have observed in India that we are patient about things that we should not be and are impatient about trivial things many a times.

This attitude needs to change.