LONDON- A British Airways (BA) gate agent was accused of troubling an Indian-origin passenger who booked a flight BA228 from Baltimore (BWI) to London Heathrow (LHR). The incident took place on July 6, 2024.
According to the Post shared by an Indian-origin passenger on X (formerly Twitter), he was called out by staff from a line during boarding and was told to showcase his passport.
British Airways Troubles Indian Passenger
Well, it’s common for gate agents and other staff to check your boarding pass and passports, but the problem here is that the staff told the passenger and his family that he did this because whenever they go to India, they also face the same issues.
A passenger named Paresh Mardia wrote, “The man (British Airways staff) who called us out dared to tell us that “we” do the same thing to “them” when “they” come to our country. In India, we follow a saying called “Atithi devo bhava” which means guest is God.”
Well, he and his family had a business class ticket and said that they deserved better treatment. He wrote,
“This incident has truly traumatized my family and I. We will never again travel in such a racist airline and will discourage the people of our country to fly with British Airways so that they don’t have to undergo such trauma and agony like my family.”
“If business class passengers are treated this way, I wonder how passengers traveling in the economy are treated. I truly feel bad for them as I am certain you treat them like cattle with absolutely no respect,” he wrote further.
He also wrote, “This kind of racial profiling is not just discriminatory but also humiliating. In a diverse world in 2024, it’s incomprehensible that such practices persist. British Airways needs to understand that targeting passengers based on ethnicity is unacceptable.”
Airline Responded
British Airways customer service team responded Immediately after he shared the post. They wrote,
“Hi Paresh, I’m sorry you were disappointed by your experience. Please be assured we’ve passed your comments to the relevant team as feedback. Beth S.”
But Mr. Paresh was so upset that he continued his posts and shared his agony with the airline and others.
He said that an apology would do no good to him. He wrote, “I’m sorry but your apology will not suffice for such racist actions. You need to set in place some strict measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again. A human bond (leave apart nation) cannot be forged if such racist acts are carried out by a state airline like yours.”
He even wrote, “You and your crew should visit India once to experience and learn our hospitality to implement it in your airlines.”
We have reached out to a passenger to get more details about this incident and verify the facts.
Similar Incident
Well, this is not the first time that British Airways has been accused of racism and unfair treatment of black and brown people.
Last year, a passenger traveling from London to Delhi (DEL) experienced a similar incident. He shared his story on the Reddit forum and wrote,
I took the British Airways from London to New Delhi. There was an Indian air host in the flight who made the entire travel experience awful. Why do Indians do this to other Indians?
He was all warm and polite when talking to white British people, but whenever he talked to me and the other brown desis in the flight, he was rude and curt.
At one point, I asked for a coffee with cream and sugar, and the lady sitting next to me asked for a tea. He served her coffee and served me tea instead. The lady had already added sugar to it and was about to drink it, when he interjected and said hers was coffee and not tea. He proceeded to take the cup from her hand and serve it to me, which I found appalling. Like how can you take something you served to someone else, and give it to me? Can I picture him doing this to a white person? Not at all.
Whenever a desi person would say they needed a landing card(only applicable for foreigners), he would rudely ask them,”Which passport do you have?”, like what the hell.
Shame on desis like him who treat other desis like shit, and shame on British airways for hiring such people.
Also Read: British Airways Adding New Flight between London and Delhi – Aviation A2Z
This clearly shows that British Airways needs to step up its standards and train its staff and employees to avoid such comments and discrimination.
Well other international carriers also treat their passengers unfairly and they must improve it otherwise it will ruin their reputation.
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