Are Filipinos being discriminated against by this Middle Eastern-based airline?

 

This is the question raised by a frequent-traveling business executive who has flown on this airline a number of times.

 

The executive writes that in the eight times she has taken the airline to its hub in the Middle East, to and from Manila, the aircraft “was never serviced from a tube. It was always serviced from a point very far from the runway.”

 

No assistance was given senior passengers who had to carry their hand luggage “up the stairs to the plane at 1 a.m.” One time, the executive was flying with her family, including her septuagenarian mom.

 

“We were [flying] business class. Can you imagine what it must have been in economy class?” she writes.

 

On one of those trips, the person manning the airline’s business-class counter demanded to know if they were business-class passengers, as he saw the executive and a group of OFWs approach the counter. The exec thinks it’s quickly assumed that you fly only economy when you’re Filipino.

 

“It really infuriates me when Filipinos are not treated with the same respect just because of the working-class population of Filipinos” in that Middle Eastern city, she adds.

 

“I have come to the conclusion that just because the Filipino passengers on [this airline] are not demanding, and most are economy passengers, we are treated this way.”