"What makes you think YOU'RE allowed to board?" - Shocking priority boarding experience

[The-Aviator]

Wanted to share with the AFF community an exceptionally poor experience I had at SYD yesterday.

As a bit of background, I have been a VA fan since the Virgin Blue days and have held SG continuously since 2018. I'm just short of WP and on track to achieve it with my next trip. I fly regularly enough to be familiar with the benefits and this was my 9th flight in 6 weeks, 7 of which were in J.

PB was called and I stepped up along with the other passengers. An elderly white (this is important) gentleman further up in the queue was ineligible and politely asked to wait. Everyone else scanned a boarding pass and moved on.

Eventually it was my turn. I scanned the boarding pass from my Google Wallet (noting the Google one doesn't change colour to reflect status like the VA app does, but being a bigger barcode I find it scans better so always use it) and after the successful beep, the gate agent said she needed to see my seat number and grabbed for my phone. This is where things started going south. After seeing I was in an Economy row, she said to me in the most condescending manner imaginable: "What makes you think YOU'RE allowed to board?".

I was shocked to be spoken to in this way and opened the VA app to show my Frequent Flyer card. On seeing this she became increasingly defensive, saying it was my responsibility to show a frequent flyer card to her first before the boarding pass. I asked if my details came up on her screen and this is where the racism / racial profiling got kicked up a notch. She took a look at her screen, saw my name (conventional western first name and surname), took one look at my South Asian appearance and said "This says xx_. Are you xx_?"

I'm not an idiot and knew better than to escalate the situation so I confirmed that I was who my boarding pass and frequent flyer card said I was, reiterated I am entitled to board and continued on my way. There was no apology offered, nor admission that she had crossed the line.

I have zero issues with enforcing PB, in fact I encourage it, but it has to be done in a non-discriminatory and non-accusatory way. This agent failed on both counts and it was made even more obvious by the treatment of the ineligible white passenger. If an agent would like some confirmation of eligibility that is absolutely fine, I'll gladly provide it and have done so on other airlines in the past, but to make assumptions and be so blatantly told "What makes you think YOU'RE allowed to board?" is unacceptable.

I'm keen to hear whether others have had the same / similar experiences to me. I would like to think I'm the first to experience such behaviour but I'm almost certain I'm not.

I will of course be making a formal complaint, the outcome of which will determine whether I continue giving Virgin my loyalty or switch to a competitor. At least in the times Qantas has let me down they've let down all their passengers, it wasn't personal!

 

[drron]

Let us know the result of your complaint. This sort of thing was not infrequent in the past but Should not occur now.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Shocking. Sorry you had to go through that at the hands of a blinkered, shallow fool.

 

[XWu]

Certainly hope you got her name. The complaint works far better when you can identify this person and I expect that it will remain on her employment file, as much as your passenger details would have red flagged forever if you did end up in a confrontation then (they are very good at creating black marks on your records, and short of a full video recording of the events, the current climate of power play on so many level meant you will not get out of this clean).

She may get away saying you have misheard her first statement or claim that she want to check your identity for “security” purposes, and they may believe her on both counts. But if sufficient people write in with similar details, then human resources will act….. to make her do some token anti-discrimination workshop etc… but at least she know she’s on notice.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Yearh, better contact VAd rather than making a fuss at the airport.
They can call AFP if they deem they are in danger, even if/though you have no such aim/intensions.
Its hard being Asian, which I am, better than living in Malaysia as a Chinese, of course, but still, racism does exist in Aust, no one wants to admit it.
Being shouted or yelled at at the bus stop by pax in cars, or on public transport.
You are not alone.

 

[djtech]

Have definitely experienced some 'overzealousness' in the enforcement of PB seemingly due to me being Asian. Maybe just my personality but I typically hope that they aren't being actively discriminatory just that they were annoyed at having to tell multiple people to go away as they weren't eligible and it was a stressful day for them. Good on you for handling the way that you did! Being nice is helpful for both them and you!

 

[Pushka]

This is awful. My children are adopted from overseas and have western names. As their parent I would be furious if this happened to them. I hope they undertake serious retraining of their staff. At the very least.

 

[Easy Tiger]

Very poor form. Glad you are the bigger person. I'd make a formal C too.

 

[clifford]

I will of course be making a formal complaint, the outcome of which will determine whether I continue giving Virgin my loyalty or switch to a competitor. At least in the times Qantas has let me down they've let down all their passengers, it wasn't personal!

I don't think it's down to the airline. IMO it's the individual with their particular biases and views.

Moving to Qantas or any other airline won't solve that issue, but making a complaint might move the dial a little.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

She should have been more approachable, instead of taking an offensive/defensive attitude.
Even the words she used wasn't appropriate in customer services.

 

[ferntree]

Just like to add to the chorus of voices absolutely disgusted by this clearly racist behavior. Please accept my condolemces.

 

[Danger]

My guess is The-Aviator didn't post looking for arguments for and against priority boarding. The member is curious if others have had similar experiences. There's plenty of threads on ins and outs of priority boarding for those of who have quickly gone off topic.

I've never had that experience but I rarely fly Virgin. I do hope you get some resolution.

 

[The-Aviator]

Certainly hope you got her name. The complaint works far better when you can identify this person and I expect that it will remain on her employment file

Yes certainly have enough to identify the agent.

This is awful. My children are adopted from overseas and have western names. As their parent I would be furious if this happened to them. I hope they undertake serious retraining of their staff. At the very least.

Yep some serious retraining definitely needed. It's 2023, seeing someone with a name that doesn't fall in line with your world-view shouldn't be cause for surprise.

I don't think it's down to the airline. IMO it's the individual with their particular biases and views.

Moving to Qantas or any other airline won't solve that issue, but making a complaint might move the dial a little.

You're 100% right. For me it's going to come down to how they treat the complaint. If it's taken seriously and meaningful actions are taken, that will likely be good enough for me.

 

[The-Aviator]

Thanks for the support everyone and for sharing your own experiences as well, it means a lot.

Has been playing on my mind all weekend, especially today as I fly back to SYD. Saw this sign at check in and had a bit of a laugh given my experience on Friday.



Thanks again and I'll keep the community updated on any response to the complaint.

 

[Ade]

Awww man! this kind of behavior should never happen. But it does and that's the sad reality. I hope your complaint to VA is taken into consideration and treated fairly. Do keep us posted on the progress/outcome.

 

[dk4]

IMO one thing is clear - Virgin should immediately disable the Google Wallet interface for boarding passes, until it is reworked to show some identifier for priority boarding.

As a Velocity card is sufficient ID for check-in at Virgin, I think it is valid to call out the gate agent on why they thought that, a name matched Velocity card plus Google boarding pass, should be challenged further.

 

[djtech]

IMO one thing is clear - Virgin should immediately disable the Google Wallet interface for boarding passes, until it is reworked to show some identifier for priority boarding.

As a Velocity card is sufficient ID for check-in at Virgin, I think it is valid to call out the gate agent on why they thought that, a name matched Velocity card plus Google boarding pass, should be challenged further.

Haven't used Google wallet in some time, but they've worked it out for Apple wallet so surely it can't be that difficult? On apple wallet, my boarding pass shows a gold-ish colour that reflects my status.

 

[drron]

Awww man! this kind of behavior should never happen. But it does and that's the sad reality. I hope your complaint to VA is taken into consideration and treated fairly. Do keep us posted on the progress/outcome.

But us old Australians should also do our bit. My first interuption was when a Thai restaurant owner we knew was having an obvious painful discussion with a Real Estate Agent in Maitland ~ 40 years ago. He was being conned by the agent who insisted if he bought the building they were outside of he would have to pay $20000 for the restaurant equipment. Times were not that great so I interupted and told the agent to go jumps as if the Equipment wasn't wanted he would have to remove it, take to auction where he would get no where near that price so he is going to offer you $500 for the lot take it or leave it. He ended up taking $600 and I ended up with a friend for life.
Since then I have helped a few Japanese tourists out after I learnt the language.

But the saddest was a young American tennis player who was competing in a satellite tournament in Caloundra. She was eating by herself at the restaurant. several were giving her hell because they hated George W Bush. So I intervened and asked her if she would like to eat with us. She did and we found out she was only 17.

I am not brave but I just don't believe this sort of thing would go in here in Australia.

 

[Thibault]

MO one thing is clear - Virgin should immediately disable the Google Wallet interface for boarding passes, until it is reworked to show some identifier for priority boarding.

I think it's more of an IT issue in the background.
I am Plat on EY and my boarding pass in the VA App - GWallet or Apple Wallet is always red

I am however sorry to read that this happened to OP - would not have expected it from an airport Staff.

 

[UP4014]

Terrible, just terrible. Many easy ways to ask the question on status, it's also simple to let you go through saying please pay attention next time.

If you have the persons name it will help greatly otherwise it's not as a clear cut. I think you'll have a hard time on the racism front but add that in as a sacrificial point you can let go.

Also, when you complain state clearly what you are expecting as satisfaction. In poor attitude situations I will not ask for any consideration financially but ask for an apology letter signed personally by the CEO or COO stating the employees name in the letter. It get's things on the radar pretty quick.