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

[Quickstatus]

It's a complex topic, and well out-of-scope for AFF

True,and I agree, though it's discussions like these and above all "Travel" which is a cure for bigotry

 

[SeatBackForward]

True,and I agree, though it's discussions like these and above all "Travel" which is a cure for bigotry

100% agreed! Travel is a truly humbling experience.

Post automatically merged: Mar 14, 2023

And in addition to anglicised names, aren't there plenty of Goans with Portuguese surnames?

Definitely, I've met a few "Jimmy Fernandez" of Indian origin in my time.

 

[SeatBackForward]

My favourite anecdote of how "race" is such a meaningless construct. I was sat at a restaurant in Macau enjoying my meal, the table next to me was a Chinese (looking) family happily conversing to themselves in Fluent Portuguese, a Caucasian man in police uniform came to them and spoke them in fluent Cantonese. I smiled, because what else would one expect!?

 

[Hvr]

And if priority scanning was done properly then it could recognise that the person attempting to board wasn't in the correct queue/group, give a big buzz and the person on the scanner could ask them to move aside until their boarding group was called.

Non-judgemental and any thing that goes wrong can be blamed on the computer.

 

[SeatBackForward]

And if priority scanning was done properly then it could recognise that the person attempting to board wasn't in the correct queue/group, give a big buzz and the person on the scanner could ask them to move aside until their boarding group was called.

Non-judgemental and any thing that goes wrong can be blamed on the computer.

I imagine the days of Biometric or Facial recognition boarding gates are not too far off, definitely likely for International travel soon enough.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

In some parts of India too, they follow their father's first name, John Jacobs, they will take the name of John as their surname, esp sons, from when they were born.
And not Jacobs.
Just using it as an example.
There is also the occurrances of adoptions, from Asian countries, some people do name their adopted children as to follow their own western surname, with a middle name that is not used, which can be a Asian name.
But back to the gist of this website, I do wonder if the VA person/(employee/agent) could have said things differently.
***We are only boarding those who might need assistance at this time, and priority boarding will be next, general boarding will commence soon***...
As mentioned by the others, if OP could have gotten name of agent, it would help in putting down facts.
But if no name, will be harder.

 

[drron]

When I had a Practice at Buderim my partner was Malaysian Chinese and his wife English. Their oldest daughter asked us when she started school if we could be their Granparents as none were in Australia. So the next 20 something years we went to grandparents day for them. They do regard us as true grandparents.

One daughter mum didn't get a look in. She is very definitely Chinese. We used to go to a yum cha restaurant with them on many occasions. One Day when she was ~ 9 she turned to her Chinese father and said -"Dad do you realise we are the only Australians in here." What a comment from one so young.

 

[Ade]

And in addition to anglicised names, aren't there plenty of Goans with Portuguese surnames?

And a few people from Pondicherry with French surnames. Street names in Pondicherry are in French. Last time I went to was in 2019 and the drive to the beach is called "Rue De La Marine" or similar.

 

[Ade]

As mentioned by the others, if OP could have gotten name of agent, it would help in putting down facts.
But if no name, will be harder.

Yes certainly have enough to identify the agent.

OP got the name of the VA agent ... I'm guessing from the above statement.

 

[Quickstatus]

if we could be their Granparents

It's should be a privilege rather than a pejorative to be called old. Unfortunately these days it's the latter

 

[OZDUCK]

We have a photo of my mother-in-law as teenager in Singapore around 1938. There is a group of 4 girls in the photo and the surnames were Neubronner, Rodrigues, Cohen and Wilkins. All were Eurasians and they would not have been allowed into the Singapore Cricket Club as they were not 'British' - my mother-in-law was certainly refused entry before WW2.

 

[TomVexille]

I imagine the days of Biometric or Facial recognition boarding gates are not too far off, definitely likely for International travel soon enough.

Already happening in multiple countries

 

[SeatBackForward]

Already happening in multiple countries

No doubt, and I'm certain it's no longer a technical constraint, but more a legal/ethics issue that airports, security and government agencies are grappling with.

 

[Vic]

In some parts of India too, they follow their father's first name, John Jacobs, they will take the name of John as their surname, esp sons, from when they were born.
And not Jacobs.

Having just been a special guest for a conference in Indian that's not how the name situation was explained for Southern India.
In Southern India the have 1 name only. That's there name. They use the father name as an identifier, and usually only the initial of the fathers name. The father of course only has one name.

Based on the situation of the person who explained this to me.
Say his name was Rajeev. (his real name is different). He writes his name as S Rajeev. S being the initial of his fathers name.
this is because at school there were 4 Rajeev's in his class.

So he is known official as Dr S Rajeev. But his name is Rajeev

 

[Vic]

I'm sorry but I'm going to be a bit more moderate to the situation and not jump on the crucifixion band wagon.

they're in customer service, they see all sorts of cough everyday. I've seen lots of very strange behaviour from people who are ESL, and may or may not have certain physical appearances.
For example Someone walking to the toilet as the aircraft is accelerating down the runway. I don't see that situation as a failure of race but a failure of language.
Having recently returned from asia region I've been reminded that queuing and language can lead to behaviours that I find different or unusual.
Maybe this person has had to deal with lots of people who just push to the front when people move because they don't understand english too well.

Let me clearly state - 100%, 200%, 300% the customer service person needs to be corrected. I just don't think we need to say to them "line on the left, one cross each".

 

[Phoenix-1]

All the responses here have been pretty moderate.

OP seems to have a very strong command of the english language so I don't think your point is relevant.

 

[lovestotravel]

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!

Staff are paid peanuts, and some of them don't really care about you or anyone else.

Just smile and give a sarcastic look - I find that generally infuriates people more than any verbal reaction.

A formal complaint - Please do let us know how goes and the outcome...............

Yes best switch to Qantas - All their staff are perfect

 

[Vic]

All the responses here have been pretty moderate.

I don't agree

OP seems to have a very strong command of the english language so I don't think your point is relevant.

My comment is NOT about the OP. It is about how the customer service person's potential experiences with people, who are NOT the OP, might have clouded their judgment.
Thanks for sharing what you think, not relevant to my point.

 

[serfty]

Already happening in multiple countries

No doubt, and I'm certain it's no longer a technical constraint, but more a legal/ethics issue that airports, security and government agencies are grappling with.

Last November i boarded a Qantas Flight at LAX TBIT using facial recognition

 

[TheRealTMA]

Last November i boarded a Qantas Flight at LAX TBIT using facial recognition

Of course! TKWYA!

Did you get the W treatment on board tho?