An Open Letter to the Authors of Open Letter to the Airlines

11th June, 2014

To,
The Authors of Open Letter to the Airlines,
India.

Dear Sir(s)/Ma’am(s),

In last couple of months, I have read many open letters, and a couple of them addressed to the CEOs of the leading global airlines. While I read the latest in the pool, the one addressed to the CEO of British Airways, coincidentally I was enroute my air journey to Hyderabad from Ahmedabad.

During this above cited journey, I witnessed things which were surely more demeaning than the kind of experiences you have had. Though, these were not new or something been seen by me for the first time, but I could relate to them more this time as the readings of the ‘behaviour of Air France (AF) or British Airways (BA) staff’ were fresh in my mind.

To quote a few examples of the experiences I am talking about,

•           After security check, while waiting near the terminal door, adjacent to me was sitting a gentleman (very much Indian) in his mid 40s reading a newspaper waiting for his flight to be ready for boarding. In the meanwhile, there were IndiGo ground staff running all over the airport seeking for passengers booked for New Delhi. And in about 10 minutes came an announcement, ‘All passengers booked on IndiGo flight number so-and-so, this is the last call for you to onboard’ (or something similar conveying the same meaning) when my esteemed neighbour stood-up, stretched himself, drank a sip of water, adjusted his waist belt, kept the news-paper in the laptop bag and (after about 5 minutes) proceeded towards the boarding gate.
•           After I was on board, the flight gates were shut and the plane was moving, the cabin crew came to this lady (in her late 20s) requesting her to switch off her mobile phone until the flight takes-off. But, we Indians are not so easy, and she continued with her Candy Crush, all the time while the plane approached the run way, accelerated, took-off and was air borne. Nothing moved her!
•           Once air borne and seat belts signs off, nearly 10 passengers stood beside their chair as if standing in a bus. Chronic habits you see! Should I say, this made sure that the other passengers and cabin crew finding all difficulty to make an easy (necessary) movement within the plane.
•           Suddenly my neighbour sitting on the window seat needs something and calls for the air hostess. Oh! He is thirsty and is asking for a glass of water. And here it comes and the hostess is handing it over to this guy. But wait, this is the height of exploitation. The guy rubbed his hands against hers, or I can safely say that he mashed her hands. An exaggeration by me? Probably yes, but in that case, I couldn't understand the reason of helplessness on the hostess’ face or the reason for this guy to wink at me after she left!
•           And here, we are ready to go down, are dropping the altitudes, and have touched the ground. And this sweet lady across continues with her Candy Crush. Probably she had about 200 lives in Candy Crush and hence didn't bother about those 200 travelling along with her.
•           Aaiyo! The plane is still in the motion but the mobile phones turned on, the seats left, the cabin luggage in hands! Hurray! The life imprisonment has come to an end.

You argue that this is the case only with Indian operators? I am sorry. About 30 tooth brush went invisible within 5 minutes of plane doors of Air Mauritius being closed (not yet in motion). Luggage on head no sooner did the front wheel touched the ground in Air Arabia.

And if am allowed to quote incidents which I have heard but not witnessed in person, the Emergency Doors being pushed open while the cabin crew was explaining the actions in case of emergency in Emirates!

But what is the point I am trying to make? Nothing. I just want to request authors like you or even others to help me with on online link to the open letters written either by the staff or the CEO of these operators addressed to the President or Prime Minister of the Indian Union. Please don’t give me the sh*t by saying the two are incomparable! These very much are.

Having said that, I by any means am not justifying the behaviour of the staff towards you or any other passenger irrespective of their origin. I have my reservations against your way and medium of raising your concerns and representing me (a fellow Indian) without my permission!

Like I said that I would request you to give me a link to an open letter to the President or Prime Minister of India drawing their attention to the kind of behaviour their countrymen show while onbaord. I am sure, you wouldn't find any. Similarly, my point is to request you to not write an open letter and if possible not to the CEO directly! As a learned person, all of us know that there is always a hierarchy in any system, and we would want to follow that. Don’t you think the best way would have been to write to their Customer Support team and raise it further in case of no response? Also, in case of no resolution, don’t you think writing a direct mail to the CEO would make more sense than an open letter? And, in this tech world, getting through the e-mail address of the CEO of any company is not a big task. As in one of the cases, the author (read: passenger) was provided with the e-mail address of the respective CEO after the open letter went viral. If only, the social media was used to get the e-mail address. And yes, the medium can, rather should, be used when after all attempts, you feel that you are talking to deaf people!

And my dear friends, representing Indians, in your such open letters is not the best idea again! Isn’t that as good as saying that all Indians play Candy Crush while flight takes-off and/or lands? Or as one of you is a banker, and I remember about a few years ago, application of 2 Marwari families for Housing Loan was rejected by a leading bank while that of a Gujarati family approved? May I write an open letter accusing the CEO of the bank for being anti-Marwaris? Did you try Googling for any such experiences by other passengers of the same carrier who too didn't have a very good experience, but weren't Indians, or Asians, rather were Americans or Europeans themselves!

And, why a threat? Are we trying to show who can be more irresponsible by threatening the other by showing who you are and what kind of influence you have over the potential customer base of the carrier?

Well, I would like to end it here with a wish that due thought process is applied before writing any open letters and representing a wider audience.

Lastly, just a weird question. Going at this rate, we shall be discounting every foreign operator from the west.  Whom will Indians fly with? Lets get Air Asia to expand soon!

Anchit Agrawal

Disclaimer: I am as Indian as you or your other co-passengers who faced ill-mannerism by the flyers’ staff. I am not associated in any ways with any of the operators mentioned herein above or even otherwise, apart from being their customer from time-to-time.