Airline fined for hostess’ rudeness

Entrepreneur says he was discriminated against, as the airhostess behaved better with the foreigners than with him

Airline fined for hostess' rudeness

Entrepreneur says he was discriminated against, as the airhostess behaved better with the foreigners than with him

A city entrepreneur dragged an airline to court because of the airhostess' rude behaviour. The district consumer forum has asked the airline to pay Rs 10,000 to the passenger and not to repeat such behaviour.

City entrepreneur and Bangalore Turf Club director Ronald A Pinto was flying to Frankfurt on Lufthansa Airlines with his wife and 10-month-old grandson on October 23, 2007.

Veg or non veg?

"While we were airborne, the (Indian) airhostess came around asking for the choice of meals "veg or non-veg?" I told her it would be non-veg for both my wife and me. She informed us that non-veg was not available.

I asked her why she had given us a choice in the first place, for which she had no answer. We then asked her to take away the veg meals. After 15 minutes, she came and plonked two non-veg meals on our tables. It was as if she was throwing those meals at us."

When it was time for the second meal to be served, the hostess "put a non-veg meal on my table and said, 'I have saved a non-veg meal for you and I don't have a spare non-veg meal for your wife." My wife accepted the veg meal and told her that she was not behaving properly. I wanted to file a complaint but my wife asked me to let it pass.

After a fortnight on November 7, Pinto was returning from the US when he saw the same hostess on the flight.
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It was the same story. "I told her that I wanted a non-veg meal, which she said was not available," he said.

The hostess removed the tray and returned after 20 minutes with a non-veg meal. "I asked her for her name since her name tag was missing. She did not reveal her name and said she had lost the tag," he said.

"I was insulted. The hostess' behaviour with the Whites was different. I felt that she was racially discriminating me."

Pinto sent several mails to the airline seeking the hostess' name and wanted to know how she was reprimanded.
"They did not give out these details, but offered 5000 miles in the frequent flyer programme of which I am a member. I declined that offer too."

Pinto then approached the district consumer forum. Here, the advocates for the airline said Pinto's allegations were baseless since he had not booked for the non-veg meal earlier.

The forum agreed that Pinto had not booked for a non-veg meal, but said that the hostess should not have behaved in such a way.

The forum ordered the airline to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to Pinto.