If an airline had a history of profiling Muslims/Arabs, would you be more or less likely to fly that airline?

Question

If there was a history of an airline company discriminating against Muslim and/or Arab people, would that make you more likely or less likely to fly with that airline?

Answer 1

OK let the thumbs down begin. But I would be more likely to fly it.

Let me put it this way. You run a store. The last 5 people who had on a red and green hat on held you up. The next time someone that comes in to the store with a red and green hat on are you going to profile them. Are you discriminating against people who like red and green hats? No.

Answer 2

My friend more or less all airlines companies of non Muslim/ Arab origin, do pass all passengers of profiling, even people looking Arab and who are not, as a precauionary measure of a new 911.
If you consider that about a third of world population is of Muslim or Arab origin itis only to be expected that there will be no flight without a considerable number of passengers from that third. So there is no way to avoid, nor limit the flights.


I believe, however, if an attack will be carried on civilians it will be with a new form diffrent from the ones used so far.
So

Answer 3

Very less likely! I don't know if I would fly with them at all. I am tired of this huge stigma surrounding Islam and Arabic people. They get hassled whenever they travel to the US and a lot of other Western countries. It is sad and very discriminative.

I was in Montreal when 9/11 happened. In the next few days, Arabic people were getting stones thrown at them while walking down the street just because they were Arabic. How can we allow to have a whole religion discriminated against due to 0.1% of fundamentalists out there that would do some terorist act? We can't and we shouldn't. If I were Arabic, I would make sure my country appeals to the Human Rights Tribunal in Den Hague for not being able to travel internationally without being discriminated against.

So I would actually never travel with them!

Answer 4

Please be clearer with your question. What do you mean by "history" of "discriminating"?

"Profiling" is when people of a certain group/age/etc. are pulled aside routinely for extra security. This is not prejudice and is how airlines have been conducting security for ages. Anyone could be profiled for a number of reasons, including maritial status, where they live, what they do for a living and/or how they bought their ticket. Being inspected more closely by security is not the same thing as being discriminated against.

Or are you talking about actual prejudice? Like not letting them fly where or when they want, not letting them sit where they would like, eat with the others, etc. just because of their origins? Than yes, I'd boycott them but I've never heard of that specifically.

As far as security is concerned, remember that it's often NOT the airline itself who do it. There is the local airport security and the airlines usually contract out other companies for their own security. If they are guilty of prejudice, then their hired company is what needs to change.

I was profiled for a long time because I was a single woman. I travelled to almost 60 countries between the ages of 21 and 35 (when I finally got married and started a family). Even though I was a Flight Attendant for a lot of that, so had passed a security clearance to work in the airline business, I was taken aside routinely and asked more questions, searched more throughly. Once I was held so long that I missed my flight.

Did I feel that it was unfair? A little but remember, there was another single woman whose boyfriend put a bomb in her bag awhile back. She was pregnant;
http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irishinamerica/news/OutrageOverABCIrishTerroristClaim230806.asp

Did I feel violated or prejudiced against? No, because as an airline person, I realize that being a part of a certain group meant that I was more at risk of being, or rather considered to be, a terrorist. If another single girl out there is handed something to take onboard a flight, and she doesn't know better or is in agreement with doing so, all of us with a similar profile, will get a bum deal in security. That's just life...

I was able to "escape" my profile simply by getting married. That's not the case for my Moslem relatives, who although are not of Middle Eastern origin, are all American citizens and have ever stepped foot in that part of the world (okay, one made Haj) have to go through this deal for the forseeable future, simply because they share the same religion as a lot of terrorist groups worldwide.

But if a person has to go through more security than normal, the personel should still be respectful and treat those being searched with dignity while it's going on. Any harrassment should be reported. Get names and write letters!

A good line to use with security that I had to use many times "Please go ahead and search it because if there's a bomb, I'd rather find out now! After all, I'm the one getting on this flight..."

Answer 5

To be honest I can't see how it would be within the power or resources of an Airline to do this in the true sense of the word....
As it is most Airlines run to a tight budget just to stay in the black so how on earth could they fund a security system like this & stay profitable.
What this smacks of is if you ban all people of Middle Eastern appearance the problem will go away & we all know that that is nonsense !
So no, they wouldn't get my support for that reason....

Answer 6

Less likely because intelligence gathered from the proper authorities should deal with such issues and not a blanket policy of the airlines attributed to all Muslims

Answer 7

I would certainly be less likely. I am sick to death of profiling of Muslim and Arabs here and abroad. You simply cannot assume that people are up to no good because of their race. I would not want people to judge me on my appearance and pre-accuse me of starting trouble.
As it is, I am always subjected to ridiculous searches by airline personnel. I asked time and again why and someone finally told me that I "look a little Mediterranean.."
?????
I always have them scanning my sandals and feet and digging through my baby's stuff. They even made my young daughter strip down to her underwear and tank top one time!
It is no fun to be profiled. And none of this makes us any "safer"...

Answer 8

More likely. I'm sorry if this sounds racist because I am not, but every man who was involved in the 9/11 attacks was a relatively young Muslim. Not a 50-something white male or 80-year old grandma or a 40-year-old black female who bought a one-way ticket and thus is subject to further searches according to the TSA. So racial profiling based on past terrorist history should be done, but the TSA and airlines will never do it because of lawsuits.

Answer 9

i don't think of it may fairly remember to me.. i take advantage of to consistently use my cellular telephone to textual content cloth each time i became on an airplane in the previous they have been given greater strict approximately it.. not something ever exceeded off, i don't think of that's a large deal.

Answer 10

First of all good question, but... let me tell you a few stories first. I worked for O'Hare prior to the tragic day. I was in charge of arrivals and departures for three airlines, Swiss, Singapore and Tarom. The absolute best airline I've ever worked for was Swiss - they picked up everyone else's slack. For instance, one time there was a lady from Senegal who traveled AA from Cleveland to Chicago. She was supposed to travel Sabena to Belgium and then transfer to a plane that was to take her and her little baby home. Well, AA didn't check in Cleveland that she needed a visa to even transit Belgium. So there she was, didn't speak a word of English (I translated French for them as Sabena didn't have anyone who spoke French that evening), with a little baby who was crying, 2 bags and no one who could help her in Chicago. A first class passenger - a well to do African American from Chicago saw all this and told her he would take her the next day to get her proper papers. Sabena did not charge her a penalty for traveling the next day and they put her in a hotel. Swiss air has bailed out Sabena before, that's why it's out of business in the US. Swissair used to pay for the mistakes that domestic airlines made, and they made many. What we should have done is send her back to AA, but we felt bad for her. Still, we noticed that she needed a visa - I mean these are things you HAVE to check.

While I was there, I passed ALL my FAA tests with flying colors, because when the FAA agent would come at the last minute and say: "FAA, I'm not boarding the plane; I need my bag", that bag would be off my plane within 10 minutes. Why? Because I had a great crew - the guy who always got bag service was a Bosnian Muslim - who was the biggest guy around. Yes he b!tched and joked that I always asked him to do that, but he knew he was the fastest and the best for the job. If we failed that test and the plane took off with her bag - 10k fine for Swissair. Again, during my time, never happened because I treated my crew with respect.

The people who worked security would sleep many times. I remember once I took Toni Kuckoc through the back; at the time celebrities could still do that. Not any more. The guy at the checkpoint was SLEEPING! What that tells you is that the company - NOT Swiss - but whoever it was locally - hired people who weren't qualified and paid them next to nothing. They used to pay them $6.20/hour. Imagine... the security of our country was worth $6/hour back then... costly mistakes!

To save and cut corners they promoted people who couldn't even write in English. This is why I left. I didn't work directly for Swissair; I worked for a local sub, who was cheap. Swissair was going to hire me directly, but unfortunately, the company went under and all the Swiss air employees lost their jobs. So instead of them - the sub - promoting me, who knew how to talk to Immigration, FBI, Chicago Police, FAA, Customs and the Dept of Agriculture, they decided to promote this girl who supposedly worked for an airline in Krakow 15 years ago. Now, I had just worked for AF, in that same terminal about a year before, and I knew the terminal inside out, and I had a BA from a US accredited university. Not to mention I was fluent in French and Italian, both widely spoken on Swiss air. Again, they decided to hire a Polish girl with no education, who could not spell or put sentences together in English, and probably had no experience with the airline industry. They couldn't check if she really worked for the airport in Krakow... anyway... you'll say I'm just sore, but I'm not.... I told my boss how I felt and I quit within two weeks, after I found another job, with normal hours and much better pay. Two weeks into my new job Singapore offers me a top position. I said thank you, but I wasn't going to take it as I was really happy to have normal hours, Thanksgiving, Christmas and all other holidays off.

Conclusions - yes we profiled, not just Muslims, anyone who was acting weird. At Air France (AF) a French professor spend a night in jail because he thought it was funny to say to the security people "what you think I have a bobm in there?" How stupid is that! But, they let him go the next day when they saw he was just making a dumb joke, the kind you don't make in an airport.... The "worst" profiler was actually a Persian girl, who picked her own people. Maybe she had reason, but we never had a problem. Security would go through all their things, their underwear even, in front of a line of people and nothing was ever found. If an airline starts saying they profile, I don't even believe them. That's something you don't talk about, you just do it... that's the whole point behind it. It would not make me feel more safe. International airlines are way above domestic when it comes t this.

My opinion is that locally Continental has been consistently good, great scores and great employees. The reason they have good people is because they take care of them.... So it all comes down to money again.

EDIT - ps - Emirates and Qatar airlines have consistently been top carriers for years now, both customer service and safety... ironic, eh!

http://nzausoceaniatravel.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_worlds_safest_airline