Mahmoud Ahmad

 

Saudi Arabian Airlines has been subjected to criticism for a long time. The airline has been accused of many things, including inefficiency, recklessness, not sticking to schedule, poor services on the plane, rude treatment at ground service level and so forth. Passengers, especially Saudi travelers, do not hesitate to criticize the airline every time they get a chance.



Paying consumers have the right to criticize each time they see shortcomings in the services provided. I am sure that many readers have had bad experiences with Saudia, especially when it comes to delayed flights and reservation cancellations.



Saudia was one of the top airlines once upon a time when it came to the number of planes, services provided and maintenance. Sadly, that was in the past.



Now, the airline is watching neighboring countries with newly established airlines take top billing and reach more destinations while its officials only talk about how great things were in the past.



What I want to talk about here is the manner in which people should criticize. Many of my friends who work in the airline told me that the worst thing they have to face is dealing with an angry Saudi passenger. The best people to ask about that are the poor flight attendants working for the airline.



I came across a clip on YouTube posted by a Saudi passenger recording an angry compatriot traveler aboard a domestic flight. The passenger was complaining about the poor services.



However, the manner which he chose to show his anger was so bad that if this incident had happened in America two F-16s would probably have blown the aircraft out of the sky. The passenger was pounding on the captain’s door demanding to speak to him. If that was not the strangest thing ever, then I do not know how to describe it.



Other passengers tried to calm the man down but he continued his rage at an altitude of 35,000 feet. The man was shouting: "We are sick and tired of the poor services provided, this is not good treatment and I demand to speak to the captain."



Is this the way a passenger should complain? Is it civilized? I do not know how the scene ended and whether he was charged or arrested after the plane landed, but he should have been arrested and jailed because he placed the lives of others in danger.



Another incident that I witnessed on the airline was when a Saudi passenger shouted at a poor flight attendant. The passenger had demanded a pillow but there were already three others ahead of him with pending requests.



The hostess gave those ahead of him what they wanted, causing the man to become angry and start shouting and cursing the attendant. He created an unnecessary scene.



Repeatedly, the attendant tried to explain to him that these passengers had asked before him but he did not want to listen. A Saudia security guard tried to calm down the man but he continued his shouting.



I remember that for 10 minutes the guard was telling the man to complain through the right channels instead of shouting. He even gave the passenger a slip to fill in his official complaint. I felt sorry for the flight attendant for taking such insults from a rude passenger.



There are many other stories of unnecessary attacks on staff. A friend of mine working on an airline reservation counter once complained to me about passengers who would show up to the counter, with no prior reservation, demanding a seat on a full flight. When the staff gently tell them there was no seat available and they would be put on a waiting list, the vast majority of customers would start cursing the airline, its services and its staff.



The fault in the first place lies with the passengers showing late when there is an online booking service available but they do not want to use it, hoping that they will have a chance to unleash their anger.



The seating game, which is when flight attendants waste more than 10 minutes trying to reseat passengers, is another story. It is a headache that exists only in our airline and never seen in others.



Passengers need to be disciplined and respect airline staff and when they want to complain they should do so through the right channels. A passenger who usually reacts badly to a problem with Saudia would probably act like a cute cat if he encountered the same issue on another airline.



The same goes for Saudia, which needs to improve because there is a lot of room to do so. Yes, the airline and its staff need to improve, but so do the passengers.



– Mahmoud Ahmad can be contacted at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa