northeastflyer

A basic, but obvious question:

Is emirates gay friendly? Maybe I should ask more widely, do they as a crew and an airline in general treat everyone as equals, regardless of sexual orientation, race, religion etc etc? I assume so, but I'd like to check.

I've travelled to DXB many times so I'm not asking about the place, just about the airline's attitudes/service.

Thank you.

justforfun

No issues on my 100+ flights with them. Some FAs were extra friendly.

Basil B

Why would they know?

You do not have to tell them you are gay, and as long as you do not do anything that offends any other passengers what's the issue?

GUWonder

I suspect it's not much different than US airlines in how it deals with diverse passengers.

knit-in

Ah, except of course, in case of Flying While Arab!

eternaltransit

You won't find any negative discrimination due to sexual orientation/race etc. - obviously in a staff of 20k you might find the odd unpleasant individual but I haven't found anyone egregiously offensive in my travels on EK. After all, EKs crew have many homosexual individuals both male and female and recruit from all over the world. As regards religion - put it this way, I hear the kosher meals on certain sectors are extremely popular (and served, apparently, in the correct manner)

I hesitate to say that EK treats everyone as equals because certain surnames and perhaps wearing certain national dress, for instance, does sometimes seem to get you more attention and better service than others But I never feel it is detrimental to the service I get, so it is no big deal - every hospitality business has its own "more equal than others" customers.

And if you are a rather boorish individual I think you will also receive the bare minimum, but that probably applies in all service industries.

GUWonder

Some GLBT persons who "look Arab" have indeed chosen to fly EK to minimize the odds of being hit by hostile prejudices when flying US carriers.

..... something about safety in numbers and getting lost in the crowd.

Xlr

How would they know anything about your sexual orientation? I can't speak from experience of course, but I would assume they don't really care. Overt PDA, regardless of pairing, should be avoided while transiting DXB. People probably won't care if you hold hands - it's common in parts of India and the Middle East for men to hold hands.

Dubai, in practice, is basically DADT with regards to LGBT, though there are regular unofficial meetups at nightclubs and such. You might see a little LGBT PDA on escalators of certain smaller malls

m0hamed

On my last EK 413 flight I noticed the entire cabin had female FAs. FA walked me to 1A asked if she could get me anything and I cheekily said "I'm disappointed there are no male crew in this cabin."

A few minutes later she reappeared and introduced me to a male FA and said "He will be working the bar at the back and will be delighted to look after you."

So yes, EK is LGBQTI friendly.

Annalisa12

I agree with you about the service according to nationality for some Middle Eastern carriers. Possibly don't confuse that with discrimination about sexual orientation.

irishguy28

Is that company policy?

I'm just curious, because when you deal with any of the three ME3 carriers, you're dealing with staff of practically every nationality under the sun.

eternaltransit

Less company policy and more a fact of expat life - one of the more striking things I find about GCC countries with high expat populations is that the obvious social hierarchy is quite racially classified, for various obvious reasons which, if we elaborate on, will get this thread moved straight into OMNI.

For the same reason, I will refrain from making further comments about morality of things and simply say that the stratification exists and bleeds into most aspects of (expat) life in the Gulf, especially in the hospitality industry.

m3red

Never seen any issue with this.

EK has plenty of straight gay bi lesbian green Orange black blue English crew.

Nothing to see here....^

GUWonder

Indeed. That said, when it comes to airline employees of some of those discriminated against ethnic backgrounds, let's just say that some of them are more likely to play games -- games which sort of strike back in ways that sort of level the playing field or even turn the tables. It shows up in how upgrades sometimes happen.

DYKWIA

I even saw a city fan once :