The original experience I described in this thread was less of an irritation to me than a reflection of a certain ethos (or lack thereof) that is typical in Australian corporations, but which is a greater liability in an organization such as QF, whose employees in many cases provide our visitors with their first and last impressions of Australia.

However, my biggest grievance with QF, as I described somewhere along the line (I think), relates not to the way I've been treated personally (which has generally been quite good, sometimes excellent, and sometimes woeful), but to the way I've seen QF FAs and ground staff treat Asian customers, often characterized by perceptible indifference, condescension, or impatience. For example, I've seen QF staff (a) contemptuously chastise economy-class Chinese passengers who happened to be standing too close to the boarding line; (b) shouting at an elderly female Japanese passenger who had asked for assistance to retrieve her bags from the luggage belt, because the old lady wasn't actively doing her bit to help remove the bags; and (c) indulging in an utterly unintelligible attempt at sick humor with some Asian passengers who could barely speak English and certainly couldn't understand hers.

I've seen so many instances of this kind of behavior over the last few years that I can come to no other conclusion than that the attitude is endemic in the airline, or at least in a significant number of its employees. On several occasions I've been so upset by what I've seen that I've chastised the employee involved and apologized to his/her victim.

If this is racism, it's probably not active racism, but perhaps a passive kind that is manifest in employees who lack appropriate maturity and/or training to handle certain untoward situations that arise in the course of their duties. Sometimes, however, the provocation seems incredibly slight, as on a recent flight when an Asian passenger got up to ask the FA for his amenity kit (thinking he had been passed over) and was met with a very impatient rebuff by the FA.

While most of us may experience good or superior service from QF most of the time, the sad truth is that there are others out there, perhaps less able to communicate than we are, who are being treated to standards of service that are unacceptable and inexcusable. As someone who is invariably treated with utmost respect, patience, courtesy, and friendliness on Asian airlines, I find this situation intolerable and shameful.