Different levels of service for different ethnicities
 

I work with a small fund, and part of an even smaller HK office. Just relocated to HK trying to establish the HK office as a 4 man team; 3 of us are white (2 Americans, 1 Brit) and 1 Chinese from Beijing. We have not begun to hire any locals or any staff for that matter.

We have had to travel back to NYC about once a month for half a year now. I've been trying to be more active in the expat community so I've read about the "gwai" advantage, and how it applies to CX, but does anyone else think it is a Gwai disadvantage now? Perhaps I was a lowly SL and havent flown since being GO, but... My observation:

- They seem to think the "gwai's" are more likely to complain thus they stay out of our way. We've seen better service being directed to other local Cantonese speakers many times (because so many FA's are now from HK) and they seem less willing to help us out. Meal options to us were denied ("Sorry, none left") and I see them carrying the EXACT option that I wanted 3 minutes later to... you guessed it, someone who asked in Cantonese.

- "Mainland" Chinese get treated like sh*t, there's no way to get around it. I dont know how else to put it, maybe cause our mainland colleague barely speaks English or Cantonese (only Mandarin) but I can confirm this.

Anyone else have similar experiences in recent times, aka 2010 onwards? observations??? maybe I should change my name Chris Colby to Chris Chan, to thorw them off on the manifest!

Within HK there is the perception that white male travellers get far better treatment from female FA's than do locals. It's all about perception I spose.

Why is that? Hard for me to understand something I've heard more times than I've seen.

Try flying Philippine Airlines, they love "gwai's " very much....all their golden girls will fawn over you the entire flight....just kidding, although they do tend to like serving caucasians first.

I do noticed that for some CX FAs, they do like talking to Cantonese speakers but thats the same when I'm on a flight with a Filipino crew member, however it doesn't happen all the time. As for the meal option, perhaps the passenger was a DM, and they got his orders first, and only served it then? Not for anything but there was one time when an FA asked me what I wanted for lunch so she could set it aside, perhaps it was because a majority of those on the J cabin were op-ups.

As for mainland Chinese...well...sucks to be them actually...but they could be such a pain too, on a flight from SIN one time, they were standing and walking around while the plane was taxing, and they tend to be quite loud.

I am an American based in TLV and speak both Hebrew and English but find that when I speak English to travel service providers here - rental car counters, airline check-in etc. that I'm treated better (except in the security line where Hebrew gives a huge advantage). When TWA flew to TLV they were known for having surly flight attendants on that route as compared to El Al - I think they just didn't know how to deal with the Israelis.

Also Indian flight attendants in our experience always treat indian passengers badly-regardless of MPC status

Is that a can opener I hear?

I am HK Chinese. I have never felt any better treatment. From what I experienced before, CX is not so much racially-biased in any aspect.

Try BA for a day and you will immediately know racism is not yet dead in this world. For non-white and non-Indian people like me, it is always a complete lower-class experience on BA. Many times, I tried to return to my seat from bathroom and somehow the BA FAs would come and police the policy of 'going back to your cabin'. I need to show my J BP to prove I am a J passenger returning to my J seat after using the J bathroom. Never an apology for the annoyance.

Nothing to do with ethnicity as such, there is just a big distrust and dislike of Mainlanders in HK generally. I think in Singapore as well.

When we flew J YYZ-LHR on BA, when we got to the gate there were already a huge crowd gathering there, including several LARGE Indian families. The GAs repeatedly announced the boarding had not started yet for the general public, people please stand back to let first class and business class passengers board first... Most Chinese ethnicity folks did stand back a bit, the LARGE Indian families would not budge an inch... despite a GA actually went to talk to them, and they just pretended they did not know English.:rolleyes:

When we managed to get in front of the families blocking the boarding area, the BA GAs waived us to head back... not until I shoved our J BPs in front of their face...

Though sometimes I cannot blame the BA folks stereo-typing people based on the behaviors I have seen at YYZ.

In general, HK people fly a lot on CX/KA and many have MPC status. There can also be staff or family members of staff on the flight.

Actually a lot of HK people just join a tour group or fly whatever is the cheapest. A lot of them don't even know what MPC is.

Isn't "distrust and dislike for Mainlanders" sort of the/a poster child for ethnic discrimination?

Sorry but you are wrong at least for my extended family. We do 75% of all our flying with CX / KA (well for me 100%). For tour group there's less control on which airline you fly, but most of them advertise the airline they are flying with a particular group so there is a factor in there.

There are other great airline out there in Hong Kong but your blanket statement is simply not true. Ask American Express and Citibank on how many hundred thousand of CX co-branded card you will have a basic idea on how many Hong Kong people actually holds MPC membership, even it is Green Member.

BTW I fail to see someone that doesn't live in Hong Kong, and doesn't fly mainly on Cathay Pacific to comment about Hong Kong and CX.

You can disagree if you want. But a blanket statement of "HK people fly a lot on CX/KA and many have MPC status" without any data backing it up is just the same. Most of my friends who live and grow up in HK does not even know what AM or MPC is. Not everyone is as obsess with FFPs or airlines as FTers are.